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True Detective on HBO

cookoutdeac said:
I knew that, but wtf did he even shout out "You want to give me a ride?!" in the first place, that instigated the entire suit confrontation needlessly. He had to know cartel guys weren't going to be nice all of a sudden and give him a lift back into town.
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Well, he could have died in the desert without water. It's unclear how far out there he was.
 
deacondamo said:
Well, he could have died in the desert without water. It's unclear how far out there he was.
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I still think you either take your chance w/ the desert or at least offer money like nonny suggested above, you don't shout out condescendingly "Hey, you guys gonna give me a ride or what!?" or whatever he said. But like I mentioned earlier, that wasn't even the most boneheaded move of the episode, so whatever..
 
Just finished the finale. Way too many plot items that were too difficult to follow. I really couldn't tell you what the main story was about other than real estate.

From the earlier post, the killer/prostitute siblings seem like they should've been very important, but they really weren't.

In the last scene, did it show Colin Farrell really is the red-headed kid's son? How was that still up in the air? I couldn't remember his name, so I wasn't sure who was on the letter.
 
The Mexicans had a grave dug. They said lie down. He was getting stabbed regardless.
 
pinochadeac said:
The Mexicans had a grave dug. They said lie down. He was getting stabbed regardless.
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They dug that before he gave them a million in cash... go rewatch it (if you can stand to), they were all getting in their cars to drive on their merry little way.
 
it was colin/ray's kid. they said a few eps ago his ex was going to get the paternity test for closure and prove he was not ray's and she wanted him out of their life. 1 of 2 ain't bad i guess.

still such a mess. was the land deal the main story? maybe it was the diamonds. how about the riot murders or the revenge murders? maybe it was the vast corruption in the town? maybe the main story was a meta-noir take about having to care for story lines that were impossible to care about because you couldn't understand it until it was spelled out in exposition that they needed so they could wrap up that mess. maybe it's about the characters so poorly drawn you could not give one sh!t about them despite them making some impressive attempts at saving it with their work.

then again...

inthefade-for-my-daughter-because-she-just
 
deaconson said:
it was colin/ray's kid. they said a few eps ago his ex was going to get the paternity test for closure and prove he was not ray's and she wanted him out of their life. 1 of 2 ain't bad i guess.

still such a mess. was the land deal the main story? maybe it was the diamonds. how about the riot murders or the revenge murders? maybe it was the vast corruption in the town? maybe the main story was a meta-noir take about having to care for story lines that were impossible to care about because you couldn't understand it until it was spelled out in exposition that they needed so they could wrap up that mess. maybe it's about the characters so poorly drawn you could not give one sh!t about them despite them making some impressive attempts at saving it with their work.

then again...

inthefade-for-my-daughter-because-she-just
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Didn't the DA or whoever (the one who got them back into the case) say they matched it to rapist? I guess that was a lie just to confuse everyone.
 
bym051d said:
Didn't the DA or whoever (the one who got them back into the case) say they matched it to rapist? I guess that was a lie just to confuse everyone.
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the dna from her rape kit. not the kid's dna.
 
So I was texting Townie this earlier, so I figured I'd share here.

I think one of the brilliant devices in the narrative structure of Season 1 was the frame narrative between the detectives in '92 (flashbacks - first investigation of the murder) and '12 (interviewed by the present cops). We as the audience are grounded in the knowledge we glean from how different these two men are. In '12, MM is an alcoholic wash-up with severe nihilism and paranoia. Similarly, WH is divorced, regretful, and aloof. As we watch the detectives in '92, we recall how different they eventually become in '12. We watch the scenes that occur in '92 with the knowledge that they will impart on their trajectories that their flawed characters will take them.
In a way, it's like the characters occupied the same space, but in different times.

Season 2 tried to bring the detectives together in the different order. The characters operated in the same time (no real flashbacks), but in many different spaces. Especially with four protagonists, dozens of secondary and tertiary characters, it became too muddled. We weren't grounded with any kind of solid foundation of knowledge at any time; hell, we at least knew that MM and WH wouldn't be killed during the first half of the season because they obviously made it to '12. I think that's one of the reasons why events like Farrell's rubber bullets deus ex machina as well as Kitsch's murder (both in the final scenes of their respective episodes) just seemed so insignificant without in-depth character development.
 
Not to mention the flashbacks in season one were awesome because they were paired with secrecy - sometimes you'd hear them tell something that was accurate. Sometimes they'd fudge specifics which were then highlighted when the scene showed something different. Other times (like the raid on gasmask dude) you'd listen to a complete fabrication of the event and you'd know some big moment was on the way to explain the divergence (Marty losing it). You also didn't know until halfway through whether the two detectives really trusted each other at all.

I like that they didn't copy the exact same mechanism... But the replacement was a pretty big fail. Same level of secrecy that I guess was supposed to get clarified as they became dependent on each other and tried to survive the outside world? Maybe it could have worked but the redemption moments (Ray with kid, bezzerides talking about her abduction, Woodrugh being in the closet, Frank's inferiority complex as an outsider wannabe gangster) were forced and still pretty dark or convoluted. Plus you kept expecting the four of them to do something together but all the action happens alone or in short-lived pairs.

Lots of potential and some good performances... Oh well.
 
Bad season. Decent finale, all things considered. The 2nd half of the season was much better than the first, but it still had all the same awkward dialogue and bad plot development. It just didn't put me to sleep like the 1st half did.

They need somebody else to write season 3, or at least get him some help. It was just awful writing, and that kind of shit doesn't get better with time. Sorry, Ruskin. I know you probably jizzed over the Malick-esque death scene with Colin Farrell gazing into the trees, but too little, too late. The only thing this season demonstrated is that you can have great performances, great photography, and great atmostphere, but you still need a decent plot and dialogue.
 
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