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There are lots of bad TV shows. But IMHO, True Detective season 2 is achieving world class awfulness.
I'm talking Plan 9 from Outer Space type of awfulness, the type of show people will watch for decades to come, memorize lines, and find entertaining in comedic ways that were never originally intended.
Well, that's the level I'm enjoying it right now, and on that level, I'm actually looking forward to the 90 minute finale.
And I found a recapper on my wavelength. And the recap is entertaining in its own right.
Follow Ups:
Plot Summary, True Detective Season 2.
Who killed Ben Caspere?! Opening episode. We know that the killer wore a bird mask. (a large Crow/Raven mask.) Ben Caspere was the city manager of Vinci, California. He was a business partner with Frank Seymon (Vince Vaughan). He was a patient of Dr. Irving Pitlor (Rick Springfield). We also know, from visiting his home, that Ben was into some wierd sex.
Frank Seymon had given Ben $5 million, together with a $5 million investment from Russian-Israeli gangster Osip Argonov (Timothy V. Murphy) in order to secure a parcel of land from The Catalyst Group.
The land is thought to have potential for high return because of a planned high-speed rail project scheduled to run through it. To sell to the govt at a higher price. Etc.
Caspere was killed before he could turn his money over to Catalyst. With Caspere's death, Frank is out $5 million and broke. Osip pulls out of the deal with Frank.
Frank had sold his waste management business in order to raise the $5 million to invest in the land parcel. Now broke he muscles into a club he previously had operated by killing the current operator. He literally pulls all of the teeth out of the guy. This is where Frank meets with a Mexican drug Cartel that had been doing business with the previous operator. Now, Frank lets these Cartel members know that they can get lost. (ultimately this proves not to be a smart move)
Blake Churchman. Former right hand man to Frank, but discovered to have been operating behind Frank's back. Blake explains, before he dies at Frank's hands, that Caspere was in cahoots with Osip. Osip was smuggling girls out of Eastern Europe into California (for prostitution) and buying up liens on Frank's two clubs, Vinci Gardens Casino and Lux Infinitum. When Caspere died his shares of Catalyst were reabsorbed by the company and redistributed to Osip and Tony Chessani, the mayor's son.
The Sex Parties. Our protatgonists Ray, Ani and Paul, while investigating the death of Caspere discovered that he was involved in planning and operating regular high-end sex parties for the rich and powerful. At these parties these folks did business and then had sex with drugged women supplied by Osip and his slave prostitute trade. Blake was another of the organizers for these parties. Yet another figure in the sex parties is Dr. Pitlor, the plastic surgeon who did major/minor cosmetic touch-ups to the women imported from Eastern Europe by Osip. Transforming the women into top drawer product. Caspere and Tony Chessani (Mayor's son) had used these parties as a way to acquire blackmail material - photos, video -on all the powerful guests.
Where is all the blackmail material -- On Caspere's missing hard drive, that's where. Episode 2, Ray, on a trip from Frank, checked out Caspere's secret apartment. There he saw a video camera hooked up to a hard drive. Before Frank could react, an individual in a Crow's mask shot him with a shot gun loaded with riot shells. Ray survived because riot shells aren't supposed to be lethal. When Ray woke up, the hard drive was gone.
Next question; who is on that hard drive? Answer; Evidently plenty of rich and powerful folks.
What about the Blue Diamonds.
In photos found by Ani while evicting Vera from her apartment. It turns out that Vera and her sister Dani had been part of Osip's slave prostitute trade. Another prostitue, Tasha had been close with Caspere and also had been trying to blackmail some of the johns from the sex parties. Tasha had sent some damning photographs to Dani showing Caspere associating with women wearing blue diamonds at one of the sex parties. After Caspere's death, a group of blue diamonds had been found in his safe deposit box.
When Ani got the photos of the blue diamonds she went on a search for them. She found that the diamonds had gone missing. It turns out that a number of cops on the Vinci Police Force knew about the diamonds, even before Caspere's death. They knew this because they were the ones who originally stole them in 1992. Two masked men took $2.5 million in blue diamonds from a jewelry store during the LA Riots. We learn in the 7th episode that it was Dixon and Burris who comitted the robbery. Then precinct accountant Ben Caspere and Chief Holloway knew of the robbery and were complicit in the crime.
Detail of the robbery. The jewelry store owners were executed by the robbers (Dixon & Burris). Their two young children, boy and girl, were witness to the slayings but stayed hidden from the robbers. These two children will figure into the plot with the boy (grown up by now) as the one who has been wearing the crow's mask.... And this is how the blue diamonds figure into Caspere's death.
Burris kills officer Paul Woodrough. Because Burris suspects Woodrough has documents stolen from The Catalyst Group that will make complicit all the parties involved in this illegal land grab. (what, insider trading?). But Woodrough doesn't have the documents on him and dies before the corrupt cops can extract any information as to the whereabouts of said docs. It turns out that the stolen documents went to Venzuela with Ani where she gave them to a journalist to use as evidence against those who participated. Presumably, when the story breaks out, justice will be served to those who participated in the scheme.
Characters:
re: Frank. Ultimately he got his just deserts at the hands of the Cartel gangsters. That was Frank's own fault. He really should not have stiffed them like he did in episode 3. Those Cartel guys seem to behave like predators. the only way to deal with them is to be an even bigger predator, or they kill you. Like they killed Frank.
I did take some gratification when Frank offed Osip with several pistol shots point blank. That back-stabbing dirty-dealing slave-trading scumbag Russian gangster had it coming.
At his life's end we see Frank as a minor gangster falling well short of his ambitions in life.
re: Ray. His kid. I had figured for sure the kid could not have been his. It had to be the progeny of his wife's rapist. But in the final episode we see on the results of the dna paternity test that his son was in fact his blood. That kid sure did not look the part. Total opposite.
Ray's demeanor. A hothead. Given to unreasonable fits of anger. And the probable reason for his son's inability to hold his own among his peers at school. In his fits, Ray brow-beats his son into a state of fight/flight.....and the son has no option but to tremble with a profound fear of his father. (There is some truth in this portrayal)
Ray is a killer. When Frank offered him a clue about his former wife's rapist, Frank offed the guy. We saw him do it in episode 1.
Given to heavy drinking. Hard booze. Whiskey. Behaves a bit like a Rummy. He seems incompetent at his work as a detective. He quits the force and goes to work for Frank as ahem, security (read muscle). He seemed more fit for this life than that of a police detective.
After being shot-gunned (with riot shells) in the abdomen by the guy in the bird mask, and he recovers, Ray gets the fear of death in him. He sobers up and starts behaving more rational and normal. I think Farrel portrays this change in character quite well. The subtleties of cleaning up one's act and the effect it makes on day to day life. We see this as we watch Ray play out the rest of the series. He becomes less surly, more competent and reasonable.
It was a given, though that Ray would always have a fatal flaw. His weakness. His son. He just could not leave the country without one last look at his son. If not for that, he'd have made it to Venezuela. But, predictably, he went to the exact spot where his hunters knew he'd go. That led to his demise, and he knew it would before he even went there. Ray was an irrational being. It was this that made him predictable.
re: Ani (Rachel McAcams). Perhaps the most likeable character. The least flawed. A hardened and competent cop. Smart and determined. She survives because she plays it smart.
re: Paul Woodrough (Taylor Kitsch). Flawed and with a weakness. It was his weakness that made him an obvious victim for blackmailers. (A taste for the boys) As it turns out it was the corrupt cops, posing as blackmailers, who lured him into a killing zone where he was ultimately gunned down by the police Lieutenant Burris. The corrupt Burris shot him in the back. Twice.
re: Jordan Seymon. Franks's wife played by Kelley Reilly. Another character that seems without flaw. Loyal to the last to her husband, Frank Seymon. It was clear that she'd have done anything to help out. But Frank kept her safe and out of harms way.
Just a few of the more prominent characters.
All in all, I wasn't that disappointed with this series.
None of this mess I've written is complete but it helps me to digest the series and then move on, hopefully, to something more worthy.
-Steve
Wouldn't that be swell to do? LOL. Just shoot me.
I think I know all I want....and I've had closure, so I can move on now.
(grins)
-Steve
I'm not surprised at the final outcome. The survivors and the dead.
First they take your reputation, then they kill you. But there was a final accounting for all participants.
-Steve
Ray is headed for a hookup with Bezzerides who he has connected with for an escape to Mexico and VZ, has millions of dollars, and does the 1 and only thing that can get him killed. All he has to do is keep on freekin driving but noooooo.. I guess it was in the cards for him to die from the get go.I somehow thought Frank was gonna make it out of the dessert, funny, I was rooting for him more than any of the other 3. Ol' Vince did ok in his role....
----------------------
"E Burres Stigano?"
Edits: 08/11/15
from previous episodes, although it was still pretty bad.
The murder mystery was pretty much figured out last week. This week, Ray just had to conveniently remember that the brother looked just like a guy who was working on a movie, then call the union to quickly find his house, where conveniently the sister was shackled and ready to explain it all.
Meanwhile Frank repeats over and over, 2 weeks, but the aware viewer knows that he won't make that meeting in white.
So the alcoholic mayor and the plastic surgery doc are killed off and the hard drive has erased itself, as loose ends tie themselves up.
Frank's little revenge/greed rampage goes great and Osip is quickly dispatched. A nice scene to see at least one scumbag get his comeuppance.
Then the plot goes all to hell again. Ray takes a short detour to see his son, who gives him a bizarre salute of respect. Ray sees a transponder on his car, tries briefly to remove it, then does the exact opposite of what anybody would do. Gets in and drives anyway. Suicidal? Stupid? Anyway, he chose death and got it.
Frank meanwhile is accosted by completely minor characters, gives them a million bucks cash, but then gives up his life over his suit. Was it because there were diamonds in the suit? Or was he also suicidal?
As he dies, he sees some fairly absurd flashbacks, but we have 90 minutes to fill after all.
And most of the bad guys got was they deserved, our flawed main characters got their just desserts for their murderous lives, but some of the bad guys got their political dynasties and train corridor wealth.
So it makes a big point about life or something like that.
But Ray's sperm turns out to be more powerful than he suspected. So in death, he has that.
It's all pretty silly and a fitting end to a series that seemed to just be making it up as it went along the whole way through.
At least the finale did not drag for me, something I have had problems with in earlier episodes.
You mention Frank not giving up his suit. I think it was a ruse to get in close for a slow execution by stabbing. Frank did have balls in the way he conducted himself in the desert--just like he was in charge.
Yep, wanted to see Frank make it out and thought Ray sacrificed himself to make sure his squeeze made it. Funny how he drove into the forest as far as his gas would take him--no turning back.
If the redhead--Vince Vaughn's wife--doesn't bare those breasts in the final episode, we've all wasted our time. No flames please...
It's sad but now that she's a star and all they'll be kept under close wraps.
----------------------
"E Burres Stigano?"
...I keep thinking she's a red herring (no pun intended), and that she's going to blow things up in the finale.
.
...I'm catching up on HBO on demand. At this point I've seen episodes 1 thru 3. I'll be caught up by this next Sunday's showing. This stands as evidence that I don't consider this to be an awful season.
I am noticing some things:
The key characters tend to be grim faced and flawed individuals that have suffered from less than healthy upbringing.
One or more of the law enforcement characters are not only incompetent in their profession but compromised in their ethics.
In episode 2 the Vince detective asks his superiors at a meeting if they actually wanted him to solve the murder. And then around the room reactions to the question seemed to suggest that it was a fair question.
The overall tone and atmosphere of the series is close to being a noir.
At this point it has me guessing where the problems are coming from...and all leads point to that Russian character. But I remain ready to be surprised. Please don't spoil it.
Anyway, I'm on board. The environment and characters are very different from those of season 1 but with a little consideration I'm certain I can find some parallel elements between seasons 1 and 2.....but I'll wait until the finale to sum that up.
What I like about this is that the entire season is devoted to finding the perpetrators involved in the opening crime. Just like season 1.
Not bad for summer evening entertainment.
-Steve
but I'm off board now. And I loved series 1. I won't spoil anything but if you want to have the slightest chance of understanding all of this I would advise copious note taking.
but we're onboard with it anyway. We're actually kind of enjoying it and its multi flawed characters. Not near Season 1 quality but still worth a watch.
----------------------
"E Burres Stigano?"
In a kaleidoscope.
so there is a lot of loose ends to tie up. Just like Season One, rush, rush, rush, into one last show.
This thing was unnecessarily complicated.
OUCH
Although I cannot help feeling like a very slow child in the face of this complexity. Can't wait for Mondays final summations.
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