True Detective season 2: news and episode reviews

Well. That’s over.

After seeing all eight and a half hours of True Detective season two, I think it’s fair to peg the entirety of the story somewhere between “massively disappointing” and “unmitigated disaster.” After the season’s sixth and seventh episodes made tentative, hesitant steps toward bringing things to a vaguely satisfying conclusion, the actual finale, “Omega Station,“ falls back on giant gobs of exposition, characters doing things that make no sense because the story requires them to, and shootout after shootout. It wants to be the gigantic Greek tragedy ending, with Ray and Frank crushed by the institutions they dared defy but their lovers living on. It mostly ends up a weak shrug.

After a True Detective season of brooding episodes that moved at a stately (if we’re being extremely charitable) pace, “Black Maps and Motel Rooms” takes off at a gallop. The comparable episode in season one was a slower-paced affair with lots and lots of exposition; this one remembered that, at least, if you’re going to explain what’s going on, it’s better to do so when the heroes are outnumbered and under the gun.

Which is exactly what happens here! Ray, Paul, and Ani hole up in a motel room to go through the files they stole at the gigantic orgy from episode six, and those files reveal a lot of what’s going on this season (while still not revealing why we’re supposed to care about much of it, considering how much of it revolves around stuff that’s tangential at best). But outside the motel room, the world is looking for the trio, and their days would seem to be numbered. This turns out to be literally true in the case of Paul, who’s gunned down as the hour ends.

“Church in Ruins,“ the sixth episode of True Detective’s second season, is the show’s best hour since the first season’s fifth episode. (That’s the one that pushed the Yellow King speculation to a fever pitch, ending with Rust Cohle in an abandoned building, holding aloft a small sculpture made of twigs.) There’s a lot of dumb stuff in it — because this is a show that can’t help but do some dumb stuff in every episode — but by the end of the hour, I really felt like I’d seen a satisfying episode of television.

And there’s one reason for that: It’s by far the most simple, straightforward episode of the season. The ornate dialogue and complicated storytelling styles fall away, and what we’re left with is an hour in which every single character has a clear goal, then goes through hell to pursue that goal.

“Other Lives,“ the fifth episode of True Detective’s second season, is a paradox.

On almost every level, it’s the season’s strongest hour. The performances feel on point. The dialogue has its overwrought moments but mostly stays in line. The storytelling feels more directed than it has all season long, with the characters finally making some progress in tying together the season’s many plot threads, improbable though the connections may be.

The morning after HBO aired “Down Will Come,“ the fourth episode of True Detective’s second season, Slate’s Willa Paskin wrote something of a mea culpa. She had given the first three episodes a mildly positive review, but found that the fourth episode made her want to take back that muted praise.

Consequently, Paskin confronted an issue that’s become a bugaboo of modern TV criticism: the idea that critics should not pass judgment until they’ve seen an entire season of TV.

Warning: I’m about to thoroughly spoil several aspects of True Detective season two, episode four. If you haven’t watched “Down Will Come,” look away!

With four episodes under its belt, True Detective’s second season is still all about man problems, and “Down Will Come” didn’t do much to buck the trend.

Each week, a handful of Vox’s writers will chat about the latest episode of True Detective’s second season. Before you dig into this latest round, check out our recap of this week’s episode, as well the archive of our entire discussion to date.

Tanya Pai, copy chief: Disclosure: I came to True Detective’s first season late, and despite the extraordinary performances by its two leads, did not find myself a total convert by the end. Still, I was excited to experience season two in real time — though like many people, I’m finding it a bit of a letdown thus far.

Each week, a handful of Vox’s writers will chat about the latest episode of True Detective’s second season. Before you dig into this latest round, check out our recap of this week’s episode, as well the archive of our entire discussion to date.

Todd VanDerWerff, culture editor: It will surprise precisely no one when I say that, above all else, True Detective wants to explore the role of Men in Society. I capitalize the phrase to indicate the larger concepts the show feints toward, but I might as well use all caps when it comes to anything involving True Detective and men, so fascinated is the show by the role of masculinity in America. At times, it feels like the living embodiment of the Two and a Half Men theme song: “Men, men, men, men, manly men, men, men... .”

Consider this your official warning: If you haven’t seen “Maybe Tomorrow,” the third episode of True Detective’s second season, I’m going to start spoiling it in the very next paragraph. Look away! Look away!

The resolution to last week’s big True Detective cliffhanger is total, utter bullshit.

Each week, a handful of Vox’s writers will chat about the latest episode of True Detective’s second season. Before you dig into this latest round, check out our recap of this week’s episode, as well the archive of our entire discussion to date.

Todd VanDerWerff: Outside of the question of Colin Farrell’s mortality (or lack thereof), I haven’t seen much discussion of True Detective this past week. To be fair, the question of whether Ray will live or die is a big one, so it’s easy to see why it sucked up all of the oxygen.

Each week, a handful of Vox’s writers will chat about the latest episode of True Detective’s second season. Before you dig into this latest round, check out our recap of this week’s episode, as well the archive of our entire discussion to date.

Christophe Haubursin: Just about all of the talk surrounding True Detective season two has focused on how it’s failing — and miserably so — to live up to season one. We’re just two episodes in, and the transition from spooky Southern gothic to sprawling California noir has been bogged down by mediocre writing and some really, really bizarre storytelling choices.

Every week, a handful of Vox’s writers will chat about the latest episode of True Detective’s second season. Before you dig into the latest round, check out our recap of this week’s episode, as well the archive of our entire discussion to date. Joining culture editor Todd VanDerWerff to weigh in on “Night Finds You” will be deputy culture editor Jen Trolio, and more.

Todd VanDerWerff: Enough about what’s not working about True Detective season two. Let’s talk about what’s keeping me watching (and probably would be even if I weren’t a professional TV watcher person).

Forget the Yellow King. Forget the time-jumping narrative structure. Forget, even, “Time is a flat circle.”

What made True Detective’s first season so instantly gripping for so many viewers were the scenes where Rust and Marty drove around the Louisiana countryside and shot the shit. Their relationship proved about the only consistent sounding board season one had.

Every week, a handful of Vox’s writers will discuss the latest episode of True Detective’s second season. Before you dig into the latest round, check out our recap of this week’s episode, as well the archive of our entire discussion to date. Joining culture editor Todd VanDerWerff will be deputy culture editor Jen Trolio, and foreign writer Zack Beauchamp.

Todd VanDerWerff: So many of the conversations surrounding this first week of True Detective’s second season have revolved around questions of the show’s quality. On the one hand, you have many viewers (like myself) who believe the season two premiere represents a new low for the series’ quality. On the other, you have so many fans of the series — and I think I’ve heard from all of them, vocally and at some length — who argue that it’s unfair to judge the series based on one episode.

Every week, a handful of Vox’s writers will discuss the latest episode of True Detective’s second season. Before you dig into the latest round, check out our recap of this week’s episode, as well the archive of our entire discussion to date. Joining culture editor Todd VanDerWerff will be deputy culture editor Jen Trolio, foreign writer Zack Beauchamp, and more.

Zack Beauchamp: Jen, I agree that True Detective’s second season premiere wasn’t truly awful television. Putting aside LOL-worthy moments like “this is my least favorite life,” it at least didn’t bore me.

Every week, a handful of Vox’s writers will discuss the second season of True Detective. Before we begin, check out our recap of the season two premiere, as well the archive of our entire discussion to date. Joining culture editor Todd VanDerWerff will be deputy culture editor Jen Trolio and more.

Jen Trolio: Throughout the past few years, “anthology” TV series have experienced a resurgence of sorts, ultimately becoming one of the industry’s hottest and most enduring trends. After American Horror Story successfully hit the reset button in its second season (which debuted in 2012) by starting over with a new premise and many of the same actors returning in new roles, several networks ordered various permutations of the format. And last year, two of the most successful anthology TV series to date, FX’s Fargo and HBO’s True Detective, made a strong case for ordering even more: both told open-and-shut stories that ranked among the best television of 2014 according to critics and viewers alike.

Every week, a handful of Vox’s writers will discuss the second season of True Detective. Before we begin, check out our recap of the season premiere, as well the archive of our entire discussion to date. Joining culture editor Todd VanDerWerff will be deputy culture editor Jen Trolio and more.

Todd VanDerWerff: So I didn’t much like the season two premiere of True Detective. In and of itself, this isn’t especially remarkable. I was a little more muted on the season one premiere than many other critics (though I certainly thought it was a better episode of TV than this one was), and even behind leaving this specific show entirely, season premieres are tough to execute well. That’s the case even when you have returning characters to work with. But in trying to set up a whole new story and a whole new world and a whole new set of characters, series creator Nic Pizzolatto built himself a gigantic mountain to climb. Realistically, “The Western Book of the Dead” was always going to have a lot working against it.