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

Yet it feels almost like a chore to watch. I user to watch every episode of TD1 twice a week. The second time to really take it all in.

I find myself daydreaming watching this season.

InTheTrees

Suprised there's not more praise for Vince Vaughn. Seems to be the best actor in it. Colin Farell isnt challenging himself much.

steve_r

tvnutz wrote: »

Ok, going to probably get ripped apart for this...was told about True Detective after it was over, so I watched season 1 right through. Good show, but never could understand how everyone thought it was so amazing. IT was like the occult nature of the show overtook everything and the fact that McConaughey's character was not at all sympathetic or actually that interesting is overlooked.

I also watched TD1 after the season had aired and thought the same. I think there was a big difference for the people watching week to week, as the excitement and fan theories really added to it. I do think TD1 is overrated, certainly great performances by the leads but the ending underwhelmed me.

I'm seeing a lot of people compare this with the Wire. I think that will only be a fair comparison at the end of the season, where we'll see if they've really been building for something, or just meandering through.

I'm going to stick with this, at the very least it's interesting to read peoples views on the supposed rights and wrongs of it. Some of the dialogue hurts my head "memories that remember you", "sometimes your worst self is your best self" but it's still interesting to see the characters develop, for better or for worse.

loyatemu

They're airing this series using the same name as the Harrelson/McConnaughy series, it's inevitable they're going to be compared with each other. If they'd wanted this to stand on its own merits they would have pitched it as a different show. If this season had been aired as season 1 I doubt there would have been a season 2.

More hilariously stilted dialogue from VV this week - in particular the scenes with his wife. Really? These people are married and trying to have a kid - they talk like they just met each other. Dead avocado trees as a heavy-handed metaphor for infertility... give me a break.

Very convenient that the 3 main characters were the only survivors of the shootout - the other cops might as well have been wearing red shirts.

We're halfway through the season, I'm going to stick with it just so I haven't wasted 4 hours - but if it was a 12 or 22 episode season I think I'd be signing off now.

Thargor

InTheTrees wrote: »

Suprised there's not more praise for Vince Vaughn. Seems to be the best actor in it.

He's brutal imo.

tommy2bad

loyatemu wrote: »

They're airing this series using the same name as the Harrelson/McConnaughy series, it's inevitable they're going to be compared with each other. If they'd wanted this to stand on its own merits they would have pitched it as a different show. If this season had been aired as season 1 I doubt there would have been a season 2.

More hilariously stilted dialogue from VV this week - in particular the scenes with his wife. Really? These people are married and trying to have a kid - they talk like they just met each other. Dead avocado trees as a heavy-handed metaphor for infertility... give me a break.

Very convenient that the 3 main characters were the only survivors of the shootout - the other cops might as well have been wearing red shirts.

We're halfway through the season, I'm going to stick with it just so I haven't wasted 4 hours - but if it was a 12 or 22 episode season I think I'd be signing off now.

I think the avocado trees are not so much about infertility but about the toxic chemicals that have made the ground poison. A sort of overall metaphors for the toxic environment the story inhabits rather than specifically infertility.

Yeah the 3 leads escaping unscathed was a bit convenient. One could have at least suffered the traditional shoulder wound.

jcsoulinger

tommy2bad wrote: »

Yeah the 3 leads escaping unscathed was a bit convenient. One could have at least suffered the traditional shoulder wound.

It makes sense tho as its said earlier that every other cop in the group was 2 days from retirement.

oxygen

jcsoulinger wrote: »

It makes sense tho as its said earlier that every other cop in the group was 2 days from retirement.

Yea,I don't get that complaint either,makes sense they would make it, especially Kitsch. You can see their skill set in the shoot out. Also it's all Mc Adams fault for wanting to push ahead with the bust and not waiting for back up. They didn't even know it was a cook house

batistuta9

she was told go & take them

i don't remember the retirement bit though

PropJoe10

VisibleGorilla wrote: »

Finding this season absolute muck, nothing at all compared to the first.

Why would you even compare it to the first? Its essentially a different show. Lamest argument ever.

I'm finding it quite enjoyable. McAdams and Farrell are great.

loyatemu

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Why would you even compare it to the first?

Because it has the same name and is made by the same people?

Roquentin

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Why would you even compare it to the first? Its essentially a different show. Lamest argument ever.

I'm finding it quite enjoyable. McAdams and Farrell are great.

i agree. i think people should reserve judgement until it is finished

jcsoulinger

batistuta9 wrote: »

she was told go & take them

i don't remember the retirement bit though

I was joking, obviously all those cops were not 2 days from retirement.

kearneybobs

Really wish there was a mute button for all posts that compare it to the previous season. We get it, it's not as good as the first one but on it's own it's still REALLY good.

Dyr

kearneybobs wrote: »

Really wish there was a mute button for all posts that compare it to the previous season. We get it, it's not as good as the first one but on it's own it's still REALLY good.

On its own its fairly poor, it's basically the mediocre little brother on a team who only gets mentioned in passing because his older brother is the star player

Although I havent watched the latest episode, I lost interest

Kunkka

Bambi wrote: »

Although I havent watched the latest episode, I lost interest

Best one so far.

In general though it's very slow and the interest in the characters isn't there like the first season. Every episode for me in season one was intense with proper cliff hangers each week. This is a very different approach as they appear to be building towards something big while portraying each character in detail before a big finale(something mad like Vaughan was the person who raped Velcoro's wife). At least that's what I hope they are doing.... in saying that it's been great to see Farrell & Vaughan actually acting again.

Mike Litoris

Bambi wrote: »

Although I havent watched the latest episode, I lost interest

It was very slow until the last 10 mins when all hell broke loose. Not the good slow either so if you've lost interest in the previous episodes this will put you to sleep.

el diablo

InTheTrees wrote: »

Suprised there's not more praise for Vince Vaughn. Seems to be the best actor in it. Colin Farell isnt challenging himself much.

He is woeful. His attempts at intimidation genuinely make me laugh out loud.

Tipsy McSwagger

First season was Paul Simon
Second season is Art Garfunkel

Heckler

I enjoyed the shootout. Nerdy but I liked the small touches like when McAdams ran out of ammo and picked up the dead officers gun, in a blink and you'd miss it, you can see the slide is locked back indicating its empty too which is why she went to the knife.

I guess Kitsch did quite a bit of weapons handling for Lone Survivor and it shows here.

As for the cover a car door provides against an AK.......not to sure about that one

osnola ibax

I really think Vince Vaughan is completely unbelievable too. Colin Farrell is good, and that Friday night lights lad, like the girl too.

I'm enjoying it, it's not amazing or anything but pretty good. Find the dialogue a bit pretentious at times And a lot of LA / Police slang that's difficult to understand but it's cooking away nicely now

ixoy

osnola ibax wrote: »

I really think Vince Vaughan is completely unbelievable too. /QUOTE]
I'm watching Daredevil and there's another Vincent (D'Onfrio) who is far more compelling and believable as a mob boss. He'd have made this role work a lot better.

Dyr

Heckler wrote: »

I enjoyed the shootout. Nerdy but I liked the small touches like when McAdams ran out of ammo and picked up the dead officers gun, in a blink and you'd miss it, you can see the slide is locked back indicating its empty too which is why she went to the knife.

I guess Kitsch did quite a bit of weapons handling for Lone Survivor and it shows here.

As for the cover a car door provides against an AK.......not to sure about that one

The bit in the trailer where shes hacking the buggery out of a wooden board gave me a giggle. Great way to make sure your knife has no edge or the lock breaks

Plus whens she's loading up her blades in the locker room one is a push dagger/belt buckle knife and the others a kerambit, neither of which are held like the folder shes practicing with

little things

Think american cops are taught to only use the wheel base of a car for cover if they can..engine block + axle + tyre = protection

Mechanical Clocktail

ixoy wrote: »

osnola ibax wrote: »

I really think Vince Vaughan is completely unbelievable too. /QUOTE]
I'm watching Daredevil and there's another Vincent (D'Onfrio) who is far more compelling and believable as a mob boss. He'd have made this role work a lot better.

He's a good actor but his Kingpin was rubbish and not believable as a man in a position of power. Sulking with twitchy fingers doesn't make for an impressive figure. He played it as being a big awkward baby. Vaughn is not pulling it together on screen but he's still more believable than a lame comic book character.

Halloween Jack

I offered a fairly restrained criticism of this after episode three, in the hope things would improve but i felt it actually went downhill this week.

The shootout was borderline preposterous. What makes a scene like that worthwhile? Well if you care about the characters (which many, many people have stated they don't) you are either rooting for them to get closer to their objectives or worried for them because they are in peril. Now after episode two we pretty much know none of the leads are in peril and I'm still struggling to figure out what any of the detective characters objectives are, in relation to the case. The second reason a scene like that might be worthwhile is to reveal something more about the characters, as in life character is revealed through actions. There is an element of that in the scene but it still seems to me more a device for moving the plot along and injecting some drama rather than really getting in to the characters and their arcs.

The rest of the episode trundled along at the now typical mordant pace. Scene after scene of humourless dialogue, heavy handed symbolism and cliched setups for exposition. It really feels to me a lot of the time like a bad 'reboot' of chinatown, replacing one of the most charismatic and iconic screen detectives with 3 stock characters, groping around in the murk for a second dimension. Practically every scene involving Vaughan is an atrocity of dead airtime. He shakes down a construction manager, he meets some foreign (evil) gangsters to talk about percentages, he shakes down a motel owner, he meets some other foreign gangsters, he has a conversation with his wife in which he seems barely engaged, he makes some veiled threats, lather rinse repeat. I don't think his performance is awful, but he's certainly not transcending the pretty crummy material in the way Colin Farrell is.

I had a glance at that buzzed article and i realised that we've had four hours, with loads going on but nothing even vaguely memorable. I noticed quite how many incidental characters there were and how none of them made any impression on me whatsoever or serve any purpose other than to blurt out exposition.

Im of the opinion now that this show is just plain bad. Poorly written, ill-conceived, miscast, sloppily executed (the editing in particular is hopeless). People have highlighted the production values but that's just window dressing. Give me something low budget but creative any day, this is big budget HBO we're talking about here, by this stage they can churn out great looking TV in their sleep.

A show focused on Ray Velcoro alone is a show i could get behind, it wouldn't be the most original thing I've ever seen (damaged and compromised cop looking for redemption through one big case is a pretty well wrong tale at this stage), but Farrell is playing the character with an almost alarming vulnerability and is really showing an emerging sense of decency to come through. If anybody comes out of this with kudos it'll be him, but I'm pretty sure nobody is doing a 'mcconaughey' this year.

Adamcp898

One word to describe the latest episode.............headshot.

Don't know why they devoted so much time and resources to that action shootout scene when it ended up being fairly poor.

ixoy

Adamcp898 wrote: »

One word to describe the latest episode.............headshot.

You mean they should have shot him in the head? 'Coz you do know that's incredibly difficult despite what action films might tell you. I believe the aim is to shoot the biggest target (i.e. chest area). They also wanted to take one of them alive, if possible.

Don't know why they devoted so much time and resources to that action shootout scene when it ended up being fairly poor.

I doubt that was their intention... I thought it was a pretty decent shoot out but as an action scene it was nothing compared to the first season's seven minute single-take. Even as a shoot out scene, I thought ones done in say "Southland" were more engaging.

Roquentin

i admit the shootout was a bit stupid.

Adamcp898

ixoy wrote: »

You mean they should have shot him in the head? 'Coz you do know that's incredibly difficult despite what action films might tell you. I believe the aim is to shoot the biggest target (i.e. chest area). They also wanted to take one of them alive, if possible.

No I mean the exact opposite I'm afraid. Basically every person in that "shoot-out" died from a headshot. Just another factor that added to how out of place the whole scene felt.

Rayne Wooney

This is just brutal imo

When I heard they were driving to Fresno I was hoping McAdams and Farrell would keep driving and leave this crapheap plot behind and try find the Zodiac

Will give episode 5 a watch at some point during the week but I think I'll leave it there and wait for the consensus when all the episodes have aired