Sunday, August 16, 2015

 

Final Thoughts on the Second True Detective

All the lead men were killed. The lead woman survived and had a male child by the pointlessly dead Farrell. Hmmmm. There were a lot of bad father/son relationships. Almost nothing but, in fact; and, in the end, sons and mothers only. Does the head writer have a problem with his dad? Even the bad Russian before Vaughn shot him in the head 8 times said, I was like a father to you. The vengeful murderer of the McGuffin, evil Vinci treasurer, held it together until the big black police chief revealed the murdered treasurer was the father of his sister and maybe him. Then he went nuts and stabbed the chief (although the helpful police officers actually killed the chief when shooting up his already killed killer). So, I liked it. Sue me.


Vaughn's death was stagey but unavoidable. He had given up the cash, so he wasn't going to give up the diamonds, but why did the much smaller Mexican gangster want the suit? Stupid.


Kitsch's death was also unavoidable. He shouldn't have made it out of the tunnels. You can't watch your back 100% of the time.


But Farrell's death was avoidable and stupid. I get it that he's not bringing down the bad guys on McAdams and I guess he's heading to the high country to make sure the bad guys are occupied until McAdams clears the 3 mile limit. But there are actual ways to lose the tail. First, actually pry off transponder. What was it attached with marine epoxy? (I know he decided to lead the bad guys away and save McAdams). Go to a mall, park, hijack a car and then drive around until McAdams clears the 3 mile limit. Or pull over on the busy highway, dump out half the money, conspicuously on the side of the road, but in a way it will take them a long time to pick it up. I promise you the bad guys will stop for the money. It looks like he has several million in the bag he trips over and abandons in the high country. Did Vaughn go halfsies with him?


The best hook of the first season was not that our true detectives weren't willing to be bad guys now and again, but that they were clever enough to go that way and face no charges, that is, to get away with it. Not here. None of the male detectives got away with it. And worse, they failed to get away with it in stupid ways. Kitsch knows for a fact he's going to die if he meets his lover/buddy, but he goes anyway. He is in no way facing charges, just an outing. Oh the humanity, people might know he's gay! The lure of raising a son is insufficient to make him want to live (back to bad father/son relations again). Farrell is just the opposite. He screws up by wanting to see his (actual, who knew?) son just one more time, but he's willing to die not knowing he's got another one on the way (is that what passes for irony in today's media?).


So a little bit slow and moody. Very much a bummer even though justice was done for about 40% of the real bad guys (every male not Vaughn, Kitsch, or Farrell). The extremely evil Mexicans skated. The evil son of the Mayor became Mayor, and the murderer of Kitsch and Farrell suffered only a flesh wound. And the writing and music were not as good as the first season. Still, as I said, I liked it.

Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?