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

Alpende

Member
I liked the episode, wouldn't surprise me if the cop that shot Woudrugh is Birdman as well.

I don't find the story confusing at all, I just find it really poorly told. It seems like the show doesn't know what to focus on, and as such nothing engages the viewer and it just becomes either repetitive character "development", or pointless case exposition. Instead of making the show about detectives investigating a case and piecing things together, the show has attempted to make it a character drama that happens to be about detectives.

That's fine if the character drama is any good, it's not. But even then, that's fine if at least the show consistently wants to be about that all the way through. But instead towards the tail end of the story here, they clearly feel there is a need to tie things up and connect the dots. So the dots are being connecting. The problem is, the audience has never had any reason to really be interested in following the case, so it just comes off as a huge plot dump with people asking "who" whenever a new name pops up.

The thing is, none of these names are new, and I could follow what's going on fine. It just... isn't interesting. So basically a few things have been going on in this conspiracy:

- In the 90s a bunch of corrupt LA cops staged a burglary where they killed two people and stole a bunch of diamonds.

- This made them very rich and allowed them to buy into an elite group of corrupt politicians and businessmen in the state area.

- When the high speed rail project came along, one of them being the city manager in Vinci decided to use his stolen wealth to invest into a large land scam.

- With the help of local criminal elements, they also abetted in poisoning some parts of the land so it can be sold off cheap to certain holding companies involved in the scam.

That's what the entire case is basically about. It's not really super complex, and some of the elements are actually pretty intriguing and would make for a good state wide investigation. It's just too bad that the show every really focused on any of it in interesting ways, or cared to make the show about engaging investigation and watching detectives join the dots. Instead what we get are a bunch of scenes where people get drunk and whine about how broken and flawed they are, and then put everything together in info dump scenes when they need the "plot" to move forward. Zzzzzzzzz.

This made the whole thing clearer for me, thanks for the recap.
 

CassSept

Member
I quite enjoyed this episode, but the further we get the more obvious it becomes that the writing needed a few more months in the oven. Especially with the last episode being 1.5 hour it feels like Pizzolatto knew exactly what he wants the endgame to be, but completely screwed up the delivery.

While I usually don't understand people who are confused at relatively simple stories, I'm quite lost here. Ray and Ani just sputtering a list of names threw me completely for a loop. Too many ancillary characters who appeared for only brief moments few episodes ago are important to the conspiracy at the center of the season. For example, I remember who the Attorney General is, but mostly because I watched Dexter. Too many times a name was dropped two months ago and that's it. Most of the time I simply can't attach a name to a face. I don't think it's because of my lack of focus, but rather the lack of proper development of plot, instead focusing on and devoting a lot of runtime to meaningless pseudo character development.
 
I don't get the whole point of fucking over Frank in the larger sense. Only Blake really had a real problem with him going legit, I guess. Why would Caspere fuck Frank over after he did him a solid on poisoning the land?

A lot of Frank's story doesn't really make sense. He's a mini kingpin of a super corrupt industry town, and was only worth 5 million total?

It's just a lot of the details of the season don't hold up that well to scrutiny when you think about them.

And the driving, CHRIST the driving. I just wish someone would just stop for a second and complain about the hours upon hours of driving they are doing every single episode.
 

otapnam

Member
I don't get the whole point of fucking over Frank in the larger sense. Only Blake really had a real problem with him going legit, I guess. Why would Caspere fuck Frank over after he did him a solid on poisoning the land?

A lot of Frank's story doesn't really make sense. He's a mini kingpin of a super corrupt industry town, and was only worth 5 million total?

probably cost him alot to get to where he was at - paying his goons and keeping partners & what not. The whole narrative points to how Frank was a small fish in a small pond that thought he could make big moves.
 
probably cost him alot to get to where he was at - paying his goons and keeping partners & what not. The whole narrative points to how Frank was a small fish in a small pond that thought he could make big moves.

Hell, his house alone was 5 million (the actual house used in the show)

He's got his finger in real estate, waste management, casinos, etc. in Los Angeles, no way he's maxes out at 5 million.
 

XAL

Member
This is the only really gripping part of the season. And the moment I was thinking "maybe this won't be so bad after all"

And then it was.

And then there was that weird paper plate face running away man.

I don't think we'll see any resolution to this.
 
This should be in the op. Half this stuff just goes right over the head.

I think having a character list with pictures of their faces would be enough to clear up a good amount of the confusion for most people. So many faceless names get thrown about I'm not convinced that the people who can keep track of them don't have a detective board with photos and string.
 
Anyway; entertaining episode of tv that is completely hollow because I care so very little about everything that happened in the preceding six hours.
 
I was disappointed to see Woodrugh shot dead.

But seriously... how the shit did Burris know where to wait for him to exit, or even that he would escape? "These tunnels run under the whole city!"


Me 2, that was some bullshit. He finally got a chance to shine there in that shootout and then they do him like that. Man...
 

Deku Tree

Member
I don't get the whole point of fucking over Frank in the larger sense. Only Blake really had a real problem with him going legit, I guess. Why would Caspere fuck Frank over after he did him a solid on poisoning the land?

A lot of Frank's story doesn't really make sense. He's a mini kingpin of a super corrupt industry town, and was only worth 5 million total?

It's just a lot of the details of the season don't hold up that well to scrutiny when you think about them.

To me that's one of the few things that makes perfect sense. Frank was a small town mobster and they saw him as an easy mark and they did it for the same reason everyone else does; they robbed him for the money.
 

Doc Holliday

SPOILER: Columbus finds America
I usually pay while watching tv but I missed a lot if that shit in the slate article. I did pass out a few times lol
 

This series could use that in-picture 'who the fuck is this ?' feature Game of Thrones blu-rays have to help you out. It's not that just the vast number of characters to keep track of but they are all so similar. There are a bunch of bad cops, criminals and victimized black-haired women and they all blend together. And some people just vanish like Emily Rios' character. Or did I dream she was in this show but it was in fact a shadow of a reflection of a better show ?
 

Well that cleared up a few of the points, but I have a feeling some of these questions will go unanswered because there's way too much left open for it all to be solved by a 90-minute finale.

After reading the part about Laura and Leonard, I'm not so sure that Burris is Birdman anymore. If he was, I'm sure he would've killed Velcoro. Also, did we find out who took in Laura and Leonard after their parents were murdered? I was thinking that's also someone who might get brought into all of this at the last minute.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
Well that cleared up a few of the points, but I have a feeling some of these questions will go unanswered because there's way too much left open for it all to be solved by a 90-minute finale.

After reading the part about Laura and Leonard, I'm not so sure that Burris is Birdman anymore. If he was, I'm sure he would've killed Velcoro. Also, did we find out who took in Laura and Leonard after their parents were murdered? I was thinking that's also someone who might get brought into all of this at the last minute.
They "got lost" in the foster-care system.

Bird Mask was tall and thin. Burris is still a possibility. He had a relationship with Velcoro, so it's possible they just wanted to send him a message. After all, Burris, Chessani, and Holloway put Velcoro on the original Caspere case to be their inside man even though they already had Teague.
 

Well that cleared up a few of the points, but I have a feeling some of these questions will go unanswered because there's way too much left open for it all to be solved by a 90-minute finale.

After reading the part about Laura and Leonard, I'm not so sure that Burris is Birdman anymore. If he was, I'm sure he would've killed Velcoro. Also, did we find out who took in Laura and Leonard after their parents were murdered? I was thinking that's also someone who might get brought into all of this at the last minute.

EDIT: Sorry, double post.
 

E the Shaggy

Junior Member
Yeah we do! That'd be awesome.

tumblr_mlnzccW0EW1qzaj5to1_r1_400.gif


And hell, if S1 was Pizzaman's take on the mythic serial killer and cult, this could be his take on conspiracies and spree killers.

And you could still get God Warrior Paul in this whole mess.

I sort of gave up on the season after the third episode, but did it straight up become Hotline Miami?

In all seriousness though, has the season gotten any better?
 
I sort of gave up on the season after the third episode, but did it straight up become Hotline Miami?

In all seriousness though, has the season gotten any better?

Better in terms of individual quality, but because no episode is standalone it just makes the entire plot hollow and pointless. They're paying off things I just don't care about or didn't really understand until someone else did the legwork for me.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
Has the "season" gotten better? No, not really.

Episode seven was the most consistent episode of the season, though.

You guys are crazy. Episode three was the best episode of the first five, which is still sad since it wasn't a great episode, anyway.

Episode seven was dynamic. Things were moving along, so it didn't give characters too many opportunities to sit around and act like Nic Pizzolotto mouth pieces.

He still found ways to work in shitty dialogue and plotting, of course, but beginning to end it was the strongest episode yet. Still, it wasn't great. There's nothing that can salvage this season. The finale could be fantastic, but that doesn't absolve the majority of the rest of the season from being a complete mess.
 
This season's writing is a clusterfuck of epic proportions. It seems to be written like a show with 3 times the episodes per season and in it's third. The way they toss around names of people we have barely seen and important 'details' no one was half as awake as needed to remember them because they were buried in a boring ass scene.
 
This season's writing is a clusterfuck of epic proportions. It seems to be written like a show with 3 times the episodes per season and in it's third. The way they toss around names of people we have barely seen and important 'details' no one was half as awake as needed to remember them because they were buried in a boring ass scene.

agreed. it's kind of unfortunate because you can see some potential in the story and some of the characters. it's all just so unfocused and messy. i wonder if we will see a third season...
 

Afrocious

Member
I sort of gave up on the season after the third episode, but did it straight up become Hotline Miami?

In all seriousness though, has the season gotten any better?

Not really. We're getting to what was being built up from the first episodes, for better or for worse. It's not that exciting or interesting either.
 

Tom_Cody

Member
really, really loving this season. I admit it's kinda confusing, but I'm loving it
I totally agree. It's weird to pop into this thread and see that sentiment is largely negative.

For what it's worth, I re-watch the first episode a few weeks ago and I've been clear on everything since then. They simply packed way more into the first episode than anyone could be expected to absorb given a total lack of context. Once you know what all the factions are, it isn't that hard to keep track of the characters.

Beyond that I'll just say that I have really love the setting, the characters, and the acting. I can't wait to see where the finale is going to end up.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
well since woodrow is the only one that can handle himself properly under fire bezzeredes and velcoro are kind of fucked, no?
Nah, they're just going to conveniently achieve God Mode like Paul, but without the actual training for it because Nic Pizzolatto can't write.
 
I sort of gave up on the season after the third episode, but did it straight up become Hotline Miami?

In all seriousness though, has the season gotten any better?

No, the last we see of animal masked assailants is at the end of episode 2. I don't know if I would say the season is getting better, but I would say the latest episode is one of the best episodes so far because stuff actually happens and feels like it's moving forward. Two of the least interesting protagonists actually do interesting things and are actually fun to watch this episode.
 

Burt

Member
It was a decent episode. There's definitely a good story in there, but the writing really needed another 6 months of polish. I've been generally okay with the dialogue (less so with the delivery), but the story structure itself is just twisted and mangled.

Half the secondary characters aren't necessary, and the other half that are suffer completely from it. We don't need the missing persons case of the person that isn't missing, Pitlor, Ani's dad, 'sexually harassed' police officer, the Mexicans, and the rest of garbage collage of throwaways. We did need more time with Burris, Tony Chessani, Osip, the Catalyst dude, and the rest of the characters that are suddenly important but people seem to have a hard time remembering. Like, oh yeah, Stan. We got Stan's son to provide direct contrast to Velcoro's fatherhood, but there wasn't room for a single scene to actually officially establish Stan? That perfectly encapsulates what's wrong with the show this season. 'Stan' is going to become a pop culture touchstone.

I am sort of finding some smug satisfaction in connections being made between things that people were calling out as stupid or a waste of time when they happened.
 

blackjaw

Member
It was a decent episode. There's definitely a good story in there, but the writing really needed another 6 months of polish. I've been generally okay with the dialogue (less so with the delivery), but the story structure itself is just twisted and mangled.

Half the second characters aren't necessary, and the other half that are suffer completely from it. We don't need the missing persons case of the person that isn't missing, Pitlor, Ani's dad, 'sexually harassed' police officer, the Mexicans, and the rest of garbage collage of throwaways. We did need more time with Burris, Tony Chessani, Osip, the Catalyst dude, and the rest of the people that are suddenly important but people seem to have a hard time remembering. Like, oh yeah, Stan. We got Stan's son to provide direct contrast to Velcoro's fatherhood, but there wasn't room for a single scene to actually officially establish Stan? That perfectly encapsulates what's wrong with the show this season. 'Stan' is going to become a pop culture touchstone.

I am sort of finding some smug satisfaction in connections being made between things that people were calling out as stupid or a waste of time when they happened.

Stan's the man!
 
Good episode for the most part. The action was great.


What a bullshit ending. So the guy was there waiting on the surface behind the door that entire time. lolol.
 
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