I watched True Detective this morning. I always stay on a media blackout so that I don't hear any scoop.
I'm saying this before I read other people's review.
Meh.
I'm not going to lie, I didn't even like the opening sequence and song.
From a casting standpoint, let's talk about the good, well, great ... Rachael McAdams. She is excelling in this role. She is definitely getting across pent up rage, as if she could break at any moment. I love the sweaty, disheveled look they give her. She seems to just seep intensity. Well cast.
Colin Farrell I think is well cast as well. He also seems to have gotten the "you are going to appear sweaty in this series" look. That's fine. It's a theme. He does well with the broken soul bit.
Now to the whatever. Taylor Kitsch, you're okay. That's just how little I'm going to write about you.
The bad. I might be the only one, but I didn't necessarily think that Vince Vaughn had to be a bad casting choice. He has the ability to give good shady character looks. However, I honestly feel like it's the directing. Why do they have him sounding so sweet voiced? It's just odd. Why do they have him acting like a lost puppy? A person who is a mobster doesn't get to his level without being a badass. Why is he looking so pathetic and clueless? Bad writing? Bad directing? I'd love to know the answer.On a side note, I'm really excited to see the acting of W. Earl Brown. He was in Deadwood and in an episode of Justified. I think he is really, really good. I do hope that they utilize him well.
As for the plot, who knows what in the heck is going on? All we know is, and it's true, California is building a high speed rail, the bond or whatever finally passed. Frank, aka Vince Vaughn, is trying to arrange some kind of deal? But the deal is supposed to be done? Some are Russians? The mayor or someone is in on it? The cops are in on it? Huh? Plus, didn't Frank say they all have the holding companies for the contracts to the land the rail is going to build on or are they the ones actually building the train? I don't know. Really, really poor writing. How can one care about the plot and it moving forward if the writers do such a bad job with the small amount of plot that they opened up to?
Then some dude, some politician maybe, is in on it, but he gets killed?
Huh?
I get Colin Farrell. He was a sherif, and now is a detective, and he owes Frank because Ray's wife got raped and the police couldn't pin it on someone so Ray went to Frank who had the identity. You know, mob bosses have intel on the streets. Fine. A child was born from the rape, fine. But what about the mom? Where is she? I get that Ray could never get past it. I get that's why he does drugs and alcohol. I get that the whole affair is why Ray is under Frank's thumb. I get it started small and probably got larger and larger, the things Ray did for Frank. I'm sure Ray killed the rapist of his wife. Also, probably going to come out that Frank hired the dude to do that to Ray's wife to get him under his thumb.
Rachael McAdams character name is Ani. FYI, I only know that from IMDB. That's bad writing people, that one of the three main characters I didn't get the name -- knowing I would write about the episode later.
Any-who, she's a badass cop who has anger issues. Her daddy is some type of hippie yoga dude. Her sister is into porn and just generally a bad seed. Ani's mom killed herself by walking into the water all Virginia Woolf style. Ugh. Whatever.
I'm done with this review, recap, or thoughts blog. Truly my thoughts are that this was a terrible showing. It had none of the nuance that the first season had. I actually like the actors better in this season so I'm not sure what's going to happen there. Honestly? I feel like it is the writing. The scene set ups are terrible too. I think they are going for choppy, to convey the chaos in it all, but it just doesn't make for good viewing. I just watched Top of The Lake, now that was well shot. I think someone who worked on cinematography for Top of the Lake also did TD (True Detective) season 1, however, it would be interesting to see if that woman (I think it was a woman) did season 2 as well.
Anyway, it is always fun to try and figure out why a show hits the sophomore slump. Is it the network removing money like they did with The Walking Dead? Is it change in directors, as is the case for TD (True Detective)?
I don't know.
I'll watch next week. I hope it gets better.
**
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