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

molloyjh

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.

SWAT were hours away from being available, they mentioned that prior to the raid. And once it all kicked off it would have been literally impossible to set a perimeter. They were pinned down from the moment the gunfire started and they wouldn't have had the manpower or the resources to be able to close off the area effectively.

kellso81

A Primal Nut wrote: »

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.

How are you expecting them to fill 8 hrs of tv? One big long shoot-out? If there was no back story of the characters people would be compaining too.

Skerries

kellso81 wrote: »

How are you expecting them to fill 8 hrs of tv? One big long shoot-out? If there was no back story of the characters people would be compaining too.

Boobs!

Thargor

Fook me biggest drop in quality between a first and second series ever? This is bordering on unwatchable...

I used to have to force myself not to devour S1 in 2 sittings, sitting down to watch S2 eps feels like getting a chore out of the way...

TheChevron

SWAT, perimeter, protocol, public safety ...would yis ever feck off, its a bloody TV show and that ending was pretty decent.

Kiith

I'm really enjoying it to be honest. Yeah, it's slow and nowhere near as good as season 1, but it was never going to be.

Hoping this episode will kick things off, and we'll see some good progression in the story now. There'll have to be some pretty major fallout after this, as that was a serious amount of civilians that got shot in the firefight, plus 4 or 5 cops. Kitsch was pretty good in this episode, and loved his reaction compared to the other two after the shoot out.

tommy2bad

Some great direction in that episode, from the case from the rings drawn on the map to the coffee stains on the table, lovely connecting symbolism, to the finish of the shootout with Farrell clearing the corpse of the gunman before he gives himself time to realize what's happened.
It might be slow and subdued but it's well done direction wise. Dialogue is a whole other story, the pretentious attempts at being meaningful and profound grate badly. Poor Vince is the biggest victim of this, he is fine when he has a point to his dialog but that blank stare just increases the urge to laugh when he's being thoughtful.

Plot wise it's starting to come together, like real life the leads are tenuous at first but taken together a picture builds up, we see the protagonists beginning to see connections and direction, while wondering if any of them will care enough to follow up on it.
Its intriguing stuff, I hope it delivers, it could go the other way and like series one trail off into nothing.

A Primal Nut

kellso81 wrote: »

How are you expecting them to fill 8 hrs of tv? One big long shoot-out? If there was no back story of the characters people would be compaining too.

Of course back stories are an important part of any modern drama, as long as they are entertaining.

The ones in this series are really cliched, boring and pointless.

Also agree with the above poster about the pretentious attempts to be meaningful...it's almost like a spoof at times.

Decuc500

I’m really enjoying season 2. It’s a very compelling show and the writing and plotting is better than anything else on tv at the moment. The shootout and reaction of the characters afterwards was very well done.

jcsoulinger

It seems TD has become a victim of its own success, I have serious doubts people would be nitpicking this much had the first one not been so successful.

Anyway I'm still really enjoying it, It has its faults but I feel they are born out of over reaching rather than a lack of ambition which I can forgive allot easier.

The 4 main leads bar VV are very good IMO, And His failings are more dialogue related, sometimes its like he majored in organised crime at Harvard. What does louish mean anyway?

Loved the shoot out at the end, bad guys had to be tipped off.

The back stories are very contrived and I can see how that would irk some people but It is part and parcel of these types of shows no one can say Russ in the first one didn't have a forced overly sad background.

If this show can pull all the threads together and have a complete ending then it will surpass the first one imo, which ended fairly meh really.

If the bad guys were tipped off, what was their plan? Shoot their way out?

ixoy

I think the dialogue was probably clunky the first time around but the actors were good enough to work with it. It's why, I think, Colin Farrell's are delivered better but VV's come across as particularly ridiculous at times. It's a far cry from 'Justified'

jcsoulinger

[Deleted User] wrote: »

If the bad guys were tipped off, what was their plan? Shoot their way out?

They got tipped off moments before the cops moved in so shooting there way out was the only option.

It could be a public shootout followed by the death of the main suspect in the murder will bring pressure on every one involved to but it down as a solved case and move on.

molloyjh

jcsoulinger wrote: »

They got tipped off moments before the cops moved in so shooting there way out was the only option.

It could be a public shootout followed by the death of the main suspect in the murder will bring pressure on every one involved to but it down as a solved case and move on.

This. The prime suspect in the murder is dead and the lead detective on the case who was causing the mayor problems is going to be in trouble having led the botched raid. That combined with the sexual harassment claims put her in a precarious position. They went in with no realistic option of back-up and the mayor made some comment about being careful as they were leaving. They are looking to sweep the investigation under the rug and transfer the heat over onto McAdams character.

nxbyveromdwjpg

Vince Vaughn's character is a joke, like a terrible Bond villain or something.

Roquentin

nm wrote: »

Vince Vaughn's character is a joke, like a terrible Bond villain or something.

hank scorpio

Hank Scorpio

Roquentin wrote: »

hank scorpio

But beware of his generous pensions
Plus three weeks paid vacation each year
And on Fridays, the lunchroom serves hot dogs and burgers and beer!
He loves German beer!

Dots1982

It’s just plain incredible how bad this is compared to the firstseries.



One thing I took from it though, I’ll be discussing my exemplarysick leave record from in the same manner that Vince Vaughn discussed his lackof lifetime dental work from now on..

Dyr

Roquentin wrote: »

hank scorpio

hank virgo

Skerries

a guide to what the hell is going on in season 2

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kirstenking/im-so-confused#.xeerbKJvx

Roquentin

i think a problem with it is there are so many stories to keep track of. when they are talking about people, i dont know who they are talking about. still though i am enjoying watching it

Roquentin

Skerries wrote: »

a guide to what the hell is going on in season 2

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kirstenking/im-so-confused#.xeerbKJvx

big help alright.

The Wild Bunch

For anyone having trouble understanding of following it so far

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kirstenking/im-so-confused?bffb&utm_term=4ldqpgp#.hkPNJwxov

molloyjh

Are people finding it difficult? I didn't think it's been tough to follow at all???

titan18

jcsoulinger wrote: »

It seems TD has become a victim of its own success, I have serious doubts people would be nitpicking this much had the first one not been so successful.

I'd agree here, but that's because none of us would be watching it if the first wasn't so successful. This season is just sh1te. Farrell is the only redeeming feature in it.

tommy2bad

The Wild Bunch wrote: »

For anyone having trouble understanding of following it so far

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kirstenking/im-so-confused?bffb&utm_term=4ldqpgp#.hkPNJwxov

That article and the comments on it are why I despair for humanity.
Do audiences need to be spoon fed everything? TD isn't that difficult to follow, it might not be the most whizz bang fast paced show on tv (theirs banshee for that) but its not exactly Finnegan's Wake,it's a fairly simple plot, we discover most of the pieces in the first episode and get the fine detail as it moves on. Well, drags on to be precise, it could have done with some faster paceing and slightly snappier dialogue. It's almost Becket in its meandering bleakness.
Still a cut above the rest and willing to risk being different.

Tipsy McSwagger

tommy2bad wrote: »

That article and the comments on it are why I despair for humanity.
Do audiences need to be spoon fed everything? TD isn't that difficult to follow, it might not be the most whizz bang fast paced show on tv (theirs banshee for that) but its not exactly Finnegan's Wake,it's a fairly simple plot, we discover most of the pieces in the first episode and get the fine detail as it moves on. Well, drags on to be precise, it could have done with some faster paceing and slightly snappier dialogue. It's almost Becket in its meandering bleakness.
Still a cut above the rest and willing to risk being different.

The problem is most of the episodes are boring and viewers are zoning out.

Dont be at yourself

Amazed at the negative reaction on here.

For me, this show is easily the best thing on TV at the moment.

Mechanical Clocktail

molloyjh wrote: »

Are people finding it difficult? I didn't think it's been tough to follow at all???

It's not. The state of humanity that people can't follow a simple story.

Agent Coulson

McAdams & Farrell are doing a great job I think but so far they have been let down by the script.