I Need A Hero
I really liked the first season of True Detective. It was a wild and magical story with a lot of mumbo jumbo and talk about Time being a Flat Circle. It was also pretty clear who the two main stars of the show were. Lots of people came and went, but our two detectives were the stars. I have no idea who the hell’s supposed to be the main character in HBO’s True Detective Season 2.
With a dozen or so people sharing screen time, and four people who seem to be sort-of main characters, the story can’t really be all that tight. I’m also having a pretty hard time accepting usually funny man Vince Vaughn as a mobster with a tortured soul. After two episodes there is the now mandatory Game of Thrones moment, which lacks all of the drama or impact of Game of Thrones.
It’s a violent show, though not as violent as the first season. Not yet anyway.
For me the problem is an all too familiar one. This is a show about Bad People doing Bad Things. Which is not a problem as long as they are bad people we like. I loved Walter White and wanted him to get up from the floor and hop in the car with Jesse. I really hate most of the people on Game of Thrones and enjoy seeing them killed and humiliated each week. But those are relationship that took some time to build. That first shocking death on Game of Thrones was shocking because we all thought Ned was going to be the Hero.
The people we find in True Detective Season 2 could all die next week and no one would shed a tear or give a damn.
On the plus side, Nevermind by Leonard Cohen is a pretty good theme song. Though not quite as good as “Far From Any Road (Main Title Theme from “True Detective Season 1”) by The Handsome Family.
