True Detective

Up note or not, I'm disappointed. I expected the conspiracy to be revealed, at least partially - you're not gonna tell me this was all the Lawnmower Man, two meth-brewing hicks and the Southern Fried Pharmacy Shooter. I got a serious The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much vibe about Reverend Tuttle's death, meaning there'd be more people affected by the fallout of eventual surfacing of the tape.

They were never going to uncover the entire conspiracy or catch everyone. They were two retired cops pitted against a cult that had police, a reverend, and implied political muscle. All the evidence they had pointed to either Ledoux or Errol and those were the two that they caught. As for the tape, every person in it was masked and because Cohle stole it from Tuttle's mansion without any evidence that it came from there, it can never be connected with him (with the evidence they had, at least). Also, Tuttle's death was an overdose and it happened suddenly, without obvious context, so no one had any reason to believe it was murder. He never reported a break-in, and only Cohle and the Yellow King knew it happened.

Now that a conspiracy was revealed, the Louisiana police could test the Lake Charles victim for any DNA of the rapists, but aside from Errol, the conspiracy would likely bury any evidence implicating other members.

edited 10th Mar '14 2:54:59 PM by CrimsonZephyr

Ok, just learned this exists via Penny Arcade. Is it true there is a Lovecraftian thing going on with the show?

There are Lovecraftian motifs, but there aren't any actual cosmic horrors.

JFC, seriously?! After Southern Fried Pharmacy Shooter's suicide, Rev. Tuttle's death doesn't strike you as a The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much case? Especially if Cohle himself speculated it to be at least a premeditated suicide?

That, and if the cult was indeed so powerful, cops swarming all over the place fast enough to get Hart and Cohle to hospital in time strike me as especially weird. Seriously, I expected at least Cohle to die, after the whole season painted him as a workaholic willing to go to extremes just to "forget" and Nic Pizzolatto said that the protagonists won't be returning for the second season. After seventeen years of working his ass off to get the killer of Dora Lange, going through heaps of old case files, doing high-risk undercover shit and finally breaking into Tuttle's place to track the killer down and bust him, death would be a closure to Cohle.

edited 11th Mar '14 4:15:36 PM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

So, I heard basically nothing but good things about this series. I'm going to wait for the first season to end before checking it out, though. Or is the first season over already?

It ended a few weeks back, yeah. Just eight episodes. And in case you're not aware, each season tells a self-contained story, so you can watch all of it. The next season will have a new cast and story.

Neat.

It's a possible interpretation of the show. It makes very heavy reference to The King In Yellow. To my mind, the elements of cosmic horror are enhanced by the fact that one of the characters is a meticulous researcher, and he never makes the connection with the actual book - implying that the book doesn't actually exist in the show's universe.

Some of the new leads in S2.

Meh.

First episode of new series out, thoughts?

Currently mine are just stuck at "too many plotlines"

Worry not, they'll come together.

I have no doubts they have the ability to juggle it well what with how they tied the police main characters' stories together in the final scene for this episode for in stance, it just seems like a daunting task still.

Also interesting that this very Wiki notes 'emasculation' to be a Central Theme.

The tone for this one seems decidedly darker than the last season, and that's saying something when one of the first scenes of that season was the protagonists arriving on the scene to a dead body put on occult display.

OK. Episode 2, and we're getting a wham. Someone not only tortured a dirty bureaucrat to death, but also apparently taped everything.

And what's with the weird crow's head hat?

Whoa. Corpses start piling, even if Detective Velcro isn't among them. Do you think the new stiff is somehow tied to Caspere, not including the fact that he worked for Semyon? I mean, they burned his eyes out with acid too...

That and, the perp is suspiciously well informed. He dumped the car a block away from the studio driver's home, right as Velcro and Berzerkidis dropped by for questioning. Too many coincidences here.

...and that's why you wait for SWAT when you are just a bunch of cops.

And there's a high probability that they were set up.

"Chessani's Lodge".

There is something going on with that one. I don't see how Semyon is tied to it, save for his odd Out, Damned Spot! behavior in the last two episodes.

That's probably true, but I'm not sure if them going without the SWAT was specific orders given to Ani by the higher-ups, or Ani trying to shine because she got kicked out of her station.

Stiffs, pimps and backstabbing everywhere. And the Chessani family starts looking like some sort of redneck Lannisters. As rich as powerful as they're fucked up.

And through the window go all hopes for Frank being somewhat ambiguous instead of pure evil. The guy is pure dirt.

Problem is, if I am honest I don't think Vaughn is as good an actor as the other three leads. That no one is as magnetic as the Harrelson-Mc Conaughey duo is not a surprise, but Vaughn brings heterogeneity because he sadly lacks charisma and consistency. It is like he changes his personality from one scene to another without any real consistency. Or maybe it's just him trying to be some manipulative bastard but utterly failing at that?

edited 20th Jul '15 5:46:54 PM by Julep

This season would be much better if it only focused on Colin Farrell and Rachel Mc Adams' characters. Although I guess things worked out alright for Taylor Kitsch.

Am I the only one who noticed Marjorie Tyrell and Lady Melisandre appear in this episode?