True Detective Season 2

The finale was kind of a mess, especially on the pacing department. Felt like Jordan also should've left before the finale, since that conversation between her and Frank slowed things down A LOT (not to mention they kept drawing things out unnecessarily). Also some dumb moments like the cops shooting Holloway when trying to shoot Birdman. Fucking lol. Ray's death was also executed poorly, but more on that later. I really liked the last 30-45 minutes, but it started off so messy.

Anywyas, here are my thoughts on the season:

Vince Vaughn did a great job. The desert scene was incredible in my opinion. His story this entire season is about him trying to get out of the criminal world but being "forced" back in (his pride and stubborness obviously played a part in this as well). Frank got arrogant, forgot one party he made promises to (the one party he probably shouldn't have made promises to to begin with), and paid for it with his life. And what a way to go out: refusing to die while being tortured by memories from his past. People are going crazy over the fact that he died over a suit, but people apparently forget most of his money was in his suit: the diamonds. And he was too stubborn to give that up, because that would be giving up on everything he fought for throughout his life. It makes sense for his character. With that said, though, Frank probably got the worst lines this season. His monologues throughout the season alternated between being great to horrible, but Vince Vaughn pulled it off for the most part. All in all: probably one of my favourite characters this season, if not my favourite.

Ray's actions in the finale were indeed dumb, but that character's always been emotional as fuck and has made rash conclusions in the past. Him visiting his kid makes sense for him, even though he shouldn't have. What follows, however, confused me. Him getting into the car (not jacking another one) and driving away into the woods etc. didn't make much sense at all and kind of ruined his final moments. I like that that particular scene was foreshadowed in his David Lynch-esque fever dream in episode 3, but again, his actions leading up to that moment don't make much sense, other than him getting suicidal again for whatever reason. I would've preferred him getting out of that situation and meeting up with Ani, but I guess Pizzolatto wanted tragedy, which exactly what we got. Ray's message to his son not going through was tragic. The DNA-test proving it was his son even more so. Just shows how much his life got fucked over because of his ex-wife's rape. Though, Frank stated before that Ray was bound to do bad things anyways so, who knows, maybe he was bound to find himself in this downward spiral. Colin Farrel, like Vince Vaughn, did an amazing job.

I liked that Ani survived and gave the case to the journalist Ray beat up earlier this season, as requested by Frank. The fact that she got pregnant was a bit corny, but okay. I guess it gave Jordan a kid to look after and Ani a reason to get her shit together lol. Ani is probably the character that "grew the most", at least in terms of her getting out of most of her bad habits at the end of the season. She's pretty much the only one who managed to get out of the downward spiral. Rachel McAdams did a decent job at portraying the character, but was probably the least interestingly written. The romance between her and Ray felt forced as well, though I did buy it at the end.

Birdman's reveal wasn't really a surprise and therefore didn't particularly care about it. It gave us a tense scene, but that's about it. Same could be said for first season's reveal (of course, that one had much more going for it and was better executed). As for Woodrugh: the character wasn't really needed, but I didn't mind his story. He's another character that met his end because of his own flaws (in Paul's case, his denial), which has been a re-occuring theme this season. Ani's been the only one who didn't succumb to that.

All in all, I liked this season. There were a lot of standout moments for me: the bar scenes, Ray's fever dream, the shootout in ep 4 (though, it wasn't as well executed as I wish it would've been), the orgy scene with the classical music in the background, the underground shootout between Woudrugh and Catalyst and most of the finale's big moments (Ray and Frank's "heist", desert scene and woods scene). Of course, the season had major flaws, mostly execution and the way information got presented to the viewer. The overabundance of sub-plots hurt the story and made things unfocused and drawn-out, with multiple scenes basically being a rehash of one that came before it. A few examples of this are the scenes between Jordan and Frank and the ones with Frank negotiating with criminals about things we didn't really understand/care about. Still, I'd take this over most cop series on television, as it kept me interested and intrigued all the way through, despite its flaws. And there's just something about Pizzolatto's writing that makes True Detective different from other series, despite the occasional horrible line. I do hope season 3, if there's going to be one, gets a team of directors (2-3) that make sure everything stays consistent and focused, along with better editing and a co-writer to help Pizzolatto polish his script (and more time to write it).

Oh, and: stop overusing aereal shots.

7/10