Tuesday, January 19, 2016

True Detective

The second season of True Detective was widely panned by both critics and fans. My opinion? It was a valiant effort that ultimately failed to deliver, but I wouldn't completely trash it. Certainly, the end result was a puzzling mess.

Was it hard to follow? Absolutely. Confusing? You bet. Convoluted? To death. But the acting was great from all the principals, the locations were picked so effectively, they became characters themselves, just like in the first season, and the script, while ending up a semi-disaster, did have the makings of a compelling story.

At some point, somewhere, something started going off the rails, and my guess is that no one noticed how badly until it was too late. A sprawling cast of characters, with new ones being added all the time, didn't help matters. All these characters needed something to do to justify their existence, so plot lines became more and more intertwined.

The first installment featured a murder mystery and two detectives with their own baggage. This time we have a corrupt local cop (Colin Farrell), a damaged federal agent (Rachel McAdams), and a state cop who seems to lead 3 different lives (Taylor Kitsch), all reluctantly and forcibly working together to untangled the murder of a local politician. The murder might or might not have involved a varied list of local and state politicians, who had dealings with the victim. The latter, was also connected to some bad apples in the local police force and gangsters in and out of state, and both foreign and domestic (Vince Vaughn being one).

On top of all of that, there's the usual list of second tier characters that are generally used to deliver background information, give depth to the principals, or fill in dead air time -- not a problem this time around...

Ultimately, I found the season frustrating and confusing but still somewhat intriguing and exiting. I certainly will be back for another round if there is one.

Grade - Season 2: 5

No comments: