True Detective Season Two*

Oh, I see what you were saying here. Agreed! That second season of Twin Peaks was disappointing yet I still love it...then Lynch came back and did a couple of the last episodes and it was great again, or so I recall...not sure if he did more than one episode near the end.

 

Here's another 'concise' take in bullet points about the plot. I can't claim credit as it came from a post on another forum:

LA Riots:
– Holloway, Burris, Dixon, and Caspere (accountant) conspire to rob jewelry store.
– 2 kids orphaned in process.
– Caspere keeps blue diamonds for himself.
– Holloway, Burris, Dixon, Caspere use diamond money to pay off Mayor Chessani and buy into Vinci power structure.

Velcoro Setup:
– Years ago, Blake gives Frank bad info to save himself from meth head.
– Frank unknowingly passes on bad info to Velcoro.
– Velcoro kills wrong man, putting Velcoro in Frank’s pocket for years.
– Frank wants revenge against whoever set him up.

Railway Deal:
– Years ago, McCandless (of Catalyst Company) had Frank use his waste disposal company to pollute land so Catalyst and Vinci bad guys could buy that land cheap and then sell it back to the Feds for a profit.
– Frank was going to go straight, but:
– Blake, Osip the Russian, and Mayor Chessani’s son all conspire to use high-end prostitutes to buy political influence and betray/supplant Frank and Mayor Chessani.
– Blake killed Stan when Stan learned of Blake’s betrayal.

Blackmail:
– Caspere and Chessani used parties to blackmail powerful men like McCandless.
– Caspere’s hard drive with blackmail material stolen from Caspere’s apartment the night Velcoro was shot.
– McCandless will give Frank back his original land shares if Frank recovers and returns the hard drive to McCandless.

Random confusing women with names that all end in “a”:
– Tasha (Caspere’s favorite girl) also was trying to blackmail these men (and Caspere) on the side. Tony Chessani and Co. found out and killed her in that backwoods cabin. She sent copies of blackmail photos to Vera as insurance policy.

– Vera: “Missing” girl that Bezzerides was originally seeking. Caspere found her working as a maid at Eliot Bezzerides’s retreat and brings her on board as prostitute. Bezzerides “rescues” her from party. She tells Bezzerides info about Tasha, blue diamonds, etc. in motel scene.

– Irina: Mexican prostitute. A cop gave here Caspere’s stolen goods. She pawned them, leading heroes into shootout set-up with Irina’s pimp named Ledo Amarilla. Vinci bad guys set it all up to kill off heroes and end investigation. Frank tracked down Irina; Irina killed by Mexicans before she could talk to Frank.

– Laura (aka Erika aka): 1 of the 2 orphaned children from LA riot diamond heist. She worked the parties and as Caspere’s secretary to gain info and

Spoiler: Prediction Spoiler

then kill Caspere out of revenge, setting entire story into motion.

Simple, right?

 

geez, Deesky, you lay it out clean and simple like that, and I still can't add it all up in my head.

And who was the guy with the bird mask that shot Ray?

 

One point that I still can't figure out:

Why would "bird man" shoot Ray with riot pellets to begin with? What difference would it have made if he just killed Ray at that point?

Was that just a "TV gasp-inducing" moment so all the viewers would think one of the major stars of this drama was killed so early on? Did that scene serve any purpose other than that?

 

Maybe because "bird man" is fighting against the same people than Velcoro.

 

The birdman might be the orphan boy.

Chad

 

Following that through... This seems to be quite a big deal for to lay people to orchestrate; could be plausible, but still a stretch...

 

like the first season, i think it's pretty clear that the show isn't about "who dunnit?" but rather the harsh journey to find out. pity this season is muddling the plot and making it too confusing to enjoy it.

 

Yup, and if you don't want to make a detective show about 'who dunnit', you'd better make what the show is about darned interesting! Or at least have interesting, compelling characters (which the first season had, but this one doesn't).

 

i think if kitsch wasn't in it we might be singing a different tune. more time for the other three to get fleshed out a bit more.

bah, i'm probably just being wishful.

 

Yes, his character was completely superfluous. You could easily take him out and tell the same story, such as it is. But, the story itself is the problem, so...

What I would have liked to see would be just Ani & Ray working the case from the start. I'd leave out the whole intricate web of historical details and alliances that clutter the narrative and just focus on a simpler case of state corruption with a mob element perhaps. This would free up more time to explore Ani & Ray interactions/dynamics, which I think are interesting.

 

He came back in and rewrote and directed the finale, which was awesome. I love Twin Peaks, too. I'm very excited for season three, but I'm not going to try to hold it to some standard. 25 years is a really long time between seasons! I'll just be happy to see where the characters are a quarter century later.

 

Although I am enjoying season 2, despite it's faults, I do agree that the characters in Season 1 were more interesting. I agree with your other post as well re: Ani and Ray should've been working the case from the start.

 

Yeah. You can take out Ani too, simplify the case, replace Ray by an old inspector with a raincoat and name the show Columbo

 

there's really no other explanation for the trainwreck that is season 2 than to conclude that Pizzolatto is trolling everyone after the undue criticism leveled at the finale of season 1. I mean there's no other explanation for writing something as staggeringly incoherent as: "I made a choice a long time ago. I thought everything came from something else, but it came from there. You had something like that too once, right?" unless you're just trying to mess with people and do so callously. When you take this season as a middle finger at all the people who are going to pour over the minutiae of season 2, in vain, seeking clues and patterns, and a middle finger at the people who derided the finale of season 1 for being too tidy, and moreover regard True Detective Season 2 as an exercise in flaming at the highest level, it is so much more enjoyable.

 

Just finished watching the latest episode, found myself checking my watch more than once. This seasons solitary saving grace is that it's only 8 episodes long. At this point I'm watching due to curiosity but I truthfully don't get any type of satisfaction doing so. If this was a 10 or 12 episode season I woulda bailed. When I think of how many times I questioned myself about continuing to watch, I realize I shoulda bailed a while ago.

 

This will clear it all up, if you can last through it:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...ide_to_the_plot_of_this_confusing_season.html

 

Christ, that makes Russian novels come off like Dr. Seuss.
The season finale is 90 minutes, by the way. Keep pad and pencil handy, I have a feeling notes will be essential.

 

That's it's, Thank you for the excellent quote.

 

At one point I thought I might need a coles notes version of that write up to understand it all!

This season sure is convoluted. Columbo was never this crazy and it was always entertaining.

 

Too bad TCM wasn't running their noir festival earlier in the year, maybe the creators of this show could have picked up some pointers on how to do this kind of thing correctly. Most importantly, keep the plot coherent and on track. Then it doesn't matter how florid the dialogue gets.

 

So the theory is that the writer anticipates fans and critics obnoxiously pouring over extraneous minutiae and thus concludes he must create the problems with the show by adding all this extraneous minutiae as an f you to everyone? Boy what a circular, self fulfilling prophecy. Might have been easier just to write a good show.

The problem with this theory is that, seen as some sort of criticism, satire, or just plain pulp, the show might actually work if the writing conveyed a sense of humor and tongue in cheek or some post modern self references...something to let the viewer know at there is a joke and we're all in on it. This is one reason why Pulp Fiction or Twin Peaks worked. The show hasn't conveyed this in any way. We must take this show as seriously as it presents itself to the viewer and leave whatever perceived personal motivations the writer had completely out of it because they have nothing to do with the actual product on the screen.

 

The Big Sleep would beg to differ. Of course, it helps when you have Bogie and Bacall...

A coherent plot isn't such a big deal for me when it comes to noir. Engaging characters, style, atmosphere, and dialogue are much more important. Unfortunately, this season of True Detective hasn't really excelled for me in any of those categories either, except for maybe the penultimate episode from last Sunday, which I really dug. The sound design especially seems to be heavily indebted to David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, ratcheting up that noir feeling of impending doom. I still have very little idea about what's going on and who did what to who, but at least I'm engaged and excited for the finale.

 

As would Kiss Me Deadly. But even that huge hunk of deliciously crazy film had a plotline that could be followed to a certain degree. Motivation may have vanished every now and then, but the movie was nuts enough to keep you engaged. Of course it had Ralph Meeker to push things along.
But TD2 has played so fast and loose with character, plot, who/what/when/where/why that it almost begs you to disengage. At its loopiest, Twin Peaks was a garden variety murder mystery. On acid and very bad dreams, but you never really lost track of the main idea no matter how hallucinatory it got. Besides, it was David Lynch and you expect that from him.
But TD2 is an incoherent mess, in my opinion, and the sound mix is one of the worst I've ever heard, which doesn't help. I enjoy the performances and have stuck around just to see how they wind it up, but damn this is a train wreck. An atmospheric one, but still.

 

Farrell has been the best part of season 2 for me. I wanted to see McAdams do more, but oh well.