True Detective

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Artemis
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Re: True Detective

#201 Post by Artemis » Fri Jun 19, 2015 10:05 pm

spoilers lay ahead...kv edit


Just read this good review from The Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/tel ... ice=mobile
John Doyle: True Detective, season two – Fiercely good, but even more morose

Every character is guarded, mirthless. The landscape, in California, not far north of Los Angeles, is at once reassuringly familiar and faintly menacing. Looking at it, this stale, desiccated place, you know it is bereft of nourishment and grace.

On the evidence of the first few hours of the second season of True Detective (Sunday, HBO Canada at 9 p.m.), there is nothing in it to cheer you, nothing to even give you a wry smile. It is formidably focused on deeply troubled people. It is set in a country that the author sees as depleted, drained of joy.

And that is its strength, if you have the grit to concentrate and stay with it. If you think there’s a consensus that this production is a fail, by far a lesser drama than the first season, then you are wrong.

It is different yes. It is lacking the magic chemistry of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson and doesn’t have Emmy-winning director Cary Fukunaga extrapolating a striking visual sumptuousness from writer Nic Pizzolatto’s story of two complex cops trying to solve a complex murder case anchored in occult killings. In that first season, the chemistry was often everything, more vital than the murder mystery.

What it does have, this second season, is Pizzolatto’s constancy as a writer. His glum view of humanity and vision of the United States as a place to give up on, long past its prime, infected with a pestilence you can’t quite name but you see, smell and recognize.

It stars Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams and Taylor Kitsch, and around them an impressive group of character actors. There’s a murder and a mystery to solve, one that, from the get-go, is drenched in depravity. Everyone is tightly wound and wounded. Much of it, like the first season, is rooted in conversations, some formal – a lawyer interviewing a damaged cop, a boss tersely upbraiding an employee – and some seemingly throwaway. But just out of the frame, just out of reach, always, is this sense of degradation.

Farrell plays Ray Velcoro, the first major character we meet. Ray is a tense, depressed man. His wife, from whom he’s long separated, was beaten and raped some years before. They had a boy and Ray now has the boy in his care a few days a month. He tells a lawyer in one of those strained conversations in heavily air-conditioned rooms that typify the series, that, no, he won’t do a paternity test. Never has, never will.

We learn from various shifts in time and setting that after Ray’s wife was raped, he wanted personal revenge and sought the help of a mobster, Frank Semyon (Vaughn), in finding the pervert who committed the crime. Now and forever, Frank has Ray in his pocket.

If viewers think Ray is an unsettling mess of a person, along comes Ani Bezzerides (McAdams), a detective who, on introduction, is identified as a woman who loathes intimacy of any kind. She also has a knife fetish and appears to hold everything together by imagining the damage she could do to a man with one of those knives. The name Ani is short for Antigone. Her father, introduced early, is a peddler of hippie cant.

Even the smooth mobster Frank is a mess of seething insecurities. He’s been trying to become a legitimate businessman, buying up land in anticipation of a high-speed train corridor linking L.A. to northern California. His connection to orthodox business is a corrupt city manager, a man who has gone missing when the drama opens. When he’s found dead, all the major characters are drawn into the case.

Before the missing man is found dead, we know something about him. Mainly his sexual preferences. And it’s from this fact that everything radiates outward. In True Detective’s first season, the overriding theme, beneath the angsty conversations between the McConaughey and Harrelson characters, was Pizzolatto’s message that America is in a postindustrial period, ruined and rife with abnormal urges and impulses. The same applies here.

This True Detective is not for anyone in search of the superficial, the surface verve of dry wit and the intrigue of a complex mystery. It is a studied, morose stare at an unhappy place. The currency of this place is sex, the code is corruption, the mood is fierce unhappiness.

Fun, it isn’t, this drama. Fiercely good and challenging is what it is. It doesn’t duplicate the first season of True Detective; it depresses it into something even more corrosive.

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Jasper
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Re: True Detective

#202 Post by Jasper » Fri Jun 19, 2015 10:25 pm

Thanks, though spoilery reviews annoy the piss out of me. I stop reading when I realize they're going to reveal too much for my tastes, but sometimes it's too late and I've picked up some info that I'd rather have gotten from actually watching the story unfold.

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Re: True Detective

#203 Post by Artemis » Fri Jun 19, 2015 10:59 pm

Sorry about that, Jasper(and others). I didn't even think to add a little warning like: Some references to plot and character ahead.

Unfortunately, the time has expired to edit the post. Maybe creep or kv could add a spoler alert warning,


Sorry. :sad:

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Re: True Detective

#204 Post by Jasper » Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:21 am

Don't worry about it. I'm really speaking more generally. I've run into several such reviews for the second season. Sometimes they just launch into spoilers with no warning. It's perfectly possible to write a review with no real spoilers whatsoever, but that takes actual effort. I've accidentally absorbed some very little bits of information about the characters and their situations. It's not much, but I'd rather begin with nothing. When I watched the first season, I had no idea what was going to happen or who any of these characters were. I'd seen the promo, and while that made it look really promising, I couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on. The first episode just naturally drew me in, and part of that was the fun of figuring out what was going on and who those characters were.

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Re: True Detective

#205 Post by Jasper » Sun Jun 21, 2015 12:51 pm

Think how exciting it would be if we were about to see Rust an Marty again. :sad:

Oh well, I'm not watching anything except for Wayward Pines (and I'm not so sure I'd recommend that show), so it'll be good to have a Sunday show to watch now that GoT is finished for the season.

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Re: True Detective

#206 Post by Artemis » Sun Jun 21, 2015 4:47 pm

Jasper wrote:Think how exciting it would be if we were about to see Rust an Marty again. :sad:
:nod: The dynamic between Rust and Marty made for perfect viewing.

As for other shows, I too have been watching Wayward Pines. I wasn't sure about it at first; then I thought it was okay, now I think it's lame. I will finish watching it though. I have to see what happens with the "abbies". :lol:

Jasper, you should give UnReal a try. Currently 4 episodes are available to view. It's on the Lifetime Network.
I think it's pretty good and will definitely keep watching.

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/unreal/ ... l-episodes

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Re: True Detective

#207 Post by creep » Sun Jun 21, 2015 8:49 pm

i'm not really sure what the fuck is going on but i liked the first episode. :noclue:

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Re: True Detective

#208 Post by Jasper » Sun Jun 21, 2015 9:49 pm

What a bunch of miserable fucks.
creep wrote:i'm not really sure what the fuck is going on
Yeah, it was kind of messy, and they crammed a lot of characters in there. The directing was sort of choppy.

It didn't really grab me right away, but it got a little better as it went. I had trouble thinking of Vince Vaughan as anything other than Vince Vaughan. I couldn't really suspend my disbelief very well when he was on the screen.

It seems like it might get a lot more interesting once they get more into the weirdo sex cult ritual murder shit that they're obviously going to get into.

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Re: True Detective

#209 Post by blackula » Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:02 am

Going into this season I didn't think it would be that good based on the previews. I was surprised by how much I liked the first episode, hopefully it keeps getting better

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Re: True Detective

#210 Post by kv » Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:54 am

Artemis wrote:Sorry about that, Jasper(and others). I didn't even think to add a little warning like: Some references to plot and character ahead.

Unfortunately, the time has expired to edit the post. Maybe creep or kv could add a spoler alert warning,


Sorry. :sad:
Gonna need a valid cc number for services rendered

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Re: True Detective

#211 Post by creep » Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:12 pm

what the fuck just happened? that wasn't supposed to happen. will it be like some pulp fiction shit where we get more backstory with ray? he is credited as being in all episodes. they can't have him live after that right?

anyway...good episode. vince vaughn isn't a great actor. the one thing season 1 has over season 2 is the theme song is way better.

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Re: True Detective

#212 Post by chaos » Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:18 pm

I almost didn't recognize Rick Springfield during tonight's episode (he is the psychiatrist).

I am surprised with the acting of both Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams. This is the first time I have seen either in dark, serious roles. They are believable. I have been disappointed with Colin Farrell though.

@ creep - I thought the same thing about Ray. Maybe he was wearing a vest, but this doesn't seem likely. Perhaps he'll be seen in flashbacks as the story unfolds. :noclue:

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Re: True Detective

#213 Post by creep » Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:22 pm

chaos wrote:I almost didn't recognize Rick Springfield during tonight's episode (he is the psychiatrist).

I am surprised with the acting of both Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams. This is the first time I have seen either in dark, serious roles. They are believable. I have been disappointed with Colin Farrell though.

@ creep - I thought the same thing about Ray. Maybe he was wearing a vest, but this doesn't seem likely. Perhaps he'll be seen in flashbacks as the story unfolds. :noclue:
:lol: was that him? i had no idea. was he wearing makup (i hope) or did he really ruin his face with too much surgery?

about the acting...i think colin has been great?? :noclue:

yeah he isn't very likable but i think his acting has been really good.

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Re: True Detective

#214 Post by chaos » Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:24 pm

Don't click the link if you don't want to read it.

Possible spoiler (bolded 3rd paragraph): http://cartermatt.com/169913/true-detec ... -struggle/

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Re: True Detective

#215 Post by chaos » Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:31 pm

I don't think CF has been terrible, but for some reason he seems like the weakest link. It may be because the other actors have exceeded my expectations, whereas I thought CF would steal the show. Also I may be comparing him to Matthew McConaughey, whose approach was much more subtle and nuanced.

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Re: True Detective

#216 Post by creep » Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:34 pm

chaos wrote:Don't click the link if you don't want to read it.

Possible spoiler (bolded 3rd paragraph): http://cartermatt.com/169913/true-detec ... -struggle/
well...i am really anti spoiler but saying "don't click the link" pretty much dares me to click it.

i guess i can't say much more because i will get called out for "perkana-ing" this thread... even though i think only three of us are watching.

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Re: True Detective

#217 Post by chaos » Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:42 pm

Well each of us is responsible for his/her own self control. :lol:

I guess I could share upon request.

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Jasper
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Re: True Detective

#218 Post by Jasper » Sun Jun 28, 2015 9:19 pm

I thought Colin Farrell was doing a good job. He was also the only character I found all that interesting. Vince Vaughn is doing pretty well, but he can't pull off some of the lines that have especially bad grammar. He's got some real clunkers that come off as corny fake gangster speech. Maybe it's not even his fault. Some of the writing sounds really unnatural for spoken lines. You could say that about the first season, especially with Rust, but McConaughey somehow made it work really well.

I didn't know it was Rick Springfield playing the incredibly creepy shrink. Back when they said he was being cast I looked up a recent picture and he looked good, so I think they did a shitload of makeup work to make him look like he's been embalmed. :lol: He gave a really good performance, considering the whole season so far is over-the-top old-school hard-boiled detective stuff. He looked like a wax figure.

It's weird that they got rid of Colin Farrell so soon. Maybe creep's right and they'll show him in flashbacks. Maybe with three famous actors this time they could only afford him for a couple of episodes. :lol: I knew when watching the first episode that at least one of the lead cops was going to die, just because they're all so fucked up and the tone is so dark, but I didn't expect it anywhere close to this soon. Who knows, maybe they'll kill all of them to make up for letting Rust live. With Velcoro it's kind of like the opposite situation as last season, where this time the totally miserable police detective has absolutely no chance of redemption and in fact can only manage to live to the second episode.

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Re: True Detective

#219 Post by chaos » Sun Jun 28, 2015 9:43 pm

You know, I don't recall seeing any blood when Ray got shot (either time). :hs:

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Re: True Detective

#220 Post by Jasper » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:11 pm

THIS COULD BE CONSIDERED A SPOILER, but here are some casting details for each episode on imdb, as it relates to Colin Farrell:

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0476478/?ref_=tt_cl_t10

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0268199/

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Re: True Detective

#221 Post by Artemis » Mon Jun 29, 2015 1:56 pm

creep wrote:
i guess i can't say much more because i will get called out for "perkana-ing" this thread... even though i think only three of us are watching.

I'm watching too. I just haven't commented about anything.

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Re: True Detective

#222 Post by blackcoffee » Mon Jun 29, 2015 2:57 pm

I'm watching. And I'm enjoying it. Vince Vaughn is doing very well. He might be my favorite. I remember reading a long time ago-unless I'm just making this up--that he'd always envisioned being a serious actor rather than the comedic parts he seems to have been resigned to. I'd be disappointed if Farrel doesn't come back. Unless I missed something I think this is a straightforward narrative. So, if he does return it's because he was wearing a vest, but a shot gun at close range to the stomach? Any gun experts here?

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Re: True Detective

#223 Post by perkana » Tue Jun 30, 2015 6:46 am

creep wrote:
i guess i can't say much more because i will get called out for "perkana-ing" this thread... even though i think only three of us are watching.
:lol: I still haven't watched the new season but I had read about someone getting killed. If they jump back and forward, I'm ok with it. Any links to watch the first two episodes?

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Re: True Detective

#224 Post by perkana » Tue Jun 30, 2015 7:53 am

I got home on Sunday and catched a bit of The Brink. I'm biased since I like Tim Robbins and Jack Black.
Ratings: 7.7/10 from 1,271 users IMDB
Top U.S. government and military scramble to prevent World War 3 from happening amidst the chaos of a geopolitical crisis.

Creators: Kim Benabib, Roberto Benabib
Stars: Jack Black, Tim Robbins, Pablo Schreiber, Eric Ladin.

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Re: True Detective

#225 Post by creep » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:58 pm

perkana wrote:I got home on Sunday and catched a bit of The Brink. I'm biased since I like Tim Robbins and Jack Black.
Ratings: 7.7/10 from 1,271 users IMDB
Top U.S. government and military scramble to prevent World War 3 from happening amidst the chaos of a geopolitical crisis.

Creators: Kim Benabib, Roberto Benabib
Stars: Jack Black, Tim Robbins, Pablo Schreiber, Eric Ladin.
it didn't get great reviews but i liked the first two episodes. i can't get myself to watch the other new hbo show ballers. they are on my dvr but it just seems like an entourage (bro) type show.

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