agreed. the humor is mostly gone, and it's more of a procedural vibe now. but it's so god-damned slick-looking that i can't stop watching.

It's good for what it is (I am literally about to watch the finale in a few minutes here), but it's nothing at all like what the concept was supposed to be.
I mean it was called "True Detective" as it was supposed to be a homage to the TD magazine that published weird, pulpy crime stories with strange and lurid aspects to them. Season 1 fit that PERFECTLY. When they said Season 2's plotline was about an occult group that secretly controlled the transportation department of California I thought that was brilliant. Then, right before the season comes out, we get "Oh, BTW we abandoned that idea as it seemed silly." SILLY?
God forbid you take any unusual risks when telling a story.

That said, Season 2 is good and well made..it just really does not mesh with what TD was conceptually supposed to be which was anthology stories about weird crime.

Agree on all counts. Episode 2 or 3, the one that opened with Liam Neeson doing that Elvis impersonation, I decided that this season was parody that the audience didn't realize was parody, like when Twin Peaks originally aired and so many people didn't quite get the joke (although Lynch being Lynch it's always possible that the joke was an accident). By the next episode I changed my mind, I think it's 100% serious. I still like it though.

And for all the things that season 1 did better, I've got to give season 2 credit for having female characters who aren't completely irrelevant and one dimensional, that was the biggest trouble with season 1 (although it was kind of excused by the fact that the shallowness of the female characters could be read as a reflection of the male characters' inability to connect with women).

I've been torrenting so I still haven't seen episode 8 yet.

I'm torrenting them all right now and I think I'll just marathon my way through them so I can give my two cents, but thing is, S1 sort of set a precedent for shows to come. Like, I loved Bloodline and all, but that probably wouldn't have existed without TD. And while I liked S1 I wished it had gotten more into the synesthesia aspect of Rust's character and not turned it into a buddy cop film by the end, in part because I have the condition myself. For a little while there it seemed to be picking that up but then back to cops and robbers. From what little I've seen of S2 it seems to be going in that new direction, which honestly I like.

Oh yeah this was really funny too.

@jangbones don't you work for hbo?

I actually liked the way S2 started, but the at the last 2-3 episodes the show started falling apart. There's no real sense of focus in S2, there's too much going on in a bad way.

I get they were going for the "not everything has answers/solutions" thing compared to how tidy everything wrapped up last season, but they missed the mark this time. This season's TD just felt like they were trying to cram so many things in, and just have key characters do idiotic things just to have dramatic moments happen because of it.

Not a bad season, but not really great either.

The plot was a mess; if you're going to have something that elaborate going on, you need to keep it manageable for the viewer.

A lot of ridiculous dialogue.

I liked McAdams and Farrell. I find that the best way to watch this series is the way I handled "The Thick of It": a bunch of people are talking about boring crap, but then Peter Capaldi comes through the door and starts cussing at people, and that's when to pay attention. Same thing with "True Detective" and McAdams and Farrell.

yogar, I do not work for HBO. I have done programs for them in the past, but always as an outside contractor.

gotcha, that's the way to go.

Yeah I really like Farrell. I was pretty indifferent about him until I saw In Bruges and that was one of the best performances I've ever seen, by any actor, ever. And he was fun in 7 Psychopaths, for whatever that movie was worth (I didn't like the movie but I liked his performance.)

But I've always liked Vince Vaughn too. Of any typecast actor I can think of, he's probably the most typecast in modern cinema. I haven't seen 90% of the bullshit he's in (and probably never will unless you forcefeed it to me) but he was great in Swingers and Made.

JB that's awesome. I'm also an independent contractor but I'm in a very different line of work. It stays fun this way. But could you please do me a favor and convince HBO to bring back Arli$$? :)

Unfortunately, ESPN bought the rights to it.

Really? Someone bought the rights to it? Hahaha

The grodocube popping up in the last episode gave me a chuckle but those were the only two seconds of entertainment in the episode for me.

i agree with you about the last few episodes. but this season was definitely not up to par with the first. they both suffer from a strange conceit that showing something is talking about it (true in high school english, not true in most media) and the wrap-ups of both were waaaaaaaay to pat to sit well with me. every character in s2 had to act more or less out of character to receive their ending. absolutely a letdown.

this, on the other hand, is absolutely hilarious.

^was supposed to be 3.5 stars.