True Detective S2 True Talk (Spoilers)

Discuss about the latest season of True Detectives. Spoilers for aired episodes is fair game, please be mindful of spoiler information for future episodes by spoiler blocking information.

Thanks, and have fun.

Vince vaughns probably gonna be the woody harrelson surrogate here, and it'll probably be colin that'll blow me away. I mean, that's one edgy stache. Can't wait though.

I'm a little uncertain about this season but Farrell is a really good actor if given the right material plus Vaughn will probably (hopefully) surprise people. Shame they will be using multiple directors since I liked the consistent style we got with Fukunaga.

(staring intensifies)

It'll be hard to top season 1 for me, but I'm excited to see what this story has in store.

I was really disappointed when I heard they were going for a more well worn setting, but this trailer did its job because now I just want to watch this asap.

Nothing about that trailer inspires me with confidence that it's a worthy follow up to the previous fantastic season. It got plenty of things working against it for me. I've always had a hard time with Vince Vaughn for some reason, few times I've enjoyed his work. And that mustache just looks dumb on Farrell, it's distracting. I hope it's just a really dull trailer. But it wouldn't be the first time a show shouldn't have gone past a brilliant first season.

I didn't follow the casting too closely but I'm pretty intrigued. Sometimes I love Vince Vaughn but he's also been terrible in things and seems to have really phoned in a lot of work lately. I am not going to write anyone off because I didn't think a ton of the casting going into the first season of the show and then was blown away. Hoping they both get into their characters how they did in their season one. I guess that was what the magic of the first season was for me. So it's a high bar but I'm interested to see this.

Just watched the first season a couple of months ago, and absolutely loved it. Pretty stoked about this, especially after seeing the teaser. Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch it until it's out on Blu Ray.

I was expecting to see a fall release for the next season, now today I find out it debuts a few days after my B-day.... So hyped right now.

Let the Vincevaughnaissance commenceaissance!

Still waiting for kevin james to join the cast and surprise us all...

Pretty skeptical about Vaughn just like everyone else, but hoping he will surprise

Not sure why everyone is hating on Vince Vaughn. Schlubby Vaughn's "I've hit rock bottom" attitude is perfect for the role of an L.A detective. Also gotta point out Rachel McAdams & Taylor Kitsch round out the rest of the cast. Pretty heavy hitters which is quite impressive after all the people they got for season 1.

apologies if this isn't the official thread we're supposed to be bumping...

so it was technically slow moving but cluttered, there was what felt like an overabundance of musical queues and establishing shots of freeways. everything's kind of a mess and seems like there's too many elements. kind of abandoned some of the hooks that made the first show interesting, like the weird mysticism and the flashback/forwards. no reason to make true detective season 1 again, though, so i applaud them for at least trying something new. the taylor kitsch and macadams plots seems pretty tenuous so far, but hopefully they'll fill out. i like that vaughn is kind of the baddie in this, though that may be simplifying things. farrel/velcoro's plot semeed the easiest to latch onto and had the most echoes of the previous season; kinda shocking and unnerving what he did to that kid's dad. i agree with some other reviewer where they said we don't really have a marty surrogate to latch onto here; soimeone a little more direct and well meaning (if not without their own deeper issues). i'm trying my best to enjoy it on its own merits, but even the title scenes are turning me off. hopefully it comes together nicely as it goes on. at least the quality of direction and cinematography still seems to be there.

i'm bad at providing this sort of analysis so no one tear into me too hard...

Holy crap was that last night?

@ripelivejam: Yeah, the entire episode was a big-step down from even the weakest episode of last season. I really don't like the new title music.

I think the most damning thing I can say is that I can't give you the name of a single character from last night's show. It's just "corrupt cop" and "PTSD cop" and "lady cop," "lady cop's crazy sister," "lady cop's hippy dad," etc.

It doesn't help that the crime that's getting set up seems sort of . . . mundane I guess is the word? So there's the murder, but the overarching conspiracy it seems to be linked to is sort of lame. A bunch of dudes looking to skim the federal government by making up false construction overcharges on a new light rail? So it's basically the transportation version of Medicare fraud? Yawn.

It's also missing the black humor from the first season. I'm missing that resigned look Marty would get on his face when Cohle would launch into another of his "time is a flat circle" monologues. There's nothing like that so far this season. In fact, the character I identified with the most was Lady Cop's partner, who walked away from the murder scene pretty much going "fuck this." Kinda how I feel about the show at this point. I mean, I know it's early, but I don't think I can put up with another episode like last night.

I feel bad for being so judgemental, but holy fuck that first season stands as probably one of the best things ive ever viewed, tv or movie. And so tightly constructed with such style and presence and that needed bit of humanity and levity. It's really unfair, to be honest, which is why im so willing to give it a shot even with that first ep so muddled and uncompelling. It may be the big thing theyre missing here is a focus on characters; in the end that's what the first season was all about. It may have helped to focus on farrel and vaughn's characters and relationships, though i appreciate them having/trying to have macadams as a major female lead that just isnt a wife/sidepiece.

I'll probably end up talking out of my ass and the season as a whole will be worthwhile. Just what a fucking uphill battle, christ.

I'm only giving this one more episode to grab me. If the second is as bad a the first, I am done.

Sorry @I_Stay_Puft should have spoiler tagged but im on phone.

I saw some of the negative reviews before hand but my god most of them were way to positive. I don't think I have anything positive to say about the first episode except that the theme song was pretty good. I saw a few things that could possibly lead into something interesting, but I'm highly skeptical after the garbage I watched last night. Every character is a standard cliché that we've seen time and time again, and I really couldn't care less about any of them.

The writing felt like something a 16 old who is really into noir would write.

I thought it was pretty good. I liked this change of pace from the allegorical nature of the first season where everything meant something. This season is more of a well-produced crime drama. Maybe having every character talk like Rust wasn't the best move, but if the story going forward is interesting enough, I'll still watch.

Also, Colin Farrell beating the fuck out of that kid's dad in front of him was godlike.

A lot of people seem to be overflowing with hate (not just here). I admit that it's not as compelling from the get-go as the first season, but I also don't want them to just do the first season again. The set-up is interesting, although it has its flaws in the particulars.

And yeah, I also noticed how people are super terse like Rust this season. Particularly McAdam's character. On the whole though Velcoro seems to be the exact opposite of Rust. Unprofessional, wild, a lack of self control. At least they didn't just copy/paste the first season's characters.

Also this should be the opening theme, though it's not a big deal:

@aegon: i mostly agree with what you're saying. Maybe it's just that there's not a clear direction and setup like s1, and i'm happy theyre trying something different. I'll withhold further judgement until halfway through, wait to see where theyre taking it. Farrell seems the best thing about it so far.

Also good song.

I don't know about you guys, but I was iffy at first; right up until Ray shushed the crackhead, actually. There's this sort of wry undercurrent of black humour throughout the Ray parts of the story that I latched onto in a big way. I'm not entirely sold on Army Cop or Girl Cop yet, but that's probably because they haven't shown anything substantially relatable in comparison to Ray being a deadbeat alcoholic father who is trying to do better (and so far failing miserably). I've got this sneaking suspicion that the original outline for season 2 focused on Ray and Frank, with the other ancillary cops being added in after the fact.

Either way, I'm expecting a major shitstorm from most online media outlets if Ani's story goes where I think it's going. Take your popcorn orders now.

First off I didn't like the opening theme. The first season had a great theme that I would listen to every episode. Kind of like Game of Thrones in that way, where I love the opening sequence and don't feel compelled to skip through it. The imagery also didn't flow and fit as well as the first seasons. It gave the impression that they knew they had established a style and didn't want to change it so they just did it again instead of something fresh or different. If every season is going to be its own thing and have a different feel and mood I would like for them to go all the way with this. Honestly, the song @aegon posted would have been a much, much better choice.

As for the episode itself, well, I guess I liked it. I was into it at first and at some point it lost me. I'm still going to watch because I like Colin and Vince's characters enough, but the overall product isn't that interesting or engaging. The plot is definitely going to have to take some hard turns to keep me watching, but as for now I am still on board. I have a lot criticisms, but I am going to hold off on them until I see more. I don't want to prematurely judge the season without giving it at least a few episodes.

I am torn.

I am in serious need of something to watch these months on TV, so I will probably pay more attention to True Detective that I should otherwise; but the truth is that I wasn't into the characters of this season. I liked the dynamic of Harrelson and McConaughey, with one being cynical but the other being straight. This is more like "everyone is cynical, everyone is gritty and dirty". I also liked the supernatural undertones of the first season a lot more than the noir of this one, even when it ended up being a red herring.

Maybe it is just me resisting the inevitable comparison with the previous season. I will likely watch it a couple more episodes before deciding if I should stick to it.

Maybe I have bad taste, but I thought the first episode was pretty good considering what it had to do. Season 1 was taking a very simple, tried and true premise (mismatched police detectives solve a girl's mysterious death in a relatively traditional, rural environment) and executed it to perfection. This season, by nature of it's setting, and the fact that it had literally double the amount of major characters to split time between, is going to be rough from the start. It has so much more setup to do than season 1.

That said, I definitely get where people are thinking Army Cop and Rachel McAdams were added later, since really, so far they barely have anything to do with the overarching plot other than happening to show up at the same place at the end of this episode, but we'll have to see as the season develops. If their roles comes at the expense of W. Earl Brown's screen time, I'm going to be mighty disappointed. He's too good an actor to be pushed into the sidelines by John Carter, so hopefully that doesn't happen.

Overall, I think it will end up being a good season once it gets past the start and finds it's groove. It's going for something more complicated than the first season, so it's going to lose the clean, efficient qualities of the first season, but for what it is, it's off to a decent start. Colin Farrell's definitely the most interesting character so far, and I like that Vince Vaughn's side of things seems to be showing a non police perspective on what's going on.

As for the opening song, I like it a lot, but it might be a little too on the nose considering what the show is about. It definitely doesn't fit as well as Far From Any Road did.

Maybe it's because I had very low expectations, but I thought last night's episode was decent, at the very least. It certainly isn't as enthralling as anything from the first season and not every character seemed interesting, but I still enjoyed it. The writing continues to be good, and I'm glad that Pizzolatto isn't trying to imitate what he's done in the first season. Which leads me to the worst part about the episode, namely the direction. Justin Lin's direction borders on self-parody, really -- there's way too many aerial shots. He's just trying too hard to mimic the atmosphere of the first season. Also, I don't get the excessive use of music; it's kind of annoying to be honest.

While I wasn't blown away by the opener in any way, shape or form; I can't quite agree with the general consensus that it was a horrible first episode. That being said, I also do not consider myself a True Detective super fan; as that first season, in my opinion, despite being rather short, also was quite the slow burn that took me a while to really get into. McConaughey and Harrelson had a way stronger introduction than any of the new characters, though. That much is certain. But I'm still confident that coming episodes will bring the TD goodness - which for me always were the mystical-elements and character interactions.

Ill keep an open mind, and likely finish the new season but yea...Awful start. There really was no hook to the first episode. None of the characters were likable in any real fashion. The best part was what Colin said to that kid about what he would do to his dad. Everything was just really flat, and uninteresting.

I like the new theme, it's not as great as the first and it's not something I'll listen to outside of the show much, but it creates a creepy atmosphere.

So far I just feel like the noir tropes are a little too central to the show. Cohle's family issues filled in the background to his character. Velcoro's seem to be the focus of most of his scenes. Though I'll give it time, the beginning of Season 1 didn't hook me either.

I'm interested to see where Velcoro's connections to Semyon go from here, it certainly has the potential for some interesting conflicts. Vince Vaughn's been pretty good so far, he seems to fit in pretty well. Nothing in Ani's scenes were too amazing but I'm still interested in where she goes from here. And I don't see the point of Taylor Kitsch's character yet, so far it seems like he's just taking time away from the other characters.

After reading all the negativity online I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed this first episode. From the opening theme to the dark tones and troubled cast, I thought it was a good alternative take on what made season 1 such an intriguing story. Vince Vaughn I thought was the weakest of all the characters. Maybe if he affected some sort of accent or unique mannerisms.. but as it stands he just kind of looks like a toned down, quieter Vince Vaughn, rather than any particular characters he's portraying. The direction likewise did not let me down. I had my doubts that Justin Lin could make a smooth transition from the bombastic F&F franchise to the low key ambient atmosphere of True Detective, but to my delight he artfully substituted those languid shots of bayous and dense foliage with LA's city lights and sprawling highways.

Quite honestly I thought the first 2-3 episodes of Season 1 fell flat, and only once the show got past that initial hump did I truly get onboard. Season 2 has me engaged from the start and I'm really looking forward to see how these characters will evolve over time.

I thought the first ep was fine; I didn't realize there was so much hate for it. It's obviously going for a very different style of story than the first season, which I'm fine with. I think the biggest problem it is going to have is people comparing it to the first season; which is expected. And in regards to this none of the characters are as strong, right off the bat, like Mcconaughey's was in season 1. It did lean a little hard on the California noir tropes but I'm hoping once the story unfolds a bit more it will grow it's own identity.

I will agree the opening song is a little to on the nose, but I loved hearing T-bone Burnett make a song so different than what he usually does.

I'm hopeful for this season as I think Pizzalotto (no idea how to spell it and won't look it up right now) is a great writer. I would recommend reading his novel Galveston, it's really good.

Colin Farrell is a flat circle.

I think that really lifelike figure floating in the bowl of milk (?) was a weird little throwback to cohle's synesthesia, with how velcoro went "are you seeing this?". For a second thought it was a real woman.

Strange moment.

Collin Farrell and Vince Vaughn look like 2 grumpy dudes who didn't have lunch.

Well we already know that Vaughn's character does nothing about his hunger. Not even eat.

I didn't think the episode was bad or anything, but it did feel disjointed. The underwhelming intro music didn't help. It almost felt like self parody when Vaughn and Farrell were sitting in that bar while the singer sand about 'this is the worst life I know' or something to that effect. Hopefully unremitting bleakness isn't the only tone they use this season. Some of the Marty/Cohle moments in S1 were genuinely funny, so hopefully they at least try to mix things up a bit this season.

Hopefully this episode was just introducing the threads and the good stuff will happen in the coming episodes when they cross.

Edit: To make it clear, I did enjoy the episode and have actually been kinda tempted to watch it again.

LIke most of the folks in this thread, I'm pretty happy with the first episode. I was really disappointed to hear Pizzolatto mention in some interview that the occult or supernatural overtones of the first season wouldn't be present in the second, but after reframing my expectations accordingly, I'm excited to see where it goes. Like a season of The Wire, this season seems to be centered around a city (the fictional Vinci) and an issue (corruption in land development), and the story will poke at both through varied individual character narratives. I'm down for some of that, especially with the intriguing (if only barely introduced yet) characters. Or maybe there will be a central mystery to solve just like the first season. In that case I just hope that it isn't the murder of the city manager, which isn't a crime that demands some monster at the end of the trail. Just business-as-usual mobsters.

After the media response to last season's epic "seamless shot" sequence, I'm also hoping that Justin Lin does something similarly fun in episode 2 :)

Examining the trajectory of last season, its easy to see that Fukunaga was the rock holding the show together. Pizzolatto's over-bearing dialogue is really not that compelling when looked at closely and the fact that Fukunaga made it presentable is probably a herculean achievement. The last few episodes of season 1 leaned on so many predictable tropes that it ended the show on a disappointing note. With Fukunaga gone, and Pizzolatto still having complete control of the script, AND the fact that they're focusing on four (!) characters, I'm incredibly eager to see where this show ends up.

I feel like the people complaining have never read a James Ellroy book.

Was wonderful. Don't understand the negativity, beyond a childish expectation.

Is it weird that I would've like (as in made a better episode) if Raymond (Collin Farrell) beat up the kid while the dad watched.

I think some people are looking back at the first episode of True Detective with some severely rose tinted glasses.

This was just the set up episode so I'll give it a chance, but so far, eh, not really doing anything for me.

I loved the conversations the two mains had in the first season, especially the Matthew McConaughey characters musings about life and the universe and religion/atheism. That part was the best part of it, set against an alright copy drama/mystery.

Right now all I have is an alright cop drama/mystery and so I don't really care, not my sort of thing. But as mentioned above I like that it is going its own way, it doesn't need to be the first season again, and it's best it try to find it's own footing instead of trying to be season one again. But might just not be for me.

As someone else above pointed out, the kids dad getting beat up was great, not like, I'm glad it happened great, but man, what a gross well done moment type of great.

This first episode felt a bit all over the place, I know I'm not remembering the first season too fondly when I say that at least the first episode had a clear direction, it did however seem to improve as the episode went on, all three of them coming together at the end can only lead to a more focused second episode.

It was around "I'll buttfuck your dad with your mom's headless corpse" that I realized this isn't quite the show that I loved in season one, at least not yet.

The thing that season two seems to be forgetting is that Marty's humanity, no matter how flawed it may have been, was an extremely necessary foil to Rust's incessant nihilism. If season one was just Rust muttering to himself the entire time about how life was meaningless and we're all fucked in the end, it would have been a chore. He needed Marty there to tell him to shut the fuck up every once in a while. So far, it seems like every character here is Rust. Everyone is just staring off into the distance looking forlorn. I'm not saying the show has to be happy go lucky fun time but watching a bunch of sad people be real sad for an hour gets tiring. The whole episode was a somber blowjob.

I'll end up watching the whole season at some point I'm sure but I might let the episodes pile up a bit unless I get word that it's really turned around.

I really don't agree with any of the criticisms I've read of episode 1. I thought it was great, I'm interested in each character, the way that they brought it all around at the end was really cool, good acting, fantastic cinematography, and the atmospheric score still gives me that sense of omnipresent dread that could be around any corner. Although this time it doesn't have that mysterious deep southern swampland setting to back it up, I think it can still work in dingy criminal underground LA - which I think is where we're headed.

If anything, it's less subtle than season one and I think that's a valid criticism if you wanted it to stay the same in that regard. Collin Farrell's character doesn't write a poem before doing something, he just does it.