True Detective [HBO] [** Spoilers **]

Hank Scorpio

Great scenes at the end, albeit a bloodbath

Roquentin

mystic86 wrote: »

I have just finished watching Season 1, excellent stuff, although the ending was poor enough, could easily have made such a better ending.

One thing I have to rant about is the way Rust talks, I had the TV up really high here and often still struggled to hear what he was saying, he just mutters so bloody much!!

Anybody else have that issue?

And if the ending wasn't annoying enough because it was so unnecessarily poorer than the rest of the season, I had no f*ucking idea what he mumbled at the end, had to go googling to find out what he said, hardly a good way to end a Season like that!

Very frustrating!!!!!

this was a pretty common complaint. lots of people couldnt make out what he was saying.

A Primal Nut

Great ending. The rest of the episode was boring. I honestly have no interest in any of the back stories. It's like they went "OK, we need a backstory to add character depth to these people because that's what HBO shows require so what's the first thing that comes to mind, the more cliched the better?". I don't care about Ray's custody battle, I don't care about Frank being impotent, I don't care about Ani's "tough woman stuck in a man's world" schtick, and I certainly don't care that Paul is a repressed gay or that his wife is pregnant. Seriously, who cares? All those storylines couldn't be more boring if they tried. If I wanted those kind of storylines I'd watch Fair City.

Take all of those backstories away and you're left with a fairly decent murder mystery/police procedural drama; which is certainly not how the show's creators would like it to be described.

The shootout at the end was like something from a summer blockbuster but at least it was exciting.

This show desperately needs Marty to step in and be the the ying to all this gloomy yang

Roquentin

i think it is very good. it is not like these shows wherein someone is killed every episode. They are really building something. it will only get better

toodleytoo

Loved how comfortable Woodrugh was at the end in comparison to the other two.

titan18

Honestly, if this was the first season, I'd probably have stopped watching it. Only reason I still am is due to the 1st season and knowing the quality they can deliver

IvaBigWun

Although tired on both occasions I have fallen asleep twice trying to watch episode three. I might be out on this one. It is all over the bloody place.

Brendan Filone

Ray after he gave the badge to his son was like:

Roquentin

its all very ambiguous. its good to watch, but i am confused as to what is happening.

Roquentin

reminds me of chinatown wherein i had to watch it two or three times before i fully got what was happening

ixoy

I actually like the investigation and mystery angle but the back stories aren't working for me really - with possibly Colin's as an exception as he's doing such a damn good job here.

As to the end, all I could think was "Well that could have gone better".

FloatingVoter

Yeah, I think I'll sit this out. If it turns out to be any good, I'll have a season to binge watch and if it keeps stumbling along as is - I've missed nothing.

Tipsy McSwagger

The ending was stupid. People will say how brilliant it was because the rest of the episode was so boring. Seriously the only cops left standing were the 3 leads and not one of them had an automatic rifle just a plain old handgun. Protocol and common sense would have made them back off and wait for SWAT to arrive, and not run into a building that was being blown up with bad guys hanging out the window shooting automatic weapons at them.

didn't think the first 3 episodes to be that bad but this one was poor. it's very confusing or else it's not interesting enough to pay attention as to what is going on in the all the stories and characters and most particularly the investigation leads. a crazy bloodbath shootout did nothing to redeem the episode either.

hidinginthebush

Roquentin wrote: »

i think it is very good. it is not like these shows wherein someone is killed every episode. They are really building something. it will only get better

It can't get much worse to be fair.

Just want to echo what others have said, four characters I don't really care about, don't know a whole lot about either. I think they went a bit too ambitions and are trying to cram too much in.

I recently rewatched season 1, by comparison at the end of episode four there we had rust undercover going into the ghetto.

Really not digging Vince Vaughan, don't care that he's impotent.
Definitely don't care about the other cops repressed homosexuality.
Not interested in Rachel mcadams family past.
The only character I'm interested in is Colin Farrell.

Tipsy McSwagger

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

I highly recommend 'Bosch' if you want to see a good detective show.

pretty good alright - except they should have left out the love-interest lawyer turned rookie cop - thought that that was handled in a corny way and would have been better without it.

beardo81

Good episode, excellent ending.

Yes, the stories are a little drawn out but I am trusting in the writing to weave all this together (hopefully)

Farrell is still excellent, McAdams pretty great too. The other two hold their own but not as well developed I feel, not getting the best dialogue either.

Shootout was excellent, very well executed and a great finish to the episode. Can see things ramping up from here.

lizzyman

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

The ending was stupid. People will say how brilliant it was because the rest of the episode was so boring. Seriously the only cops left standing were the 3 leads and not one of them had an automatic rifle just a plain old handgun. Protocol and common sense would have made them back off and wait for SWAT to arrive, and not run into a building that was being blown up with bad guys hanging out the window shooting automatic weapons at them.

The way I see it is that Bezzerides was determined to follow the SUV and Woodrugh and Velcoro had no choice but to cover her.

All in all a pretty piss poor episode. The dialogue is so, so bad. Also, what's with the episode titles. "Night finds you", "Down will come". Is Yoda naming them or something?

lizzyman

hidinginthebush wrote: »

It can't get much worse to be fair.

Just want to echo what others have said, four characters I don't really care about, don't know a whole lot about either. I think they went a bit too ambitions and are trying to cram too much in.

I recently rewatched season 1, by comparison at the end of episode four there we had rust undercover going into the ghetto.

Really not digging Vince Vaughan, don't care that he's impotent.
Definitely don't care about the other cops repressed homosexuality.
Not interested in Rachel mcadams family past.
The only character I'm interested in is Colin Farrell.

+1

Can't take that spiritual guru/hippie guy (David Morse) seriously at all.

tastyt

It's making me feel like a thicko really. Having to rewind to catch little bits of conversation to try to understand what's going on, and I still don't know.

Hard to take to Vaughan as a hard nosed gangster. It's probably not due to his performance but more so me being conditioned to seeing him in a comedy role. His wife in this is hot though, or is it just me?

Have to say Farrell and mcadams are really showing what good actors they are. Never doubted Farrell but mcadams has silenced a few doubters I feel.

Still undecided on the show as a whole

lizzyman

Agreed. Normally I run a mile from anything with Farrell in it but every now and then he really knocks one out of the park. This is probably the best acting I've seen from him since 'In Bruges'.

Royal Irish

I was incredibly disappointed to find out Farrell's character was only shot with rubber bullets in episode 2. I was hoping he was dead.

Tipsy McSwagger

glasso wrote: »

pretty good alright - except they should have left out the love-interest lawyer turned rookie cop - thought that that was handled in a corny way and would have been better without it.

I agree, I hated that character. Another good recommendation that pisses all over TD is The Bridge (Danish version).

Jon Stark

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

The ending was stupid. People will say how brilliant it was because the rest of the episode was so boring. Seriously the only cops left standing were the 3 leads and not one of them had an automatic rifle just a plain old handgun. Protocol and common sense would have made them back off and wait for SWAT to arrive, and not run into a building that was being blown up with bad guys hanging out the window shooting automatic weapons at them.

Or maybe it's because they were the most competent, Woodrugh being the most obvious one due to his background.

Look at the slob detective who made his move moreso out of panic to follow Woodrugh than anything else.

I'm not even bothered by the plot armour if the story proves to be good enough. Not every show has to throw curveballs by killing main characters "just because".

Tipsy McSwagger

Jon Stark wrote: »

Or maybe it's because they were the most competent, Woodrugh being the most obvious one due to his background.

Look at the slob detective who made his move moreso out of panic to follow Woodrugh than anything else.

I'm not even bothered by the plot armour if the story proves to be good enough. Not every show has to throw curveballs by killing main characters "just because".

None of them are competent at all. Woodrugh has PTSD from Iraq, a death wish and was recently suspended but was allowed back because in the process of trying to kill himself found Casper the friendly city manager. Farrell drinks on the job, is a hothead and has miraculously recovered from his injuries. Rachel McAdams had been recently suspended and proved useless in the gunfight. The most competent police officer would have backed off from the building, called in SWAT and set a perimeter around the building to secure the publics safety.

The Wild Bunch

I'll call it now

Woodrugh to be killed off in one of the next two episodes

Jon Stark

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

None of them are competent at all. Woodrugh has PTSD from Iraq, a death wish and was recently suspended but was allowed back because in the process of trying to kill himself found Casper the friendly city manager. Farrell drinks on the job, is a hothead and has miraculously recovered from his injuries. Rachel McAdams had been recently suspended and proved useless in the gunfight. The most competent police officer would have backed off from the building, called in SWAT and set a perimeter around the building to secure the publics safety.

Well it's clear that they made a bollox of the operation, I'm not disputing that.

All I'm saying is that they were less panicky than the rest of them even though it was clear things had gone wrong.

Also you have to remember that none of these are probably well versed in handling such a situation. None of them are there for their field expertise; they're there to be patsys for each respective side that has put them there.

zeffabelli

Acting is great.

The writing sucks.

Really bad story making. The actors have huge job to compensate for it and are carrying all the slack.

Frisbee

Enjoyed that.

As usual the Vince Vaughn scenes were pretty poor, his dialogue is consistently terrible.

Really enjoyed the scene in the car between Kitsch & Farrell after he picks him up. First time it's matched season 1 from a dialogue POV imo.

The shootout came out of nowhere, reminded me of the bank robbery escape scene in Heat (and to a lesser extent I guess it was supposed to parallel the long ghetto tracking shot in season 1). Thought it was well acted as well, when McAdams was out of bullets she sold the desperation of only having a knife well. Also built up how ****ed in the head Woodrugh is, after the fight the other two are in bits crying and shaking and he just kind of casually holsters his gun and stands there like nothing has happened. Backs up how much ****ed up **** he saw/did with Black Mountain.