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

W

WarrenMax007

Member
nick nacc said:
When you have a certain percentage of people not understanding the plot and therefore having trouble feeling tension in dialogue, connection with characters, or anticipation of events, you have a problem that is clear. /.
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Maybe, just maybe, that "certain percentage of people" are not paying enough attention?
Stan thing was obvious, and jurisdiction thing i didn't catch on the first watch and just rewinded when that thing come up in the next episode.
Like i was honestly scratching my head reading all the "who is Stan?" questions, because to me it was very obvious that he was one of Vince's men.
 
T

TTG

Member
Net_Wrecker said:
I'm surprised more people aren't commenting on the way he was screaming at his mooks when they found the dead guy. The way his eyes were darting around lulz. It's so artificial.
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That's fair. The look he gives in the trailer(that was in the same scene I think) right after he pushes one of his lackeys is terrible. I still don't think he's deserving all this spite and ire.



duckroll said:
Yes. :(

He's a total fraud. He buys them for his kid but he doesn't build any himself! Boo!
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Can I just say I thought that was a really endearing thing? Adds another layer to his character, I thought it was great. He's just having Antigone over for coffee at his shitty place and fuck it, there's like a space shuttle replica just hanging by a string. It was great.
 
D

Dr.Acula

Banned
WarrenMax007 said:
Like i was honestly scratching my head reading all the "who is Stan?" questions, because to me it was very obvious that he was one of Vince's men.
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It was very clunky. They made a point of mentioning him, going to the place where his body was dumped, showing his body. I kept thinking that maybe he was given an assignment by Vince, maybe he said he was going to do something, maybe he had an important interaction with a key character. Just giving him a name and putting the focus on his body led me to believe I had possibly missed something or forgotten something about Stan and his role in the plot.

I too quickly put together he was a henchman, and that his death by eye aciding was meant to signal the old guy died in order to get at Vince Vaughan, but because of the supporting characters reactions to Stan I thought I may have missed some larger plot-point surrounding Stan.

There are so many characters coming in and out and I have no idea who's supposed to be important and who's not. The Colin Ferrel step-dad-rival. Will he have to fight a drunken Ferrel or will he never speak another line in the series? Rachel McAddams' cult leader dad. Is he going to show up and do something or is he one-and-done? Gay prostitute guy. Just to move the plot along or love interest?

And I still have no idea where the plot's going. Are we trying to solve murders, something to do with property deals, dirty cops, dirty city hall, organised crime, what? Even the main characters don't seem to know what they're trying to do.

In the first season, it started out as find the murderer, but then it turned into uncover the conspiracy. They didn't lay the murder and the conspiracy on us at the same time -and layer on stuff about corruption- and they dovetailed into each other.

The Stan thing is indicative of how messy season two is. There's so much going on but there's no way of telling who or what is important.
 
W

WarrenMax007

Member
Dr.Acula said:
It was very clunky. They made a point of mentioning him, going to the place where his body was dumped, showing his body. I kept thinking that maybe he was given an assignment by Vince, maybe he said he was going to do something, maybe he had an important interaction with a key character. Just giving him a name and putting the focus on his body led me to believe I had possibly missed something or forgotten something about Stan and his role in the plot.
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Earlier in the episode, in the casino, Vince asks one of his men "Where is Blake?", man then replies "I messaged him" and Vince says "And Stan..Why isn't he here?" So Blake and Stan are.. somewhere.
Then later one of Vince's guys comes to a casino, who i assume is Blake, because Vince asks him where he's been, to which he replies "with my lady". And then he tells Vince that Stan is dead.
So there you go.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
I'm actually enjoying this quite a bit now, this episode didn't drag at all for me like it did in the last two

I even found vaughn's scenes entertaining although he has mediocre chops for playing a mob boss. The other 3 are fine though, particularly mcadams and farrell

Pizzolato can suck it for shitting on mad max and fukunaga tho. Wasteman will never touch the quality of either

I think going by the opening of this episode that the bar performances are clearly going for a david lynch vibe. Tho they ain't got shit on the real thing. Pizza guy is a buffoon for going with the decision of multiple directors, should have just got lin for the whole thing or something

I'm hooked enough to finish the season. But if he doesn't amp up the quality by the end of it then I might not even bother with a third (unless he lines up a great director and cast)
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
the Heavy Rain character description is so perfect
 
F

Fathom

Banned
nick nacc said:
This season is feeling more like Law and Order SVU than what it was last season. It's a chore I am forcing myself to watch. This episode was absolutely atrocious. Talk to eccentric character #4 (who feels like they are LA waiters on their lucky break) move on to next perp. What the hell is this.

The overall plot of some stupid trade deal or railway who knows is soo boring it reminds me of star wars episode one

It seemed like season 2s casting was saying "this show is a platform for actors to do crazy unique roles. You know like s1" too bad Vince v didn't even bother to get a different haircut.


The whole fight Vince had with gold teeth managed to be boring. In season 1 we had to most effective, brief, "badassery confirmation" characterization in recent memory.

True-Detective-Gif-SLap.gif
Click to expand...

We all know S1 was fucking amazing. The only way to enjoy S2 is to stop comparing them.
 
Chuckie

Chuckie

Member
Stan was the guy who got blackmailed/forced by Vince Vaughn right? The one who had to pay 25% of the profit. The 'grateful guy' in that office on a construction site?

He was Vince's new found source of income and now that has been cut off too and therefor Vince is convinced they are after him.

Or am I totally wrong here?
 
V

Vagabundo

Member
labx said:
I think, based on what a read (Still waiting to start watching it at ep 4), that the wierdness is coming, Like the previous season ep 4 "who goes there" and ep 5 "the secret fate of all life" where the triggers of the show.
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good to hear. I'm sticking with it. I not part of the hate train. The trailers had me pretty meh, so I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm enjoying it.

Tence said:
Stan was the guy who got blackmailed/forced by Vince Vaughn right? The one who had to pay 25% of the profit. The 'grateful guy' in that office on a construction site?

He was Vince's new found source of income and now that has been cut off too and therefor Vince is convinced they are after him.

Or am I totally wrong here?
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Nope. Stan was random henchman no.1. His death is just a plot device. There is no Stan.
 
W

whoszed

Member
Fathom said:
We all know S1 was fucking amazing. The only way to enjoy S2 is to stop comparing them.
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I am looking at it for what it is. A 5 or maybe 6 out of 10 season so far. In other words average and on the brink of being boring. It's not really worth comparing to the first season because they're so far apart in quality. Honestly I probably got more enjoyment out of watching Under The Dome because of Big Jim's dumb ass. That's the kind of show this season deserves to be compared to.
 
D

Dennis

Banned
The contrast in quality between the Rust-Marty fight from Season 1 and the fight between Vince and that tooth guy could not be greater.
 
S

schlongdog

Banned
Does anyone ele find the overall murder plot, what Casper/VV were/are into and the 'business' side of things just utterly boring?

The first season, aside from brilliant characters was interesting because you had this strange cult feeling that was ingrained into the environment. This one feels like it's probably to do with money...I guess. Which feels appropriately vapid.
 
M

MarkMclovin

Member
Can someone tell me?

Is Farrell's character supposed to be hindering the investigation? Or helping? I don't seem to understand the scenes when he's with his boss and mayor or whoever he is.
 
F

FafaFooey

Member
schlongdog said:
Does anyone ele find the overall murder plot, what Casper/VV were/are into and the 'business' side of things just utterly boring?

The first season, aside from brilliant characters was interesting because you had this strange cult feeling that was ingrained into the environment. This one feels like it's probably to do with money...I guess. Which feels appropriately vapid.
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I still have no idea who Caspere exactly is, why the mayor is such a cunt, who is working for which department and if Velcoro is supposed to be helping or not and why. Convoluted and confusing storytelling, despite the totally linear story. Quite an achievement when you think about it.
 
D

duckroll

Member
It doesn't seem very hard to understand. Vinci is a corrupt city. Everyone is on the take and has corrupt business interests. Ben Casper is the city manager and one of the many things he was doing was buying up land along the proposed high speed rail route through holding companies and offering portions of it to business partners who want to invest. He knew the exact route in advance and the fact that the deal would be approved because he was a city official involved in the meetings. Frank is a criminal thug who had his tentacles in everything in the city - clubs, casinos, money laundering, racketeering, etc but he sold it all off to go "legit" when the land investment deal was offered. Now Casper is dead and he finds out that his part of the deal was never confirmed, even though Casper took all his money. At the same time there's increased state attention on the corruption in the city, and the state attorneys are taking advantage of Casper's murder to get people from outside of the city into the city to get more dirt to build a case against the city officials.
 
M

mre

Golden Domers are chickenshit!!
Tence said:
Stan was the guy who got blackmailed/forced by Vince Vaughn right? The one who had to pay 25% of the profit. The 'grateful guy' in that office on a construction site?

He was Vince's new found source of income and now that has been cut off too and therefor Vince is convinced they are after him.

Or am I totally wrong here?
Click to expand...

mre said:
While waiting for tech support to clean out a virus from our server, I took the time to skip through every scene that Vince Vaughan was in during the first two episodes to figure this out.

Per IMDB, "Stan" was played by Ronnie Gene Blevins :

bTQL3V1.jpg


Stan was one of the two guys driving the truck (along with the tall, red headed, bearded guy with a foreign accent) that rear ended the random bookie in episode two so that Semyon could make a point. Stan maced the guy in the face.

Edit: Stan is only mentioned by name once that I've found and it's when Semyon is leaving the meeting with the money guy where he's told that he's been screwed out of the deal, and he gives his little "am I diminished" speech. Semyon tells his people to: "Get everybody. Stan, Ivar, his cousins, our Glendale people. Fucking Blake, wherever the fuck he's been."
Click to expand...
.
 
C

Cellbomber

Member
Zoned said:
Majority of posters here have provided constructive criticism. Seems like you are just acting naive to prove your point.
Although If you really think acting and writing so far has been any good then I'm not sure what to say. Besides that majority of people who are watching the show haven't really been impressed by bland and misdirected episodes.
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Majority of the posters have clearly missed scenes while posting on here during the show. You can tell by the repeated corrections on the last two pages.

I've had the habbit of posting while watching other shows and you clearly miss stuff.
 
S

schlongdog

Banned
duckroll said:
It doesn't seem very hard to understand. Vinci is a corrupt city. Everyone is on the take and has corrupt business interests. Ben Casper is the city manager and one of the many things he was doing was buying up land along the proposed high speed rail route through holding companies and offering portions of it to business partners who want to invest. He knew the exact route in advance and the fact that the deal would be approved because he was a city official involved in the meetings. Frank is a criminal thug who had his tentacles in everything in the city - clubs, casinos, money laundering, racketeering, etc but he sold it all off to go "legit" when the land investment deal was offered. Now Casper is dead and he finds out that his part of the deal was never confirmed, even though Casper took all his money. At the same time there's increased state attention on the corruption in the city, and the state attorneys are taking advantage of Casper's murder to get people from outside of the city into the city to get more dirt to build a case against the city officials.
Click to expand...

Like I said, utterly boring.
 
T

TM94

Member
Another clunky episode from my point of view.

The season opener has been the best up to now, Vince isn't pulling his role off at all tbh.

Kitsch as well, what is going on with that character? It's okay to have a serious, dark character but there has to be something more to the character other than that.

Velcoro's confrontation with the Hotline Miami enthusiast in the second episode looked to give the show a spark, but of course completely dissipated with the opening scenes of this week's episode.

I'm still enjoying it, but how can I put this... there's a lack of cohesion, no real rhythm to it.
 
S

sti4thewin

Member
This show man...

It's so bad. These characters and dialogue at sometimes are cringe worthy. Well we had fun with season 1 but I'm done with this show until all episodes are realeased down the line
 
F

Freedom = $1.05

Banned
we just need some sort of movement in regards to the main mystery. nothing really moved on that end at all this last episode. You could probably skip this episode in a rewatch and not really miss a thing outside of Ray not being dead.
 
D

Dreez

Member
Conversations in this season are on average 60% shorter than last season's. It doesn't give actors time to method act, and instead they come off spewing one liners that don't feel natural at all... I think Fukunaga lets his actors act (or MM and Woody were just that good), but this time they're following the writer's script hard.
 
S

see5harp

Member
nick nacc said:
This is what I am hoping for the show. Jesus christ you have this many characters you are doing nothing with. KILL. SOME. OF. THEM. just do something

This reminds me of the latest Game of Thrones season. It seems to be wasting time. It doesn't feel like buildup, just wasting time.
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The last few Game of Thrones seasons have been extremely fast to me. I feel like really big stuff happened without earning it.
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
I'm about to finish rewatching S1, which was spurred by my indifference towards the first two episodes of S2. I needed to know if I was remembering wrong, but nope, the gulf in quality (or at least my enjoyment) between the two shows is immense.

I was riveted from pretty much the first scene of S1. S2 isn't a bad show, necessarily, but it's boring, which is probably worse. It feels like almost nothing has happened after 3 episodes and the season is almost half over. The actors aren't doing it for me, their performances, their dialogue, nothing has the magnetic quality of the first season. It's not interesting when they talk to each other. It's not interesting to watch them by themselves. So without strong character, why should I care about the web of corruption affecting their lives? The procedural aspect doesn't hold enough intrigue on its own for me.
 
S

see5harp

Member
schlongdog said:
Does anyone ele find the overall murder plot, what Casper/VV were/are into and the 'business' side of things just utterly boring?

The first season, aside from brilliant characters was interesting because you had this strange cult feeling that was ingrained into the environment. This one feels like it's probably to do with money...I guess. Which feels appropriately vapid.
Click to expand...

I don't find it boring at all. Perfectly fair to say that the writing, pacing, acting, characters and direction of the show pales in comparison to the first season. I like the overall concept of the show.
 
H

Hex

Banned
So I have not looked at S2 at all yet, but what I am gathering is that all of the weirdness is gone this season and it is pretty much just a detective cop drama with HBO freedom now?
 
A

Anton Sugar

Member
Hex said:
So I have not looked at S2 at all yet, but what I am gathering is that all of the weirdness is gone this season and it is pretty much just a detective cop drama with HBO freedom now?
Click to expand...

They keep trying to inject weirdness into it, but almost all of it is falling flat.
 
I

Inferno313

Banned
Hex said:
So I have not looked at S2 at all yet, but what I am gathering is that all of the weirdness is gone this season and it is pretty much just a detective cop drama with HBO freedom now?
Click to expand...

Eh, there's definitely weirdness. More Lynchian than what came before. I think the biggest areas it pales in when compared to season one are fundamental dramatic issues, the characters aren't as interesting as either of the leads of Season One, and the mystery has, up to this point, been moving much more slowly with little progress.

I'm still enjoying it though, I'd say it's still above average TV.
 
B

Blader

Member
Hex said:
So I have not looked at S2 at all yet, but what I am gathering is that all of the weirdness is gone this season and it is pretty much just a detective cop drama with HBO freedom now?
Click to expand...

There's weirdness, but it's more in the tone of the show than the setting.
 
G

giga

Member
duckroll said:
It doesn't seem very hard to understand. Vinci is a corrupt city. Everyone is on the take and has corrupt business interests. Ben Casper is the city manager and one of the many things he was doing was buying up land along the proposed high speed rail route through holding companies and offering portions of it to business partners who want to invest. He knew the exact route in advance and the fact that the deal would be approved because he was a city official involved in the meetings. Frank is a criminal thug who had his tentacles in everything in the city - clubs, casinos, money laundering, racketeering, etc but he sold it all off to go "legit" when the land investment deal was offered. Now Casper is dead and he finds out that his part of the deal was never confirmed, even though Casper took all his money. At the same time there's increased state attention on the corruption in the city, and the state attorneys are taking advantage of Casper's murder to get people from outside of the city into the city to get more dirt to build a case against the city officials.
Click to expand...
Star Wars trade deal, part deux.
 
P

Pyroclastic

Banned
Hex said:
So I have not looked at S2 at all yet, but what I am gathering is that all of the weirdness is gone this season and it is pretty much just a detective cop drama with HBO freedom now?
Click to expand...

there's weirdness for sure but the writing, some of the performances (doesn't help there's a bigger main cast) and the cinematography have all taken a hit.
 
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