The first season of True Detective was a rollercoaster of existential despair, but it still allowed its characters to crack a smile occasionally. However, Season 2 seems to have forgotten this balance, diving headfirst into the depths of darkness and inadvertently turning into a parody of itself – one that is unintentionally hilarious.
Trying Too Hard to Be Literary
“Night Finds You” stands out for its desperate attempt to be a literary work. From the water-damaged ceilings leaking into an image of Caspere’s removed eyes to the closing shots of the man in the bird mask, the episode doesn’t quite live up to its title. By the time this season starts, night has already fallen on all of our characters, leaving no sense of mystery as to how they ended up in such dire straits. The depressing details pour out of every crevice, making the first two episodes a slog of moving from one stone-cold face to another, each less convincing than the last.
Season 1’s most intriguing question was, “What happened to Rust Cohle?” This season doesn’t offer any such questions, instead finding its characters in their darkest places, rather than on their way or trying to recover from them. There doesn’t seem to be any redemption for these characters to search for, which robs the proceedings of any dramatic tension. Instead, “Night Finds You” is an episode of following breadcrumbs that lead to the most laughably overwrought places imaginable.
Lack of Subtlety
With one character stating that “innuendo is nobody’s friend,” it’s not surprising that this season has employed a complete lack of subtlety. The close-up shot of Caspere’s shot-off genitals reminds us that this is a show about men struggling with their masculinity, with a hard-headed, e-cig puffing woman around for the guys to bring down and remind them of their own gender and how much stronger they really are. Poor Antigone isn’t even being represented as a human character; there hasn’t been a scene with her in these first two episodes that isn’t directly focused on her sexual behavior or refers to her as a sexual object.
And if that’s not enough, there’s an entire conversation about how every man in the world could completely overpower her, so she can only feel safe by carrying multiple knives on her body at all times. Seriously, True Detective?
Visual Language and Plot Advancement
Throw in some more annoying shots of the California highways intersecting with each other (are you surprised the director of multiple Fast and the Furious films lacks complex visual language?) and you’ve got “Night Finds You,” an hour that wildly advances the main plot – in short, Caspere was a sexaholic who stole Frank’s $5 million before he died and was probably involved in some other heinous activities – and doesn’t offer much else but laughable characterizations and occasional moments of weirdness.
The cliffhanger ending isn’t really a cliffhanger, given that there have been dozens of promotional photos spoiling the outcome of this particular plot development for months. It’s all so single-minded and short-sighted that it begs the question of whether Nic Pizzolatto should be scripting these episodes alone or employing a more diverse team of writers to guide his existential ideas, which can contain weight when employed properly.
Unfortunately, “Night Finds You” is not that kind of True Detective; this is a show where a closeted gay man sits sheepishly on his childhood bed while his mom makes lightly sexual advances at him; where a gangster talks about someone being “torture-murdered” (a real phrase, apparently), while his girlfriend tells him “not being poor is better than the opposite”; and this is a show where a pimp has a set of gold teeth that read “F*** YOU.”
In other words, this is my least favorite life.
Other Thoughts and Observations
– Velcoro supports feminism, but mostly because he has “body image” issues. It’s like Nic Pizzolatto is firing a middle finger at anyone who criticized his writing of female characters in Season 1.
– Some other audio gems from the episode: “All the girls are nice to you, Pauly”; “You were good at being decent”; and the topper, “You don’t have flies, you can’t fly fish.”
– W. Earl Brown’s character may not have a name, but he has a personality trait: he drinks. How layered.
– Paul talks about “clocking” some “fag at the bank” who was hitting on him.
– Why does Frank have his guys beat up a sweatshop bookie (whatever that is), then talk to him like a stranger?
– Antigone doesn’t distinguish between good and evil; there’s either “sexual” or “not sexual” in her world.
– The pimp could barely talk around his fake teeth, and it was really obvious. Get better prosthetics, True Detective!
– TD missed an obvious opportunity for a jump scare when Velcoro opens the door, and we get a straight shot of a mirror reflection, which shows nothing. Rather than a mislead here, an expected scare would’ve been so much more effective.
– Caspere was “more… passive” sexually, which feeds into the season’s emasculation theme. Yay!
[Photo via HBO]
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