• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

True Detective - Season 2 - We get the Season we deserve - Sundays on HBO

Man these last 2 episodes have been better...but that prison conversation with Frank and the Rapist was laughable. Ugh. Pls pizzman when youre good youre good, but when youre bad...
 
Nah, fuck it. I'm out. Can't take another episode after the shit show of the previous five.

Thankfully I have zero investment in the plot, so I'm ok with backing out now.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
The final one is almost 90 minutes long though!
3Mr5vBY.gif
 

blackjaw

Member
Either this show is fantastic or its the worst....I still can't really guess what is going to happen (which rarely is the case).

I'm usually the dude that puts it all together and can make a logical guess on who the 'killer' is or what the 'plot' is early on in tv shows/movies...but this one has me confused and without much to go on.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
Either this show is fantastic or its the worst....I still can't really guess what is going to happen (which rarely is the case).

I'm usually the dude that puts it all together and can make a logical guess on who the 'killer' is or what the 'plot' is early on in tv shows/movies...but this one has me confused and without much to go on.
True Detective (season one) and True Defective (season two) aren't whodunits.

They aren't made for the audience to guess at the killer. You're supposed to experience the show and take in the characters and visuals and plot.

Unfortunately, True Defective has messed that up.
 

xezuru

Member
What the fuck was with last episode's cheezy fondue ass transitions/music.
Fuckin half the time thinking I was in some Chevy Chase vacation bullshit, the other half with some Mickey Mouse ass Disney songs .
 
Either this show is fantastic or its the worst....I still can't really guess what is going to happen (which rarely is the case).

I'm usually the dude that puts it all together and can make a logical guess on who the 'killer' is or what the 'plot' is early on in tv shows/movies...but this one has me confused and without much to go on.

That's because there is no intrigue. Everyone will be raped and cry a lot until we have seen all the intense acting that we could ever want then they will just torture some random person who will reveal everything.
 
I think it is weird that people say they can't follow the plot. The plot is so mind numbingly simple and they keep refreshing and spelling it out, over and over and over again.

1. There is a big group of rich people plotting to get even richer by buying up a bunch of land along the rail corridor. They used their influence and power to force our home owners, farmers etc by making it look like the land was unfit to live on so that they could buy it at rock bottom prices.

2. Frank Semyon wanted in on this whole thing, so he scraped together a bunch of money from his crime business to buy $5 million dollars worth of land along the corridor. Ben Caspere, city manager for Vinci was his in with the Catalyst Corporation and other bigwigs. Ossip, the Russian gangster was to provide extra financial backing to help Frank and his interests.

3. The old money guys, Catalyst, the Russian and Frank's own henchman, question Frank's ability to fit in and play with the big fish. They decide to squeeze him out. I think that Caspere's death was the motivating factor that pushed them towards squeezing Frank out and not a by product of it.

4. Chessani, Pitlor and Rachel McAdam's dad all used to be part of some new age retro hippie cult. Undoubtedly they used the cult's power/influence to gain political and financial power over people higher up the food chain from themselves and to insure their ability to stay in more luxurious positions. At some point (possibly after the death of his wife/rape of his daughter) McAdam's dad split from the other dudes.

5. The powerful people had the pawn shop people killed for those diamonds. The diamonds are still a hanging thread that probably won't make much sense once they're all tied up.

6. Chessani's kids are the pawn shop owners kids. They might even be aware of this. The show this season has a lot of stuff going on about kids and their parents and finding your own path. Chessani's kid was working the parties seemingly without his dad's knowledge. Maybe he wants his own slice of the pie? Why Chessani took on these kids is still a bit loose.

7. The white cop guy the now dead Mexican girl was referring to was clearly Velcoro's dead partner. The guy was tailing Woodrugh on working the case on his own (he also went looking for the diamonds). The Vinci PD clearly didn't trust Velcoro to do what they wanted so they had his partner working the case separately.

I think that about covers it all. There are only really some minor elements to tie it all together that are left to come out, but I don't expect anything exceptionally mind blowing. The whole corruption thing is about rich people using shady methods to get even richer and protect their own self interest.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
Whether Pizzolatto drew inspiration from Ellroy's novel is irrelevant, really.

Most of that stuff is plenty generic.

The only problem is that Pizzolatto forgot to make the details deeper than generic pulp.
I think it is weird that people say they can't follow the plot. The plot is so mind numbingly simple and they keep refreshing and spelling it out, over and over and over again.
I keep vacillating about whether I should bother to correct the parts you got wrong...

Most of it is right, but you've messed up certain details.
 
I think it is weird that people say they can't follow the plot. The plot is so mind numbingly simple and they keep refreshing and spelling it out, over and over and over again.

Well, it's not just us. There are numerous "what the hell is/here is what's going on in TD Season 2" articles.

The problem is the show doesn't do a good job of cluing the audience in on what's important vs what's not. There are so many different characters to follow, it feels like each of the leads has at least one arc/storyline that is completely unnecessary and just muddles the overall narrative.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
Whether Pizzolatto drew inspiration from Ellroy's novel is irrelevant, really.

Most of that stuff is plenty generic.

The only problem is that Pizzolatto forgot to make the details deeper than generic pulp.

I keep vacillating about whether I should bother to correct the parts you got wrong...

Most of it is right, but you've messed up certain details.

This is more than just a generic storyline.

Colin Farrell’s alcoholic police officer Ray Velcoro: “His wife is raped by a Nazi sympathizer and he ends up killing the guy and raising the kid," said the Reddit user, "while his wife alienates him. Leads him to booze, rule breaking, etc. It's uncanny.” In True Detective, Velcoro believed himself to have killed his wife's rapist, before discovering that he murdered the wrong man; as he fights for custody of his son, his estranged wife pursues a paternity test.

And it's not like this is the first time Pizzaman has done this, he ripped off a lot of things for season 1.
 

thenexus6

Member
I think one of the only reasons I am continuing to watch is so I can listen to the Idle Thumbs TD weekly podcast, because I think their opinions quite funny.
 
Seriously. Like I said, when the main character is a woman lead and her characterization comes from her being raped, it's the end-all of shit writing.

Well, for what it's worth... All of the main characters except for Colin Firth (of whom we know relatively nothing of his childhood) were abused, molested, etc. Vince Vaughan's character, in the 2nd episode, talks about being locked in the basement and being eaten by starving rats because his dad abused him while drunk.

It's not that the writers can't just make an interesting female character (they can't), but they can't make an interesting character -- period. All of them have some deep psychological trauma that brought them to where they are. After episode 2 or 3, I was like "Does anybody work in this police unit who is just an every day person?" Like, they didn't grow up in a cult, they didn't murder a bunch of people in Afghanistan for Blackwater, they weren't trapped in their basement being eaten by rats, they weren't into sick sex fantasies, etc.? With the exception of Colin Firth's character (who seemingly had a normal if not slightly dysfunctional childhood; yet still found time to murder his ex-wifes alleged rapist), nobody in this show can function normally in society.

When every character has some brutally dysfunctional origin story, or a dark past, or ridiculous issues, it gets boring because it's so unrealistic. One thing that worked about True Detective season 1 was that Woody Harrelson's character was a pretty normal guy, living a pretty normal life. Sure, in the line of his police work some interesting things happened to him, and of course, he had indiscretions with his wife and so on, but it wasn't super out of the ordinary. Season 2... nobody is realistic, everybody is a caricature or a deeply flawed character from a comic book. It sucks.
 
One thing that worked about True Detective season 1 was that Woody Harrelson's character was a pretty normal guy, living a pretty normal life. Sure, in the line of his police work some interesting things happened to him, and of course, he had indiscretions with his wife and so on, but it wasn't super out of the ordinary. Season 2... nobody is realistic, everybody is a caricature or a deeply flawed character from a comic book. It sucks.

This is one of the things that I loved most about S1: Marty started as a cliche "one of the guys" person who had lived a successful life, but soon realized (partly through his interactions with Rust) that he still felt a deep-seated sense of loss, unhappines, and bitterness without fully understanding why. I can't find the clip, but one of my favorite parts:

You know the good years when you’re in them? Or you just wait for them until you get ass cancer and realize that the good years came and went? Because there’s a feeling– you might notice it sometimes– this feeling like life has slipped through your fingers like the future is behind you, like it’s always been behind you.
 
This is one of the things that I loved most about S1: Marty started as a cliche "one of the guys" person who had lived a successful life, but soon realized (partly through his interactions with Rust) that he still felt a deep-seated sense of loss, unhappines, and bitterness without fully understanding why. I can't find the clip, but one of my favorite parts:

Yes, exactly.

Marty speaks for the viewer in those first couple episodes and it works. Sure, Rust was really out there, but Marty is there to challenge him when he goes onto a deep, dark monologue. In season 2, almost every character goes into a deep dark monologue and at almost no point in the show is anybody else like "Dude, that's fucked up..." They usually reply with their own, throatier deep, dark monologue.
 

MrBS

Member
You know me. You just didn't know you did.

I laughed at that line and the delivery of said line. I'm invested at this point so might as well ride out the last two episodes and see just how far this can go.
 
I don't understand why she used her name

might have been that she could only get into the party under her sister's name given her connections could get her into that type of seedy affair

I don't think she imagined that she would be running out of the mansion carrying an incapacitated woman while being shot at like she had done fucked up in a mission of Hitman though.

I mean, yes this show is stupid at times and somewhat nonsensically written but some of the things people are baffled by isn't super hard to figure out. It seems that we've been conditioned to overthink these things.
 
Seriously. Like I said, when the main character is a woman lead and her characterization comes from her being raped, it's the end-all of shit writing.

She fits in nicely alongside the repressed gay character with mommy issues. I bet next week we'll find out Velcoro watched his parents being murdered as a child or some shit.
 

Alpende

Member
I quite liked this episode. I have no idea where the blue diamonds stuff came from though, if someone can fill me in that'd be great.

Other than that, good episode. I still find it funny that a lot of people keep shitting on this show and keep coming back.
 
Oh man I gotta go back and rematch some parts because I don't recall him at all.

It's not like you missed anything. He's a tertiary character who gets a sliver of screentime before he is killed.

It's easier to stop watching a movie that is roughly 2 hours long than to watch 5 more hours of a show that you don't enjoy after 3 or so episodes.

That's true but ignorant of the structure of television itself. Seasons are designed with season-long arcs in mind. Leaving on episode 4 of an 8 episode season is more akin to leaving after hour 1 of a 2 hour movie, but still doesn't really take into account the way a season can be paced.

I guess I'm just saying, we (or at least, I) are not sticking around just to make fun of the show. I bet most people here were pretty excited for it in the off-season, too.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
I quite liked this episode. I have no idea where the blue diamonds stuff came from though, if someone can fill me in that'd be great.

Other than that, good episode. I still find it funny that a lot of people keep shitting on this show and keep coming back.
Oh come on, people. It's as though most of you aren't even trying to pay attention.

I've been in this thread since the première, and I think I've been more critical of the show than anyone else in here, but I can still pay attention.

Bezzerides and Woodrugh found the blue diamonds in Caspere's safe-deposit box. They're blue diamonds, so they're extremely rare. They weren't looking for them. They just happened upon them.

For something like that, if you own it legally, there's going to be a record of it someway, through authenticity or insurance or something. Caspere had no record, and the only record of ownership prior to Caspere's undocumented ownership, as we found out in last night's episode, was by a couple in 1992.

As we found out, that couple was brutally murdered, and their house was looted. The couple had two kids, the ones from the photo Woodrugh showed to the retired cop. The kids saw the people who murdered their parents and looted the house, but those people were wearing masks. Sound similar?
It's not like you missed anything. He's a tertiary character who gets a sliver of screentime before he is killed.
Honestly, he wasn't even tertiary. Someone like Paul's mom is tertiary. Stan was quaternary.
 

JDSN

Banned
I caught up, but im done with this, I was naive, a sweet summer child if you will:

...but im counting on the writer not pulling the Incest/Rape card, I hope the knife thing begins and ends with the reasons she stated, at this point it works as a good commentary of police women and at the same time of the her shielded nature, no tragic reason is needed.

That is not even the reason im off this, it reminds me of The Amazing Spiderman 2, its a bunch of scenes connected by the those video game loading screens (track shots) with no momentum behind them. The first season was hardly about the case but you always knew what was the next step, even to the final result was unexpected.
 
EDIT: Re: Ani's knife victim, what about Ray's pistol face victim? They made sure to show us him violently beating the face of this dude. I think we even got some blood on Ray's face?

I caught up, but im done with this, I was naive, a sweet summer child if you will:

I'm just waiting for them to complete the loop and officially tie her sexual assault to her weird(?) sexual fetish. Bonus points if it's a wholly benign fetish!
 

Alpende

Member
Oh come on, people. It's as though most of you aren't even trying to pay attention.

I've been in this thread since the première, and I think I've been more critical of the show than anyone else in here, but I can still pay attention.

Bezzerides and Woodrugh found the blue diamonds in Caspere's safe-deposit box. They're blue diamonds, so they're extremely rare. They weren't looking for them. They just happened upon them.

For something like that, if you own it legally, there's going to be a record of it someway, through authenticity or insurance or something. Caspere had no record, and the only record of ownership prior to Caspere's undocumented ownership, as we found out in last night's episode, was by a couple in 1992.

As we found out, that couple was brutally murdered, and their house was looted. The couple had two kids, the ones from the photo Woodrugh showed to the retired cop. The kids saw the people who murdered their parents and looted the house, but those people were wearing masks. Sound similar?

Honestly, he wasn't even tertiary. Someone like Paul's mom is tertiary. Stan was quaternary.

Of course I got the last part, I just couldn't remember / I forgot where the blue diamonds came from. Thanks for refreshing my memory.
 

big ander

Member
even while not enjoying most of this season, I wasn't close to joining the "Pizzo's a hack" camp until last night. Directly answering criticism of the first season's lack of female roles by having a (boringly written) female protagonist whose trauma-shortcut to character definition is a rape? The man just...doesn't get it.
 

zugzug

Member
so yeah I'm two episodes behind I just saw the bus alley gunfight that was crazy amazing reminds me of the Heat movie scene just more graphic.
 

Linius

Member
and New York dolls..at least pizza has pretty good taste in music

remember a sweet 13th floor elevators song from last season too

Yeah, TD sure knows to pick the right music. Last season they picked Young Men Dead from BA, which got a lot of views on YT after the episode. Every little push helps.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
I feel like this show might be a lot better if you binge-watched it.

They just really do a terrible job at detailing what is and isn't important information to the plot.

[edit]

Where's Lera Lynn? We need more of her.
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Was this the first epiaode to not have the usually Lera Lynn bar scene? We got Velcoro and Frank having a chat over coffee, but it isn't the same. Haha
 
Top Bottom