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

Outside of the dream in the beginning, i feel the first two episodes were much more Lynchian in feel and tone than this last episode, which felt very by the numbers in comparison.
 

kingocfs

Member
Half anaconda.....half great white

48da5_ORIG-5df78_ORIG_cringe.gif
 

Blader

Member
This season's been bloated, bland, incoherent, and (most egregiously) absolutely boring.

While most of this episode (and the rest of this season's arc) has been off-key in the worst way, I want to make a point about the particularly galling introduction to the episode. The aping of Lynch's aesthetic - chiaroscuro supernatural mood singers in a public bar draped in a primary color to add a bit of surreal flair - completely misapprehends why the conceit is so unsettling to begin with. Lynchian horror juxtaposes almost eerie normality with the ghoulishly uncanny, which has never been this show's modus operandi. In fact, Pizzaman's been beating us over the head with how abject misery and untold horrors are suffuse and inescapable in his banal depiction of L.A.

When Lynch in Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet inserts a vignette featuring a quasi noir / vaudevillian musical performance, the uneasy je ne sais quoi that punches the guts of the audience is earned because so much else in the art is quotidian. Twin Peaks is introduced as a town of polite, law-abiding all-Americans who go about their days quietly until occult tragedy strikes and the entire weave starts unraveling. With two episodes of jumbled exposition that's gone out of its way to demonstrate that every corner and crevice and alcove in L.A. is fraught with sleaze, boozing, deviant sex, fraud, and violence, throwing a Lynchian "homage" (if you can even call it that, knowing Pizzaman's well-documented penchant for plagiarism) is so utterly tone deaf that it almost boggles the mind that this man managed to teach poor unsuspecting students literature in a past life, let alone helm a flagship HBO series. He's throwing shit at a wall and hoping it sticks while paying no heed to the narrative or tonal dissonance of his gambits. Elvis doing Bette Middler in a dream sequence to open an episode isn't artistically daring, but rather an inveterate plagiarist's misreading of the actual artistic texts he's copying from!

This season is failed "art", but it's been quite the spectacle to watch unfold when viewed as a self-imposed public humiliation for the bloviating auteur who made it.

I'm feeling a little apoplectic myself.
 

Drencrom

Member
Wait, Stan was not the construction guy... but instead some lowlife henchman that was seen in the background in two scenes?

What the fuck was the point of that scene? Were the viewer actually supposed to know him, care for this his death or understand the graveness situation when one of Frank's nameless goons gets picked off?
 

Not a Jellyfish

but I am a sheep
Wait, Stan was not the construction guy... but instead some lowlife henchman that was seen in the background in two scenes?

What the fuck was the point of that scene? Were the viewer actually supposed to know him, care for this his death or understand the graveness situation when one of Frank's nameless goons gets picked off?

I think you are reading to far into that scene. No other importance other than one of his guys got killed.

They don't care if you care about Stan, they just want you to know that he is dead and Vince Vaughn is angry.
 

Drencrom

Member
I think you are reading to far into that scene. No other importance other than one of his guys got killed.

They don't care if you care about Stan, they just want you to know that he is dead and Vince Vaughn is angry.

But we already know and see that he's 'apoplectic' in every single scene he has. This whole Stan murder thing could've actually meant something to the viewer too if we've seen Stan with Frank more and if he talked before he got killed and so on.

It just feels weak and pointless as it is, but I digress.
 

foxtrot3d

Banned
This season's been bloated, bland, incoherent, and (most egregiously) absolutely boring.

While most of this episode (and the rest of this season's arc) has been off-key in the worst way, I want to make a point about the particularly galling introduction to the episode. The aping of Lynch's aesthetic - chiaroscuro supernatural mood singers in a public bar draped in a primary color to add a bit of surreal flair - completely misapprehends why the conceit is so unsettling to begin with. Lynchian horror juxtaposes almost eerie normality with the ghoulishly uncanny, which has never been this show's modus operandi. In fact, Pizzaman's been beating us over the head with how abject misery and untold horrors are suffuse and inescapable in his banal depiction of L.A.

When Lynch in Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet inserts a vignette featuring a quasi noir / vaudevillian musical performance, the uneasy je ne sais quoi that punches the guts of the audience is earned because so much else in the art is quotidian. Twin Peaks is introduced as a town of polite, law-abiding all-Americans who go about their days quietly until occult tragedy strikes and the entire weave starts unraveling. With two episodes of jumbled exposition that's gone out of its way to demonstrate that every corner and crevice and alcove in L.A. is fraught with sleaze, boozing, deviant sex, fraud, and violence, throwing a Lynchian "homage" (if you can even call it that, knowing Pizzaman's well-documented penchant for plagiarism) is so utterly tone deaf that it almost boggles the mind that this man managed to teach poor unsuspecting students literature in a past life, let alone helm a flagship HBO series. He's throwing shit at a wall and hoping it sticks while paying no heed to the narrative or tonal dissonance of his gambits. Elvis doing Bette Middler in a dream sequence to open an episode isn't artistically daring, but rather an inveterate plagiarist's misreading of the actual artistic texts he's copying from!

This season is failed "art", but it's been quite the spectacle to watch unfold when viewed as a self-imposed public humiliation for the bloviating auteur who made it.

I'm feeling a little apoplectic myself.

I just saw the episode and needed to post something but I feel that is no longer necessary. For fuck sakes, apoplectic? Who the fuck does Pizzaman think he is?
 

Jigorath

Banned
This season's been bloated, bland, incoherent, and (most egregiously) absolutely boring.

While most of this episode (and the rest of this season's arc) has been off-key in the worst way, I want to make a point about the particularly galling introduction to the episode. The aping of Lynch's aesthetic - chiaroscuro supernatural mood singers in a public bar draped in a primary color to add a bit of surreal flair - completely misapprehends why the conceit is so unsettling to begin with. Lynchian horror juxtaposes almost eerie normality with the ghoulishly uncanny, which has never been this show's modus operandi. In fact, Pizzaman's been beating us over the head with how abject misery and untold horrors are suffuse and inescapable in his banal depiction of L.A.

When Lynch in Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet inserts a vignette featuring a quasi noir / vaudevillian musical performance, the uneasy je ne sais quoi that punches the guts of the audience is earned because so much else in the art is quotidian. Twin Peaks is introduced as a town of polite, law-abiding all-Americans who go about their days quietly until occult tragedy strikes and the entire weave starts unraveling. With two episodes of jumbled exposition that's gone out of its way to demonstrate that every corner and crevice and alcove in L.A. is fraught with sleaze, boozing, deviant sex, fraud, and violence, throwing a Lynchian "homage" (if you can even call it that, knowing Pizzaman's well-documented penchant for plagiarism) is so utterly tone deaf that it almost boggles the mind that this man managed to teach poor unsuspecting students literature in a past life, let alone helm a flagship HBO series. He's throwing shit at a wall and hoping it sticks while paying no heed to the narrative or tonal dissonance of his gambits. Elvis doing Bette Middler in a dream sequence to open an episode isn't artistically daring, but rather an inveterate plagiarist's misreading of the actual artistic texts he's copying from!

This season is failed "art", but it's been quite the spectacle to watch unfold when viewed as a self-imposed public humiliation for the bloviating auteur who made it.

It's like Pizzaman himself wrote this post.
 

Sifl

Member
I was cracking up when the dude said "he looks half snake, half shark" or something along those lines. I was wishing afterwards he said "half snake, half shark, half pig", so it would have been intentionally funny. Whoever wrote the script needs to be fired asap.
 
And this is the point where the hate ball starts rolling for this thread to hate the show. Everyone needs to chill out, theres five episodes to go
 
And this is the point where the hate ball starts rolling for this thread to hate the show. Everyone needs to chill out, theres five episodes to go

Yeah no, there's no need to police people's thoughts about the goofiness of the writing or the weak characterization.

It's bad & people are calling it out as bad.
 

foxtrot3d

Banned
I was cracking up when the dude said "he looks half snake, half shark" or something along those lines. I was wishing afterwards he said "half snake, half shark, half pig", so it would have been intentionally funny. Whoever wrote the script needs to be fired asap.

Yup, I'm glad I also wasn't the only one scratching my head and laughing at that scene. Like, does Pizzaman understand that when someone describes something as "half this, half that" they are supposed to be different concepts? Or was he trying to be clever but aping this concept to double down on the mentality that this guy is some apex predator? Either way it was just clumsy and stupid.
 
Yeah no, there's no need to police people's thoughts about the goofiness of the writing or the weak characterization.

It's bad & people are calling it out as bad.

What if - and I know this sounds crazy, but hear me out - the season has actually been really bad so far?

There's a difference between discussing why it's lacking and making snarky comments and being hyperbolic. My last few posts in this thread have all been more or less criticisms of the show.

Stuff like this - "fuck sakes, apoplectic? Who the fuck does Pizzaman think he is?" is what i'm referring to. This is gonna be the last post on this point I'm trying to make because this is a TV GAF thread and it's gonna be like pissing in the wind
 

Fidelis Hodie

Infidelis Cras
I'm loving the show so far. I thought last episode was the strongest yet, honestly. Loving the mystery and set ups, can't wait for the pay off. There are some really weird editorial decisions, but this episode had a lot of bizzaro-LA land funtimes that struck really close to home. Feels perfectly out of place and right in line with LA proper the more they go into the city.
 

Moff

Member
Ray's dad looks like David Lynch.

thought the same, and he appeared during a weird dream dance scene, yeah right

super meh episode with more parody level bad scenes, the chase at the end was so bad. damn.

no one would ever believe this was season 2 of true detective if it wasn't in the title.
 

Alpende

Member
Shit, a lot of hate in this thread. I'm enjoying the it, sure Vaughn and Kitsch are kinda weak but the story intrigues and I wanna know whodunnit.
 

Palpable

Member
Whether you're enjoying this season or not, you all have got to admit that Frank's henchman who said, "half anaconda... half great white," is a terrible actor. His face and voice were so robotic during that scene.
 
This episode kind of sucks. So many asinine pot shots at things Pizzolatto dislikes it detracts from the characters to me - eg e-cigs. Disliked the attempt at something Lynchian in the opening, and to me the fight scene was fucking pathetic.

Still gonna keep watching, just in case it picks up.

edit: TheFixer nailed it in a way more eloquent manner than I can muster up.
 

Timbuktu

Member
Season 1 wasn't all that great at the end, so i can't be too disappointed witht this. They are trying too hard with this stuff.
 

Daffy Duck

Member
I'm still enjoying it, will be interesting to see where it goes.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had no idea who they hell Stan was lol.
 
Not to be a snob, but have some of you never heard or used the word apoplectic before? I mean, I don't use it every day or anything, but I've used the word before and knew its meaning in the episode.

Or are we discussing why a drunken detective would use the word?
 

br3wnor

Member
Shit, a lot of hate in this thread. I'm enjoying the it, sure Vaughn and Kitsch are kinda weak but the story intrigues and I wanna know whodunnit.

That's where I am so far. I'm enjoying it enough that it's keeping me entertained and I'm not comparing it to Season 1 because Season 1 is untouchable. I also love the LA setting and Colin Farrel/McAdams are carrying the cast enough that I'll watch it to the end.
 
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