True Detective on HBO

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby Rory » Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:58 am

If that was the only good scene in the whole series it will have been worth it. Incredible stuff
Rory
 
Posts: 1596
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:08 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby RocketMan » Mon Jul 13, 2015 2:38 pm

Rory » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:58 pm wrote:If that was the only good scene in the whole series it will have been worth it. Incredible stuff


Which scene is that? The final scene of the fourth episode? Pretty dynamic stuff it was.

Pizzolatto's stilted dialogue is growing on me, as his Colin Farrell's hangdog Velcoro.
-I don't like hoodlums.
-That's just a word, Marlowe. We have that kind of world. Two wars gave it to us and we are going to keep it.
User avatar
RocketMan
 
Posts: 2812
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:02 am
Location: By the rivers dark
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:20 pm

I feel like I'm giving away The Secret Fate of All Life, here, but: is anyone else re-watching these episodes? Most of my favorite lines have come from a careful re-examination. ("Nobody gets rich on their own money." For instance.) The idiot monkey brain wants lights, color, action - we're primed to see the setup, the lull, as meaningless. It's not, with this show. That's the actual meat.

I guess this does come down to motivation - if you're waiting for a comic book superhero to come through and avenge all evil on earth ... or trainspotting in hopes Pizzolatto somehow turns an HBO show into a documentary about Bohemian Grove ... then, surely, there's no reason to go back and inflict this horrible, pretentious, post-mod sellout on yourself again. But if you're enjoying True Detective for what it actually is, let me just say that repeated viewings are rewarding.

I felt like that climatic scene was superfluous, which really only added to the impact. So much was unveiled in the leadup to that shootout, it was already the strongest episode so far.

Have to admit I was bummed they killed Dixon, though. He was my favorite character so far.

Image
User avatar
Wombaticus Rex
 
Posts: 10896
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:33 pm
Location: Vermontistan
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby Laodicean » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:24 pm

^ He's Deadwood.
User avatar
Laodicean
 
Posts: 3334
Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:39 pm
Blog: View Blog (16)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:29 pm



Ahhhh. That's Dan. Thank you. Another time, another place, another me.
User avatar
Wombaticus Rex
 
Posts: 10896
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:33 pm
Location: Vermontistan
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby brekin » Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:02 pm

True Detective: We Get The W̶o̶r̶l̶d̶ TV Show We Deserve

Image
If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul
I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
User avatar
brekin
 
Posts: 3229
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:21 pm
Blog: View Blog (1)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby RocketMan » Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:49 am

Wombaticus Rex » Tue Jul 14, 2015 1:20 am wrote:I feel like I'm giving away The Secret Fate of All Life, here, but: is anyone else re-watching these episodes? Most of my favorite lines have come from a careful re-examination. ("Nobody gets rich on their own money." For instance.) The idiot monkey brain wants lights, color, action - we're primed to see the setup, the lull, as meaningless. It's not, with this show. That's the actual meat.

I guess this does come down to motivation - if you're waiting for a comic book superhero to come through and avenge all evil on earth ... or trainspotting in hopes Pizzolatto somehow turns an HBO show into a documentary about Bohemian Grove ... then, surely, there's no reason to go back and inflict this horrible, pretentious, post-mod sellout on yourself again. But if you're enjoying True Detective for what it actually is, let me just say that repeated viewings are rewarding.

I felt like that climatic scene was superfluous, which really only added to the impact. So much was unveiled in the leadup to that shootout, it was already the strongest episode so far.

Have to admit I was bummed they killed Dixon, though. He was my favorite character so far.

Image


Me and a friend always watch the previous episode before watching the new episode. It works. Pizzolatto does push it a bit with the dialogue, but at least he's trying for something different, though Cormac McCarthy he ain't. Be that as it may, I like his aggressively stilted style. Vince Vaughn, I feel, is killing it in his role.

Colin Farrell's hangdog washout is growing on me with each episode and Rachel McAdams is doing some of her strongest work.

"My strong suspicion is we get the world we deserve."
-I don't like hoodlums.
-That's just a word, Marlowe. We have that kind of world. Two wars gave it to us and we are going to keep it.
User avatar
RocketMan
 
Posts: 2812
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:02 am
Location: By the rivers dark
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby Forgetting2 » Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:00 am

My strong suspicion is we get the TV show we think we deserve :thumbsup
You know what you finally say, what everybody finally says, no matter what? I'm hungry. I'm hungry, Rich. I'm fuckin' starved. -- Cutter's Way
User avatar
Forgetting2
 
Posts: 406
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 4:19 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby Jerky » Wed Jul 15, 2015 1:42 pm

I'm glad I stuck with it until the fourth episode, because that's the one that has saved (for me) the series. I went back and re-watched all four episodes afterwards, and it hung together quite well.

It's not very RI - at least not as much as the first season - but it's pretty good TV. Loving Ferrell and McAdams. Vaughan, not so much.

Jerky
User avatar
Jerky
 
Posts: 2240
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 6:28 pm
Location: Toronto, ON
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby redsock » Fri Jul 17, 2015 3:52 pm

Have not watched this season yet, so avoiding the thread. Here's a Vanity Fair feature on Pizzolatto, if it hasn't already been posted.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/201 ... n-season-1
User avatar
redsock
 
Posts: 204
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Tue Jul 21, 2015 8:41 pm

Ugh, this just keeps getting better. The lamentations of the commentariat are like the best DVD bonus ever: Entire Staff of The Atlantic Not Capable of Following TV Show; True Detective: Why Does It Have To Be More Complex Than CSI: Miami?; I Live in LA But Don't Get Anything About This Because I Live on my Phone.

Anyways. Aside from...the arch, arch irony of the echo chamber saying they're more confused than ever after the first episode to completely lay everything out...this detail stuck with me. Early scene - Velcoro gets ambushed in his home by Burris, there's a strange tableaux of photos on the wall behind him:

Image

It's never nothing.

Anyways: I've tried introducing some friends to this show and a lot of them say it's hard to follow. Curious parallel: they're also the people in my life who are looking at their iPhones even while you're talking to them. Funny, that. Funnier still, I've gotten an older friend who did not like the first season just as enthusiastic as me about this second installment. She's from LA. She doesn't have an iPhone.

I'm really struck by the notion of using waste management companies to deliberately turn prime real estate into an EPA problem; I was involved in a project at the age of 18 documenting similar schemes here in Vermont. This is how real crimes get committed; this is also how real wealth gets, uh, "created." And careers get made.

Image
User avatar
Wombaticus Rex
 
Posts: 10896
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:33 pm
Location: Vermontistan
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:14 pm

Velcoro interviewing Pitler:

Velcoro:
You go back with the Chessanis. You put his first wife in a mental hospital.

Pitler:
I did everything I could for Elaine. Certain traditions of the Chessani patriarchs, she had a very hard time with. They're...you might say, a highly inventive family.


That's everything.

As a KWH sidenote - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Chessani

Earlier, Burris interviewing Velcoro...

Burris:
You and Teague...did he talk to you much, while you were working together?

Velcoro:
What did you come here for, Lieutenant?

Burris:
Learned some things about Dixon, wondered if you knew anything.

Velcoro:
Anything about what things?

Burris:
Well, he had a lot of photographs. Some other stuff. He might have been into some people.


We saw Dixon stalking - and photographing - bike cop Woodrough in episode 3. Curious to see how this angle plays out; my guess is that Dixon was more of an independent contractor type.
User avatar
Wombaticus Rex
 
Posts: 10896
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:33 pm
Location: Vermontistan
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby km artlu » Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:31 am

Wombat -- thanks for your recent posts here. They invariably enhance my understanding of TD2.

I'm onboard with Pizzolatto indefinitely. Fuck the flaws for the most part; he seems committed to the lifting of veils, and that alone counts for something. I read his novel "Galveston," and it's impressive in diverse ways, as is TD2 I believe.

The climactic shoot-out of Episode 4 made me curious about how he's navigating the borderline between bullshit entertainment and substantive dramatic exposition. That scene to me was pure unreal fantasy. I think the protocol of PDs across the US is along the lines of: officer(s) taking fire = hunker the fuck down and await the choppers, the APCs, the arrival of overwhelming numerical superiority. As opposed to raising one's fragile skull above cover into a stream of automatic weapons fire and bravely popping off a few 9mm rounds. Not.

I'm just asking the temporarily futile question of whether that scene was a conscious compromise to keep the numbers up, or whether the bitch-goddess of Hollywood is beginning to have her way with him.
km artlu
 
Posts: 414
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:47 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby RocketMan » Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:52 am

Yeah, I appreciate your posts as well, WombatRex. The critical consensus this time out is pretty brutal. I'm baffled by the line of criticism that says the series is hard to follow. Maybe it's just me having been marinating in this stuff for years now but the throughline is pretty clear to me.
-I don't like hoodlums.
-That's just a word, Marlowe. We have that kind of world. Two wars gave it to us and we are going to keep it.
User avatar
RocketMan
 
Posts: 2812
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:02 am
Location: By the rivers dark
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: True Detective on HBO

Postby Luther Blissett » Wed Jul 22, 2015 10:11 am

They've a lot to get through in the last few episodes.

I'm definitely on board with Dixon being an "independent contractor" of some kind. And nice catch on those photos of toys in various ceremonial poses. It certainly reminds me of season 1. I would love to see one wealthy Childress or Tuttle appear in the final episode.

I love entertainment with engaging backgrounds. That's why I loved It Follows so much.
Image
The Rich and the Corporate remain in their hundred-year fever visions of Bolsheviks taking their stuff - JackRiddler
User avatar
Luther Blissett
 
Posts: 4990
Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:31 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Blog: View Blog (0)

PreviousNext

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 36 guests