Recommendations for Watching While Waiting for Season 3

[baxter]

I have True Detective on DVD unwatched. I got heaps of stuff when a local DVD shop closed down, and am patiently working through it all. Borgen, The Killing and Big Love are the other shows in that collection, plus a heap of films.

Did anyone like True Detective 2? I've only heard bad things.

[Ped]

I have True Detective on DVD unwatched. I got heaps of stuff when a local DVD shop closed down, and am patiently working through it all. Borgen, The Killing and Big Love are the other shows in that collection, plus a heap of films.

Did anyone like True Detective 2? I've only heard bad things.

True Detective 2 was a series I tried to make myself love. I just couldn't though. What could've been another classic series just ended up a convoluted, mumbling mess. 1 main plot was twisted with 4 main character sub-plots that intertwined with so many other small story arcs that I just couldn't follow it at times.

Thing is, it had really strong points. I thought Colin Farrell was surprisingly good in it, albeit playing the most stereotypical cliche of a down and out cop you'll come across. There's some strong shoot-out action scenes and the cinematography of LA gave an impression of a city on fire. The music was great also. Recent Leonard Cohen theme tune was a rival to the first series (Handsome Family?) and there is some real good stripped bare countryesque songs sung in the bar where Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn's characters meet frequently.

The more I blabber on here the more good points I can pick with S2 but everyone I talk to that loved S1 was dissapointed in S2. If the plot was more simplified and condensed and the dialogue worked on a little more (the advantages of having multiple scriptwriters!) the series would've stood up.

[David Locke]

S2 is something you must watch if you liked S1 (or even if you didn't that much -- they're rather different), but the general consensus is not very positive. Me, I thought it was a tremendously flawed yet still usually interesting failure of a season, with at least two or three legitimately great episodes. Though even the great hours are marred by the negative aspects that drag everything down throughout. Basically it's all very convoluted, but not in a good way -- in a try-hard, incoherent, annoying way. It's a neo-noir, and it works sometimes on that basis, but mostly it succeeds due to the strong performances of Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams and the occasionally striking set-pieces, shimmering cinematography (though not nearly as masterful as S1) and brooding mood. However that brooding mood weighs a bit too heavily and the season kind of collapses under the weight of its own pretentions, its own self-seriousness and total all-encompassing morbidity. S1 had some levity, but 2 is dark as pitch. In a kind of TOOL-loving high school sophomore's creating writing project way.

[baxter]

My completist tendency means I'll have to watch series 2 anyway. Hopefully I'll enjoy it more going in with low expectations (this usually makes a difference).

[LostInTheMovies]

My completist tendency means I'll have to watch series 2 anyway. Hopefully I'll enjoy it more going in with low expectations (this usually makes a difference).

If you want a viewing companion, I reviewed the series as it aired last year: http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/201 ... diary.html, concluding with a meditation on both seasons. Hopefully having a response can make the low points more tolerable! I know I enjoyed the ride of the show a bit more with podcasts and reviews to accompany me.

[John Justice Wheeler]

Liked TD season 2 a lot more than the massively overrated first season. It's more compelling, more convincing, better structured, better pulp and even better metaphysics. I realize this is a minority view but I can live with that. This season does what the first could not do as far as I'm concerned: elevate its labyrinthine pulp plotting and narrative into High Art without losing its genre distinctiveness (kind of like what Haynes did with melodrama in his Mildred Pierce). The mysticism and metaphysics emerge quite naturally from that, in a subdued and less pronounced fashion admittedly, rather than seeming grafted on. All the leads are solid to superb but Farrell stands out among them, as he so often does for me; he's just so damn good at conveying a persistently haunted and damaged quality, a frayed character always on the verge of collapse. But again, everybody was top notch in this and it really seems they didn't get their due. There's also a nicely done Lynchian vibe complete with intensive close-ups and a droning score that recalls Reznor's work with Fincher and Johann Johannson's recent soundtrack for Sicario. The ending is dispiriting but right, appropriate, not flip or banal nihilism; rather, it summons up a poignant fatalism.

[baxter]

LostInTheMovies- great! I do enjoy reading other views, and having them written by a forum member makes them extra special (I assume we all have similar tastes on this board).

Good to see at least one person stand up for the second series. I have a contrary tendency, and tend to end liking a bands worst album the most, etc, so I'm intrigued to see if I end up agreeing with you John.

[laughingpinecone]

Fwiw, I consider the second season inferior to the first, last but not least due to some weird pacing issues (last thing I'd expect a stand-alone miniseries to suffer from, you know?), but I also think that much of the harsh judgement that girl thrown at it is unwarranted. For me, it definitely has its moments, and I really like 85% of the ending, which is rare.

[David Locke]

Liked TD season 2 a lot more than the massively overrated first season. It's more compelling, more convincing, better structured, better pulp and even better metaphysics. I realize this is a minority view but I can live with that. This season does what the first could not do as far as I'm concerned: elevate its labyrinthine pulp plotting and narrative into High Art without losing its genre distinctiveness (kind of like what Haynes did with melodrama in his Mildred Pierce). The mysticism and metaphysics emerge quite naturally from that, in a subdued and less pronounced fashion admittedly, rather than seeming grafted on. All the leads are solid to superb but Farrell stands out among them, as he so often does for me; he's just so damn good at conveying a persistently haunted and damaged quality, a frayed character always on the verge of collapse. But again, everybody was top notch in this and it really seems they didn't get their due. There's also a nicely done Lynchian vibe complete with intensive close-ups and a droning score that recalls Reznor's work with Fincher and Johann Johannson's recent soundtrack for Sicario. The ending is dispiriting but right, appropriate, not flip or banal nihilism; rather, it summons up a poignant fatalism.

Always appreciate your erudite thoughts, here and on criterionforum (if I'm thinking of the right poster!)

I agree with you on a few things for sure: Farrell is a great actor who can do "damaged" or "forlorn" or many variations thereof very, very well. His performance in TD S2 was to me kind of a reprise of his superb performance in Mann's Miami Vice (one of my personal favorite films), though perhaps even more ruined and traumatized. I do think S1 of TD is overrated, yet I still think it's a very, very good season that only suffers when you start to compare it to the really Great series of HBO (or most other networks). I think both seasons suffer to varying degrees from a kind of, what I can only characterize as, if the showrunner had pressed the "Gritty HBO drama" button on a TV vending machine... it feels a bit rote, a bit expected, the darkness and existential theatrics a bit overcooked/overdone at times. What distinguished S1 for me were the performances, and especially Fukunaga's superb direction of both actors and mise-en-scene; virtually no director in S2 could compare to that (though Dan Attias, John Crowley and especially Miguel Sapochnik -- who helmed IMO the best hour -- did great jobs). Also, I'm by no means a film purist, as my endorsement of Miami Vice suggests, but I really loved the atmospheric textures provided by the 35mm-shot S1. But S2, with its more generic Mann/Lynch/Ayer digital noir/crime/city-scape visuals, was rather disappointing and lacking the same fascinating dynamics -- closer to run-of-the-mill than bad, though. Certain sequences, like the central set-piece of Episode 6, were definitely stunning. If I was mixed on the ending of the thing (as in the very end, not the last episode which I thought good), it was because it didn't seem from the heart; it seemed more like from the mind of someone who really, really likes The Wire and wants to communicate that same sense of world-weary fatalism at the power-imbalanced capitalistic, bureaucratic nightmare-world we live in, etc. The ending to all the character's stories were fairly apt, especially Farrell who again shone, but the Big Message came off with a thud.

As did, I must say, virtually everything Vince Vaughn did or said that season. This is where both bad casting and Pizzolatto's obvious David Milch-fetish come into play. Not only was Vaughn spectacularly not up to the task of playing the Smart And Ruthless But World-Weary Gangster Who Just Wants Out, but the dialogue given to him was some of the most atrociously silly nonsense in recent memory; a kind of hyper-real parody of Milch's brilliant, idiosyncratic writing style and bizarre dialogue rhythms. In other words, I felt like Pizzolatto thought Vaughn's character relating the tale of his abused childhood was akin to one of Al Swearengen's soul-baring monologues while getting fellated by a prostitute on Deadwood, but it was third-rate at best, and Vaughn seemed so awkwardly out of place.

I did like the score, as in S1, but I felt like the mood of the season was vague; a lot of free-floating dread but, usually, not much to back it up. I'll be re-watching it sometime in the near future, because I'm sure I will have a different perspective. Nonetheless, I can't see myself coming around to it as anything less than a worthy failure; I doubt that the convoluted noir-isms of the plot, which take up so much time and energy of the thing, will ever become compelling to me. And, also, Abigail Spencer -- truly great on Rectify, the best show no one's watching -- was just wasted in that thankless role.

[asmahan]

I have True Detective on DVD unwatched. I got heaps of stuff when a local DVD shop closed down, and am patiently working through it all. Borgen, The Killing and Big Love are the other shows in that collection, plus a heap of films.

Did anyone like True Detective 2? I've only heard bad things.

Season two suffers from a lack of strong direction that characterized season one, but I think a lot of the hate it gets is unwarranted. I see why many viewers were alienated by Vince Vaughn's character, but personally I found him entertaining and a good counterpoint to the more grounded leads of Paul, Ray, and Ani. I don't want to spoil anything but there are a number of fantastic sequences, especially the opening of the third episode.

[Si78]

True Detective season 2 made me realize why 'young person gets murdered' has become such a consistent trope in this serialized murder mystery genre. It's turns out when 'random slimy politician' gets killed, one really doesn't care whodunnit.

[baxter]

I love Chabrol films for this. They play with the setup in every conceivable way. e.g. a murder where everyone knows the murderer did it but they don't give a shit, but the murderer can't cope with the guilt. Then a murder where the entire family of the deceased hate him and want him to be murdered.

[Here Comes That Bob]

I haven't seen it mentioned so I'll add "Luther" to the list. Excellent BBC's crime- detective drama in which Idris Elba delievers a percormance of his carrer imo. Eventough it's critically acclaimed I believe it's criminally underrated amongst the general viewing. You should definitely give it a go.

Gomorrah - pretty decent Italian Tv-series. I'd clasify it as the mixture of Sopranos and the Wire.

Rick and Morty - hilarious animated comedy show. Same creator as "Community".

Also I second 6FU and Hannibal recs. Both are great shows ,with 6FU possibly having the greatest finale ever.

[mtwentz]

I just started watching Stranger Things. Does seem pretty good, but is it just me, or is the plotline so far (I have watched the first two episodes) a direct ripoff of
1. Dark Angel (the short lived Jessica Alba series) and;
2. Super 8 (directed by JJ Abrams).

In fact, the plot so far seems to be a synthesis of those two pieces of work.

However, I am engaged enough at this point to continue watching and see what happens next.

[N. Needleman]

Super 8 is a vastly inferior carbon copy of the Amblin/Spielberg/Stephen King '80s, IMO. Like most JJ Abrams properties it's all breathless sizzle reel and no steak. ST is absolutely a pastiche work but unlike that film, it has a lot of heart.