So the True Detective Season 2 premiere finally got here. And it’s already got 100% more black cock dildos than the first season. Progress!
The new title sequence plays out to the backdrop of Leonard Cohen’s Nevermind and already sets a different, lighter tone than last season’s. In-between the “dark ominous tones” the score throws in some jazz noir as a sort of “hey, let’s not try to LeBron-Jordan this shit and just take it how it comes, ok?” You got that Huffington Post? GALLL!
That’s probably the best way for this show to go anyway; no matter what season 2 would bring, there’s probably no way that it can top season 1. So..might as well try to distance themselves a tad.
That’s not to say that this season won’t be interesting. The character stories begin building around the simple fact that everyone’s fucked up. Everyone’s got problems. Cops are ESPECIALLY fucked up, and it’s a pretty good reminder of that actually.
This year’s version of Rust Cohle is Vinci City Detective Velcoro, played by Collin Farrell; a single dad with, you guessed it, an alcohol problem.
No bits and pieces of self-narrated existentialist thoughts. Just some discombobulated vulnerable guy with a cop’s power; cue Vince Vaughn’s Frank Semyon, California entrepreneur who sees gold in California’s newly administered cross-state transit system. Semyon uses Velcoro to help keep the law at bay, an agreement that stems from earlier incidents that explain the birth of Velcoro’s illegitimate son.
In a huge shift in her career, Rachel McAdams takes on the role of Detective Ani Bezzerides. Yes, Bezzerides (Side note: this was written by a guy with the last name Pizzolatto, but still, what the fuck?). Detective Bezzerides Ventura County Sheriff’s department, and she has got the weirdest fucking family in history. Her sister works in porn, her father is some spiritual guidance professor, and her mother’s dead. That’s a Thanksgiving I’d pay cash to see.
The one role I think most people had their doubts about was Taylor Kitsch’s. I won’t argue and say that his performance didn’t come off slightly flat because it certainly did. Kitsch plays an ex-Army, California Highway Patrol with some strange scars and the need for Viagra to help keep his dick up from being distracted by, umm…being alive? Not sure where they were going with that.
They are all connected by the disappearance, and subsequent cadaver discovering, of Vinci City Planner Ben Casper, who has solid ties with Semyon and his plans with the transit system, and we’re all left with the “ohh ok” moment that will get the season rolling.
It’s important to note that last year’s casting, as well as this year’s, is about taking people who we aren’t used to seeing in these kind’s of roles and helping them mold into someone completely different. That’s the role of the director; to take actors and push them into pushing themselves into becoming something they’re not used to and making it look easy.
This is where I bring up that previous year’s director Cary Fukunaga’s absence could be felt. But this all goes back to knowing that Nic Pizzolatto is trying to distant this season from the first, so let’s just take this show one episode at time.