Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2015 16:26:32 GMT
I'm just going to copy what I wrote on tumblr:
Well, I’d been saying this since the beginning and was more and more sure of it with each bit of information we got on Season Two. The premiere cemented this.
True Detective Season 2 is not True Detective.
I honestly can’t figure out why this wasn’t just made into another show, rather than presented as the second season of an existing one, because it has almost nothing in common with the first Season.
Characters:
I think it’s pretty clear to see that S2 is taking a very different approach to the characters. S1 really only had 2 main characters, and only 3 that appeared regularly in more than one episode. In contrast to this, S2 has 4 main characters, and it appears just from the beginning that quite a few members of the supporting cast will be recurring characters.
S1 focused on it’s characters. They narrated events, we got to see their personal moments, we knew what they were thinking. It was very personal. Almost from the first episode, the audience really knew Rustin Cohle and Martin Hart.
S2 ditches the idea that the characters themselves are telling the story, and also ditches the very personal moments that S1 had. It’s a case of trying to place each of them in part of a larger picture. They aren’t the focus, and they aren’t at the center of things.
My immediate thought is that the changing role of the characters is meant to match the change in setting. Now that we’re in a large city, they try to make things more distant and impersonal, which I could dig if the cinematography supported that.
But it doesn’t. Instead, we have random shots of the city each time there’s a transition, and it seems the continued shots of highways are simply there because the director of Season One did that a lot. But, in Season One, it always showed Rust and Marty’s car, where they were going. It was, again, to drive that connection to those two characters.\
I would say that, perhaps the fact that it doesn’t track that characters is in support of this more lonely and distant focus on the characters, but it honestly seems more like the S2 director trying to copy the guy who worked on S1.
At the moment, I don’t know what to think of most of these characters… Where I was immediately drawn to Rust and Marty in Season One, I just kind of feel neutral about pretty much everyone in S2. Ray Velcora is the most entertaining to watch.
And despite me feeling kind of “meh” about most of the characters, the actors do a tremendous job. I just feel like i’m still trying to place who most of them are right now.
Story:
True Detective Season Two also seems to be a lot less focused with it’s story. It’s not until the end of the premiere episode that things start to become focused, and everything before that is just very confusing.
Season One started with a clear thread that the story would follow, and allowed that to grab that audiences attention before it started branching out and becoming complicated.
Things are already complicated in Season Two, and the attitude of the show seems to be saying to the audience, “sink or swim, but I’m going full speed ahead!”, so quite a lot of what happened was confusing, and it probably warrants being watches a second time.
Overall:
I’m sure it’ll get better. Even for a premiere episode, this wasn’t the greatest. And I highly doubt that it will ever compare to the first Season. Right now, it pretty much met my expectations… which is not a good thing. I’m waiting for it to surprise me in the next few episodes.
Oh, and one final note; they need to get rid of the music guy. Seriously, what was up with the drums? Also, the new intro sucks compared to the old one.
Well, I’d been saying this since the beginning and was more and more sure of it with each bit of information we got on Season Two. The premiere cemented this.
True Detective Season 2 is not True Detective.
I honestly can’t figure out why this wasn’t just made into another show, rather than presented as the second season of an existing one, because it has almost nothing in common with the first Season.
Characters:
I think it’s pretty clear to see that S2 is taking a very different approach to the characters. S1 really only had 2 main characters, and only 3 that appeared regularly in more than one episode. In contrast to this, S2 has 4 main characters, and it appears just from the beginning that quite a few members of the supporting cast will be recurring characters.
S1 focused on it’s characters. They narrated events, we got to see their personal moments, we knew what they were thinking. It was very personal. Almost from the first episode, the audience really knew Rustin Cohle and Martin Hart.
S2 ditches the idea that the characters themselves are telling the story, and also ditches the very personal moments that S1 had. It’s a case of trying to place each of them in part of a larger picture. They aren’t the focus, and they aren’t at the center of things.
My immediate thought is that the changing role of the characters is meant to match the change in setting. Now that we’re in a large city, they try to make things more distant and impersonal, which I could dig if the cinematography supported that.
But it doesn’t. Instead, we have random shots of the city each time there’s a transition, and it seems the continued shots of highways are simply there because the director of Season One did that a lot. But, in Season One, it always showed Rust and Marty’s car, where they were going. It was, again, to drive that connection to those two characters.\
I would say that, perhaps the fact that it doesn’t track that characters is in support of this more lonely and distant focus on the characters, but it honestly seems more like the S2 director trying to copy the guy who worked on S1.
At the moment, I don’t know what to think of most of these characters… Where I was immediately drawn to Rust and Marty in Season One, I just kind of feel neutral about pretty much everyone in S2. Ray Velcora is the most entertaining to watch.
And despite me feeling kind of “meh” about most of the characters, the actors do a tremendous job. I just feel like i’m still trying to place who most of them are right now.
Story:
True Detective Season Two also seems to be a lot less focused with it’s story. It’s not until the end of the premiere episode that things start to become focused, and everything before that is just very confusing.
Season One started with a clear thread that the story would follow, and allowed that to grab that audiences attention before it started branching out and becoming complicated.
Things are already complicated in Season Two, and the attitude of the show seems to be saying to the audience, “sink or swim, but I’m going full speed ahead!”, so quite a lot of what happened was confusing, and it probably warrants being watches a second time.
Overall:
I’m sure it’ll get better. Even for a premiere episode, this wasn’t the greatest. And I highly doubt that it will ever compare to the first Season. Right now, it pretty much met my expectations… which is not a good thing. I’m waiting for it to surprise me in the next few episodes.
Oh, and one final note; they need to get rid of the music guy. Seriously, what was up with the drums? Also, the new intro sucks compared to the old one.