“Someone hit the f—ing warp drive, and I’m just moving through the blur.”
True Detective fans are far too invested in the show to just quit the case at the mid-way point but having seen the most recent episode, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons with the debut season. I’m not one of those fans that think that this season should slavishly copy the formula from the original one but there have been moments when I began to question where this case was going.
At this point in the debut season, we were cheering Rust after that famous six-minute tracking shot through the projects. While the shoot-out on this weeks episode was visually stunning – Michael Mann’s Heat instantly came to mind – it seems that this season is relying too heavily on those ‘oh my god’ moments to reel you back in, especially as the plot and scope seems to be expanding while the case is almost put on the back-burner.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still enough here to keep me intrigued but the case is almost becoming secondary to the characters dilemmas. I gave the show a certain degree of leeway in the opening two shows, introducing new characters always takes time, but enough is enough. They need to make in-roads into Caspere’s death and quickly.
Look at it objectively;
Ray – Burnout, marriage problems, strained relationship with his father and son, corrupt, violent, in debt to a gangster and this week you couldn’t help but feel that the scene with his son had an aura of finality about it. Still though, he’s the smartest character in the show. Why? Well , he knows the futility of going up against the authorities.
Ani – Broken family, the pressure is on from her superiors and she’s tasked with leading a case that’s being interfered with. To make things worse, the corrupt Mayor Chesanni will do anything for her badge and rather than let her focus on the job at hand, we now learn that she’s the subject of an internal harassment investigation.
I wonder where the axe will fall for all those police fatalities during the shoot-out?
Paul – Under scrutiny following accusations of solicitation, struggling with post-war trauma, conflicted sexuality, strange relationship with his mother and now we learn that he’s set to be a father. Oh yeah, he also had his bike stolen. How much more crap can he take?
Frank – Lost all his money, his trusted ally Stan was murdered, scrambling to stay in the Vinci property gravy-train while also trying to solve the case. We now learn that he has problems conceiving a child.
I’m all in favour of fully drawn characters but the raison d’etre of this show is in its title, we’ve seen very little of the detectives at work and this needs to change quickly.
When you think about it objectively, the only thing that was central to Caspere’s case this week was the moment when Ani and Ray surveyed the ‘toxic land’ that was teased at the start of episode one, everything else is background noise. Maybe that’s the way the creators want it to be and we’re about to be hit with a sucker-punch.
True Detective is a show that revels in the little details but right now, there are far too many of them.
Then again, just when you’re about to give up and switch off, there are moments that remind you why True Detective is above other shows. That shoot-out was so cinematic that it belonged in IMAX while there have been touches of brilliance in the other episodes that keep you watching.
The image of Caspere’s corpse being chaperoned in the back seat of a car, the person in the crow mask that shot Ray, the foot-chase at the end of episode 3. The intrigue is there but we need more case work. Still though, at the half-way point, who are the main suspects?
Ledo Amarilla — This weeks big-bad villain but he seems too cartoonish and visible.
Caspere’s shrink – Possibly a red herring but there was definitely something odd about him.
Tony Chessani – The Mayor’s son who attended parties that Caspere was at and we all know that he called the mansion on many occasions. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree though as the Mayor’s own daughter described him as ‘a bad man’.
Lieutenant Kevin Burris – Ray’s commanding officer who was first on the scene when Ray was shot and he has access to riot-shells, the bullets that Ray was almost killed with.
The movie director – A left-field choice but as seen in last weeks episode, he partied with Caspere and had ties to some of his money that’s invested in the film.
In True Detective style, I’m sure we haven’t met the culprit just yet but still, who do you think it is?
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