True Detective Season 2

After an excellent first season, True Detective returned with the critically panned second season. I am honestly not sure if I saw this season when it came out a decade ago, but I don’t remember any of it so I might as well have been watching it for the first time.

This season has some A-list talent and gives their characters intriguing backstories that could make for compelling TV. Somehow, it misses completely. Even the scenes that are clearly meant to be Emmy material or at least emotional just come across as boring. The best I can come up with is that all of the main characters essentially boil down to people at their low point learning they are basically good, so there is no contrast between them during conversations. There is minimal chemistry, and I didn’t end up caring about any of the characters at the end of the season.

The story is also overly complex. There are so many side characters that have minimal screen time and then are mentioned repeatedly throughout the season that I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. All of these characters play roles in some complicated scheme that could have been interesting if it was simplified significantly.

The pacing was also pretty horrible. Particularly the last two episodes, I was just wishing I had a 1.5x speed option. That’s never a good sign, and although there was some potential and some good scenes, this season is just bad. I give it a 3.