OT: is anyone still watching True Detective?
93Grad. I agree...the show is a hot mess. Plot is all over the place. Poorly cliched writing. Predicitble story lines. Terrible editing (such as how Ray entered the plastic surgeons house yesterday before he killed him...and why did he kill him? So Ray is now a murderer by choice?)
Its idiotic TV....but somehow I cant stop watching. Maybe its the female detective lead. She has put on some pounds below but is very doable and sexy for some reason. Vince Vaughn is an absolute disaster and his lack of serious acting chops is being exposed big time.
So you are assuming that Ray killed Dr. Pitlor.
Watching Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams together post Wedding Crashers in this sullen drama is just mentally dissonant. It just doesn't compute. I keep waiting for Vaughn to crack a joke. He is just impossible to take seriously as a mob guy.
On the contrary. I think he is the weakest of the 4, but that has more to do with writing than his acting.
The scenes he has with his wife are excruciating to watch. I read that she is supposed to have a more prominent role in the final 3 episodes, which I'm hoping will turn out ok.
I don't think he's a great actor, but the writing isn't doing him any favors. I don't know the actress who plays his wife, but she's a miserable actor. Those scenes are so hard to watch. I know they want me to care if they can have a kid or not, but I really don't care about those two characters at all.
RS Review pretty much sums it up..
http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/recaps/true-detective-recap-blue-balls-i…
Its too bad... I used to work in Vinci...er Vernon, CA so it brings back sense memories to me of the smell of the meat packing plant on Santa Fe Ave....and the shots of CA from the grimy Vinci to the Ventura coast are very beautiful.
It's not up to the level of the last season but few things are. I get a kick out of the ridiculous things Vince Vaughn's character says and feel like they're overwrought on purpose. Also think Colin Farrell is doing an amazing job.
I'm still watching, but it took a HUGE change in perspective to keep me watching. I realized that instead of enjoying a compelling story with interesting characters that I was laughing regularly. That shootout was hilarious! And that they were the only 3 left standing? Completely realistic!
There are only two more episodes left. Maybe the show can have a "oh, that explains everything" moment. This "who did you have me kill and why?" conversation may be interesting... not enough to really make me care, but there are only 2 episodes left. There's not that much on TV right now.
Basically if this were a 23 epidode season I would have checked out already and had no interest. As it is, I may have mentioned there are only two episodes left. I can watch them and have a full perspective on how this season is at about a D- level in comparison to season 1.
It will be interesting to see if they make a season 3, and if so what they learned from this season.
To sum it up, there are two new series this season that I am watching. This & Dark Matter. They are both laughably bad. At least Dark Matter realizes it's a cheap, bad show. When the hot chick in Dark Matter says "Stop staring at my ass" it's funny because the show is making fun of itself. When McAdams says her whole "Size Queen" monologue it's funny because they wrote this thinking it was good. (It isn't.)
Dammit. I just saw that this was only episode 5. There's 3 left? That's disappointing. I'd be much happier with only two. :(
That makes me realize that TD2 has become 2014 Michigan Football. Can we just get to the end? Please?
Season 1 was just a really special show, and while Season 2 is not terrible, it is decidely average.
One of the biggest issues with this Season 2 is that it simply lacks a focal point for the story. Season 1 always kept you focused on the central mystery around the cult behind the murder of Dora Lange, and pulled you in with subtle clues were revealed in each episode. Obviously Rust's character and his nihilistic philosopy added an extra dimension to the show, but that never took aware from the main narrative. It was also thematically consistent as much of Rust's philosophy (M-brane theory, e.g. "Time is a flat circle") tied directly into what we learned about the Yellow King cult (heavy references to rebirth and reincarnation).
This season has so much going on, that the central storyline almost seems like an afterthought. Does anybody even care who killed Caspere any more? We know it has to do with a bunch of well connected officials in Vinci and some extremely vague refernces to some weird sexual practices that Caspere might have been into, but barely know more than we did in Episode 1.
Unfortunately the narrative gets so lost with so much time spent flipping between four different characters and their individual flaws that you almost forget there is supposed to be a mystery to be solved.
And the characters themselves are such overwrought cliches. An alcoholic cop with a busted marriage? A female cop trying to prove she's as tough as all the guys? A reformed gangster getting reluctantly pulled back into the street life? There's very little ground here that hasnt been covered in an episode of Law & Order.
Episodes 4 and 5 have been better, so im hoping they manage to salvage the rest of the season and that it ends up like Season 2 of The Wire and not like every M. Night Shyamalan movie after the Sixth Sense.
I think this season has been the victim of impossible expectations (given the season 1 masterpiece) and critical group think. The initial slowness combined with lackluster reviews lead people to just start pilling on the show. Having said that, it is by no means great or even that good. Its very "meh" for the exact reasons you mention - a scattered plot line and no paticularly interesting characters. But I am definetly intrigued enough to keep watching, which is the most important test for me. Its like a 6.5 at the bar - just good enough to take home after a few drinks, but you're not going to be telling every guy you know about her.
[some spolier coming if you are catching up on it]
It was a truly ground breaking performance/program and season 2 isn't as good, but it is not terrible. Season 1 is just a tough act to follow.
I like everyone in season 2, with the exception of Kitsch as he is just re-hashing his role in Friday Night Lights as the disassociated, tortured hot guy with a dark past that broods and makes bad life decisions. Uhm....hide $20k in a bag in your washed up "Mom's" trailer then throw a tantrum when she finds/blows it?
I am okay with Vaughan's acting, but the writing for his character/story line is a mess, I mean....the ex-gangster trying to go legit and getting pulled back into his past life when some clandestine rival starts knocking people off and coming for him....that I can deal with, but all that WHILE he struggles with failed IVF and a weepy girlfriend who wants to fight with him about his "anti-adoption" attitude....a bit much there.
Well said. Season 1 was great and I think people are measuring it up against that. In a vacuum S2 could be decent, but I think we're all biased. I'm still waiting for it all to play out too.
Wire S2 when they flipped to the docks really confused people too, but eventually people have started to understand it more in light of the entire narrative of the show. Could be possible we see the same thing with TD, but also could just be that it's not as good of a season. I like the Chinatown-esque plot idea, but it's been slow moving and seems like there is going to be a lot to wrap up.
McAdams has been good in the role as has Farrel. I just can't buy Vince Vaughn's character in the early episodes. He's gotten better as the show has progressed, but it's very hard for me to remove him from suddenly telling his girlfriend she's so money and she doesn't even know it. That scene were he stared at the water spots should have been haunting, but Vaughn simply couldn't pull it off for me.
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So a better question might be why he did an HBO show at all, the opposite of your point.
Ray Donovan is a "fixer". Does contracts for people. It's an amazing show and Liev Schreiber is amazing in it. So is Jon Voight. If you have a chance, watch the first season and get caught up. This new season is turning out to be even better.
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Come on man, there's more plot to it than that...
Despite my wife and others urging me to watch season 1 of TD, I just haven't, nor do I have plans to watch season 2, especially after this thread. Then again, also took me until right before season 3 to start watching Game of Thrones and right before season 4 to watch Boardwalk Empire.
As for HBO in general, I'll occasionally watch John Oliver, but right now, I'm biding my time waiting for Hard Knocks and season 2 of The Leftovers.
Leftovers was sooooo depressing, I hated that show, made it through 2 eps before I gave up. Season 1 of TD was very good, but season 2 is an average cop show, nothing special. Boardwalk empire was good, but never really blew me away. GoT and Westworld are the only things on HBO that I am looking forward to. For a premium channel, HBO's summer lineup has been very dissapointing. Shows like Mr robot, Hannibal, and even a wayward pines are much better than anything on here. Ray Donovan is solid too, I don't share the same lovefest with it that most on here do, but it is solid.
The Leftovers can be extremely depressing, in a profound way. I think it's the mark of a great show that it can effect my own emotions show much. By stopping after 2 episodes, you missed a great one. Episode 3 ("Two Boats and a Helicopter") on it's own is one of the greatest single episodes of TV I've ever watched. It helps that it was entirely focused on Chris Ecceslston, who is an amazing actor.
are making a mistake by not watching True Detective season 1. You sound like you know your television/movies. TD season 1 is very good. It is a joke that it did not clean up at the Emmys. It was the best thing on TV last year by a wide margin. There are about two episodes that are only rivaled by Baelor(GOT) and Ozymandius(BB) for the best episodes of any show I have every seen. Watch it man. It is worth the 8 hours.
While I liked season 1 of TD, I enjoyed season 1 and 2 of Hannibal much more. Leftovers was not my cup of tea. I watched the first 2 eps and really didn't care for it. It would have never clicked for me, it just wasn't interesting enough.
If you like shows like that, then you absolutely must watch season 1 of True Detective. Its like absolutely nothing before seen on televison (or apparently since).
Yep. Love it. Season two seems to be moving much more smoothly than Season one.
Is there a reason to stay after Colin Farrell shaved his moustache? I liked the first season, and I usually dislike Colin Farell, but his acting this season is the only reason I keep watching. That and I still have my free HBO pass for a few more weeks.
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On the comic con panel of Person of Interest, Jonathan Nolan said that early next year will be the start of Westworld. If Westworld is as good as Person of Interest, then we are all in for a treat. When Person of Interest gets on Netflix in Sept, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes action, suspense, artificial intelligence, sci fi, government coruption, it has it all. POI is the only 22-23 ep show that just never lets up, and each season is better than the next.
Gave up. I have enough negativity in my life.....
I'm still watching it. It's picking up steam with Vaugh and Farrell about to go at it and the firefight a couple episodes ago was one of the best segments I've seen on television.
Everyone seems to be praising the first season, but if anyone remembers, the first half of season one was pretty boring. I'm pretty sure the only reason I got through the first half was because I wasn't waiting for it every week and binged watch the hell out of it because people said to just give it a chance.
I agree on the points that some of these characters aren't as fleshed out as Woodys and MM. But, those are two great actors of our era. Can't expect every show to be a Breaking Bad, GOT, or Walking Dead.
In retrospect the last season of GOT was pretty damn stale outside of a few episodes (especially the Dorn scenes).
You never know, the last couple episodes could be epic.
just made some really bad decisions. I thought the majority of the content this season was really good, but there were some MAJOR errors in the direction of the story that really blew up the entire season. I don't know exactly what GRRM has planned for Stannis, but I can tell you without any hesitation that it will not involve burning his daugther alive. There was a lot of great stuff involving Stannis in season 5 but they managed to make it all completely insignificant in about five minutes. I did not get it all.
If you have not done so, watch Rectify. That may actually be the best show on TV right now.
Yea and they left out a huge story arc from the books that I loved so much. Such disappoint. Maybe they will put it in next season. *crosses fingers*
I started watching Mr. Robot, which I'm liking quite a lot so far. It's kind of a dark, vigilante story - a gritty and much more realistic take on a skilled hacker. He's sort of like a superhero in that he has "powers" of obtaining every scrap of private information about nearly anyone or anything. The plot revolves around the protagonist's struggle with his own mental issues and worldview, how he chooses to use his power based on criticisms of our culture, values, what's right, what's not right, etc. Very interesting.
Favorite show on TV right now. I like how it's narrated by him, kind of like Fight Club.
I'm definitely seeing a lot of Fight Club infused into it! The counter-culture elements, the commentary on consumerism, the idea of starting a revolution, the slightly anarchistic feel of the "project", and even the questionable reality of the main character himself. I just hope we don't have the exact same reveals, that it's all in his head or whatever.