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True Detective - S2

Discussion in 'TV, Music and Movies' started by Clark Kent, Jun 22, 2015.

  1. Clark Kent

    Clark Kent Fighter of the Nightman

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    [​IMG]

    The premiere of S2 didn't hook me like S1E1 did. That said, I do find the characters interesting. Not as much as S1, but there's still time. Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, and Rachel McAdams all seem like a good fit so far. Vince Vaughn in particular, is the one I'm interested in. I've always liked him in serious roles. The episode was very much an introduction to the characters, and not so much the story itself. Obviously, we'll get to that in the next episode.

    7/10.
     
  2. Limbo

    Limbo Mad Stillz

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    Seriously underwhelming. In fact I thought the first episode flat-out sucked. Rachel McAdams was the lone bright spot, imo. The rest was boring, humorless whispering. The scenes were way too short, there was no focus; it was just heavy-handed characterization, backstory and setup but in the hands of weak acting performances. Just flat and uninteresting. A shame, but I'll stick with it another couple weeks to see if/how it picks up.
     
  3. Undisputed

    Undisputed Banned

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    I hated episode 1. Hoping for improvement
     
  4. Clark Kent

    Clark Kent Fighter of the Nightman

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    Episode 2:

    I liked this episode better than the premiere. It was a little more fleshed out and we got some good character development and backstories, as well as details of the case in question. Rachel McAdams is so far proving to be the best and most interesting character. I'm a little surprised by that, as I expected her to be the least interesting of the bunch. Taylor Kitsch is proving to be the weakest link. I really hate his character and performance. I think Vince Vaughn is doing a good job with what's being given to him, but so far, his role isn't compelling. I enjoyed the roadside intimidation scene quite a bit though. We need more of that from this character. As for Colin Farrell... I became of fan of his after watching In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, after previously hating damn near everything he's ever done. So far, his character gets mixed reviews from me. The car ride with Rachel McAdams made me like him a whole lot more. In fact, that scene really brought back memories of Season 1, with Rust and Marty's car chats. The car rides allow for deeper exploration into the characters, case development, as well as building chemistry, which Farrell and McAdams have. Sadly, it seems like that might be short lived judging by the end of the episode. That was definitely a shocking turn of events. If Ray is out of the picture, I have confidence McAdam's can hold her own as the lead. I don't have confidence in Kitsch at all. Which is scary moving forward. If they give Vince Vaughn something to do, besides beg, and let him flex a little more muscle, I think he'll be great too (roadside scene being my prime example). The ending was a shock, as previously mentioned. And weird. Very weird. Almost too weird. Like, TDS2 is trying hard to conjure up some of the strangeness that made TDS1 so incredible. Sadly, it feels misplaced in the current environment.

    I'll be watching every week, but if this season is 8 episodes (is it?) like season 1, Ep. 1 felt like a waste and Ep 2. is better jumping off point. I'm still hopeful this go round will be satisfying, but it's not touching S1's greatness. I miss the philosophical nature of the show the most. And this world is too gloomy. A character like Marty is badly needed to balance things out. Sadly, he's no where to be found.
     
  5. Undisputed

    Undisputed Banned

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    E2, huge upgrade. That's more like it!
     
  6. Paul 13

    Paul 13 Chaotic Neutral & Unstable Genius Staff Member

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    Haven't seen EP 3 yet but from EP 2, I noticed something before the end that had me thinking...

    McAdams and Farrell are sitting in the office of that for lack of a better word, therapist. The one that recognized McAdams' character name. On the back of the wall, the picture/painting? Anyone else see it? I had to go back on my DVR and pause it...

    Can't find an image of it online, but it looks to be this bird man character in black complete with feathers and a bird mask (a raven?). Of course we know now that the killer has that in his wardrobe. We also saw the mask on the seat in EP 1 when the killer is driving the victim to his final destination in Ventura County (close to me heh)

    Makes me think there will be ties to season 1 in terms of these cults and their symbolism.
     
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  7. Stringer Bell

    Stringer Bell Post Hard, Post Often Club Member

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    Show is definitely moving quickly now. I think the writing is a little worse than last season, but the acting is top-notch. I've never really been a Rachel McAdams fan, but she is doing a good job IMO.
     
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  8. Bumrush

    Bumrush Stable Genius Club Member

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    Compared to season one I'm of the opinion that this season blows monkey chunks. The acting is terrible and feels unnatural. The dialog is equally poor.

    The only saving grace is Colin Farrell, who is kicking ***.
     
  9. Fin D

    Fin D Sigh

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    Felt that about the first one.
     
  10. Paul 13

    Paul 13 Chaotic Neutral & Unstable Genius Staff Member

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    Saw Ep 3... I'm really liking it. It's a bit more predictable this year... and at times, harder to follow. hmm..that sounds a bit contradictory. But the whole back story with the motorcycle cop... As soon as he's taking the blue pill with the hot mamacita waiting for him, not to hard to figure out what his issue was.
     
  11. Paul 13

    Paul 13 Chaotic Neutral & Unstable Genius Staff Member

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    :shifty:
     
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  12. Paul 13

    Paul 13 Chaotic Neutral & Unstable Genius Staff Member

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    Aqua's "good looking cop" just took down 3 of 4 bad guys.... oooooh... that escalated quickly... Nice gun fight there at the end, fake explosion be damned!! :applause:

    Little ironic that the bus gets shot up in that scene eh?
     
  13. ToddPhin

    ToddPhin Premium Member Luxury Box Club Member

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    I'm bored. Dialogue/writing feels forced. The acting demands required to meet the dialog & style aren't being met IMO. Nothing about the show feels natural. Feels like I'm listening to the writer's voice rather than each individual character's. Trying to turn it into 'HEAT' to close out the episode/save the series is a little too late for me.
     
  14. Clark Kent

    Clark Kent Fighter of the Nightman

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    I disagree. I don't think Farrell, McAdams, or Vaughn have been bad. I find all the characters believable. And I'm really liking Colin Farrell's character lately. At first, the whole, hyper drunk ******* thing worried me. But as time has gone on, his character is very reserved. Almost indifferent. Monotone. I'm feeling his apathetic vibe. He knows the world is the way it is, and accepts it rather than rage against it. Rachel McAdams has been nothing but stellar from start to finish. And Vaughn, is doing a solid job with an uninteresting part.

    Taylor Kiltch or whatever his name is, absolutely sucks. His acting is bad and his character is bad. I don't like anything about him, and as of now, it was a mistake to create the part from what I can tell. He's taking screen time away from better and more interesting events that could be happening. He barely feels like apart of the investigation too. Like, he's just kind of there. It's hurting the pacing.


    The biggest problem with season 2 is story and pacing... There's very little progress being made week to week and the show is pacing unsteadily. They had momentum when CF got shot, and they didn't keep it up. Every single episode of season 1 had character development, story progress, case progress, and always left you wanting more at the end of each episode. The pacing was perfect. By this time last season, we had a million theories to talk about. We were almost apart of the case, as an audience. This time around, there's too much jumping around from one character to another. Unlike Marty and Rust, they share no common bonds (real, legit partners & wanting to solve the case) either. So it's harder to connect them and their personal lives.

    Even still, there's enough good w/the main trio to keep me watching. Hopefully, as we're at the half way point, the mystery starts taking center stage.
     
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  15. Bumrush

    Bumrush Stable Genius Club Member

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    I stopped watching but was bored one day and started to watch again...

    I'm digging the last two episodes.. A lot.. I think this show has a chance to redeem itself from a sloppy start if the final two episodes knock it out of the park.
     
  16. ToddPhin

    ToddPhin Premium Member Luxury Box Club Member

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    okay, I think the show and all its characters have redeemed themselves the past 2 episodes.
     
  17. Clark Kent

    Clark Kent Fighter of the Nightman

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    So true :lol: I feel like he was the same way in Friday Night Lights.
     
  18. Paul 13

    Paul 13 Chaotic Neutral & Unstable Genius Staff Member

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    shame.. was hoping he'd make it. Up until the point that he took out those four guys, I thought they were all going to die... well then, he gets the Professional ending treatment and I tend to think once again that nobody is going to make it out of this alive. Maybe Vince Vaughn. Funny how everyone is gathering up their family and getting them to safe houses. Vaughn is on a rampage though. Good times.

    Who is the Raven though? Seems to be someone who wanted to expose all of this? I'm assuming we'll find out next week in the finale?
     
  19. Stringer Bell

    Stringer Bell Post Hard, Post Often Club Member

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    Vaughn has been the best character IMO. Farrell is a close second.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
     
  20. Paul 13

    Paul 13 Chaotic Neutral & Unstable Genius Staff Member

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    well that was a bit too predictable. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it but it wasn't close to the first season. Gonna go now to look for Vaughn's diamonds in a local desert salt flat.
     
  21. MonstBlitz

    MonstBlitz Nobody's Fart Catcher

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    Definitely preferred season 1's feel good ending to this super depressing finale.

    I mean come on...they couldn't even let Vacaro's message get through to his kid? No definitive word on whether or not they were exonerated?
     
  22. Stringer Bell

    Stringer Bell Post Hard, Post Often Club Member

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    ...

    I actually really enjoyed this season. I think the story came together very well. I think season 2 was better than season 1 in certain aspects. I think the story came together and climaxed much better. I think season 1 kind of plateaued then dragged out a little.

    The acting in season 1 was better IMO, but I do think season 2 had a much more difficult task of creating a larger ecosystem of characters. I was not a big Colin Farrell fan before this season, but I thought he did a remarkable job. Vince Vaughn was great, but I've been a fan. The rest of acting was just kinda eh for me.

    I also found the ending to be a somewhat satisfying - it is pretty rare to see an ending like that.
     
  23. MonstBlitz

    MonstBlitz Nobody's Fart Catcher

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    I didn't hate the season, and though overall it was solid. Agree with your thoughts about Colin Farrell. Better than anything he's done on the big screen (that I've seen anyway). And I think Vince Vaughn did a pretty good job even if some of his lines came off really bad. Can't remember the exact line, but it was supposed to be a funny jab at someone and it fell really flat.

    The ending just didn't do it for me.
    There is a reason you don't see a lot of endings like that. Because the bad guys win endings generally depress the **** out of viewers. I know not all the bad guys won, but some of them did.
     
  24. Stringer Bell

    Stringer Bell Post Hard, Post Often Club Member

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    I hear you. I just think that the unpredictability of having the main characters die added a layer of intrigue. My problem was that by mid-way through the finale, it was obvious things weren't going to work out. Frank and Ray weren't going to make it out that easy.
     
  25. Paul 13

    Paul 13 Chaotic Neutral & Unstable Genius Staff Member

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    you know... the more I think about the closing scene with Vaughn's character, the more I realize it was amateur hour. I'm not going to use the spoiler tags, at this stage, if you haven't seen the finale, you shouldn't be reading the thread. Okay, so it's fairly obvious that once Vaughn gets stabbed and they drive away that he's going to die... soon. So why try to "fool" the audience into believing he's still alive at the very end of his scene before he's shown to fall forward. I mean, his wifey tells him that he's dead, he looks back and sees his body, then he falls forward. If they wanted to create a sixth sense moment there, they could have done it many different ways that would have been so much better.

    For example, they could have shown him getting stabbed and then they cut forward to him reuniting with his wife IN VENEZUELA. He's wearing white, she's wearing white, only he looks down and gradually the blood starts appearing on his white suit. It was a pathetic end to a great character. Not that he died... but how they played it out on screen.
     
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  26. Clark Kent

    Clark Kent Fighter of the Nightman

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    Agreed. The execution was lacking.


    Season 2 on the whole had it's moments. As much as I really wanted to like this season, it just never came together in a satisfying manner. Terrible pacing, too much bloat, very tedious character development, and a convoluted case that didn't evolve well, etc...

    The ending... I'm not sure if I liked it or not. It definitely fit. The tagline for the season was "We get the world we deserve." I knew the axe was going to drop for Frank and Ray, but I still held out some hope for them. It was satisfying in that regard.
     
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  27. byroan

    byroan Giggity Staff Member Administrator Luxury Box

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    It was a decent season. I thought it started off slow but the 2nd half picked up. I don't think I'll re-watch it though.
     

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