“It’s never too late to start over again”
I’m not going to suggest that True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has managed to acquire himself a time machine, but I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that ‘Other Lives’ was almost like a direct response to the deserved criticisms of this season.
Obviously the entire show is filmed in sequence but the tone of this episode was exactly like its title, a second chance for True Detective and one that the show has grabbed, sort of.
It feels like the creators have deliberately skipped past 60% of what has inhibited, restricted and slowed down the first half of this season, thank god I’ll add.
I’ve already mentioned how the subplots have almost stolen the focus away from the central theme of the show, solving the mystery of who killed Ben Caspere, but ‘Other Lives’ was a move in the right direction, but the jump was far from fluid.
Any fans of the show are fully invested at this point, we’re not backing out because it’s too late, but the airtight plot and superb pacing of the debut season are notable by their absence here.
Case in point, for the first three episodes of this season we were led to believe that Ani’s superior officer, Katherine Davis, had a personal vendetta against Ray Velcoro. She smelled blood and would stop at nothing.
Every time the audience saw her, we were bombarded with messages that Ani should uncover dirt on Ray and expose his secrets. All of a sudden, we’re asked to do a complete 180 and assume that Farrell’s character is now central to her newly constructed task-force to find Caspere’s killer.
It’s lazy but this isn’t even the biggest flaw with the show, however, it’s symbolic of the amount of wasted minutes and focus.
To use a quote from this episode ‘‘the design does not work’ but a certain degree of kudos should go to Nic Pizzolatto – and Irish director John Crowley – for breathing new life into a case that almost looked as dead as the former Vinci city manager.
Moving the case on 66 days into the future, after that epic shoot-out that concluded ‘Down Will Come’, was a very clever move because the characters are much less confined now. Ani’s working in the evidence locker, Paul’s chasing up Insurance Fraud and Ray has even gotten rid of his ‘tache.
My hope for the next few episodes is that the suffocating family drama arcs are substituted for some actual detective work because when the four leads actually follow the clues, (yes Frank is as much a detective as those with a badge), the show really gathers pace and keeps you gripped.
Lets take a look at what we learned this week;
Dixon is corrupt due to his handling of the blue diamonds, Frank manipulated Ray and can’t be trusted, the plastic surgeon (Pitler) is tied with Caspere, Ani’s father and the Chessani’s, the missing girl from the first episode (Vera) is arguably the key clue to the case and the shady Catalyst group are desperate to get that hardrive.
Between me and you, Ray’s custody battle, Frank’s marriage problems and Paul’s issues with his mother don’t need any more screentime.
A final point, another important element of what made this episode much better than its predecessors was the reintroduction of a vital ingredient, that much needed aura of menace and violence.
When Ani and Ray entered that ominous and rotten outhouse, you could almost smell the foul stench in the air. For a split second, I expected Marty and Rust to be waiting outside. Long may this continue.
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