As the penultimate episode, True Detective has positioned itself predictably for some end-of-the-season big showdown among our main characters. If they were relatable, interesting or even displayed decent acting, I'd probably care to be invested. But at this point it's been seven hours of the same snooze-fest, long and drawn out and ready to be put out of its misery. Vaughn continues to display his terrible acting ability, with laborious breaths taken between sentences, like an asthmatic grandpa sucking oxygen in a nursing home. Farrell's accent keeps changing from scene to scene, and half the time it's so overly gravelly it's unintelligible (and I don't care enough to rewind and understand him). Paul, who apparently was only there for collating documents, is killed off because he can't come to terms with who he really is. Ani throws herself at Ray, because hey that's what women do when they're in shock, right? And while we're at it, just throw in a bunch of random subplots and insubstantial characters from earlier in the season and stress their sudden importance. Remember that one girl, you know from the movie set who was randomly walking through with some paperwork? You were probably napping, I know I was, but she's important now. Probably has something to do with the murder(s), so keep an eye out in the finale.
I can't figure out if this season is so terrible because of the writing, the acting, the directing or some combination of the three. Perhaps it's because Pizzolatto is trying so hard to prove something, be that masculinity, sexual frustration, his take on drugs, corruption, or what it means to be a "bad man." He's shoving it so hard down our throats that's it's really an unpleasant experience, and a boring one at that. While I can agree with some that this episode reflected much of what made Season 1 so successful, there's still something about it that feels so tedious, and really so forgettable (ratings have shown that this last episode was the least watched of the season). I could easily go back and watch all of Season 1 from start to finish again. And probably again after that. But you'd have to pay me a significant amount of money to go back and re-watch any of this season. It's just not good. I really hope this season is a wake-up-call for Pizzolatto and takes his ego down a peg or two. With HBO apparently green- lighting another go at it, hopefully he can take some time to write a decent script and not rush out some overly- baked, overly-reaching piece of junk. Even more, I hope Pizzolatto can make amends with Cary Fukunaga, who at this point was so clearly the driving force and success behind the camera last season. Without him, we're stuck with this drivel, the same thing, over and over, and over again.
I can't figure out if this season is so terrible because of the writing, the acting, the directing or some combination of the three. Perhaps it's because Pizzolatto is trying so hard to prove something, be that masculinity, sexual frustration, his take on drugs, corruption, or what it means to be a "bad man." He's shoving it so hard down our throats that's it's really an unpleasant experience, and a boring one at that. While I can agree with some that this episode reflected much of what made Season 1 so successful, there's still something about it that feels so tedious, and really so forgettable (ratings have shown that this last episode was the least watched of the season). I could easily go back and watch all of Season 1 from start to finish again. And probably again after that. But you'd have to pay me a significant amount of money to go back and re-watch any of this season. It's just not good. I really hope this season is a wake-up-call for Pizzolatto and takes his ego down a peg or two. With HBO apparently green- lighting another go at it, hopefully he can take some time to write a decent script and not rush out some overly- baked, overly-reaching piece of junk. Even more, I hope Pizzolatto can make amends with Cary Fukunaga, who at this point was so clearly the driving force and success behind the camera last season. Without him, we're stuck with this drivel, the same thing, over and over, and over again.