In just over a week, the second season of "True Detective" will arrive, and everyone is waiting to see if it can match the stellar first season which has already marked itself as one of the finest in television history. According to the first batch of reviews (based on the season’s first three episodes), opinion is wildly divided about the results of this latest entry starring Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Vince Vaughn, and Taylor Kitsch.
The trade magazines are being the harshest on the show, saying it lacks the chemistry and obsessive qualities that made the first season so compelling. Here’s what Variety had to say:
The Hollywood Reporter is equally as grim in their assessment of what’s coming in season two:
Oddly enough, it’s the men’s magazines that are more positive on "True Detective." Esquire was particularly effusive:
Based on the three episodes HBO sent to critics, the second season of True Detective is nearly as addictive as the first. (And like that one, it is created and written entirely by Nic Pizzolatto, though with a new cast, story, and directors.) It poses as a potboiler, but it’s really an exercise in genre fused with existentialism. This time, instead of ‘The King in Yellow,’ a copy of the ‘Hagakure’ sits on a coffee table. It’s the kind of show in which gangsters say things like ‘Never do anything out of hunger.’ Not even eat. and crooked cops say things like ‘We get the world we deserve.’
Meanwhile, GQ is also taken with the second season:
READ MORE: Watch: The Amazing Full 6-Minute Tracking Shot From ‘True Detective’
Season two of True Detective is a nasty treat for the eyes and ears. Every few minutes, there’s an image that’s as meaningful as it is lovely to look at: a wide shot of a seedy bar near a railroad track lit like an Edward Hopper painting; a low-angle pan across a stretch of elevated highway that makes it seem as though you’re an ant watching a python slither past; a helicopter shot of intersecting overpasses that visually establishes Southern California, and America, as a co-dependency of interests. Throughout, the synthesized score keeps rumbling and droning. We’re in the belly of some rough beast.
Certainly, there will be a lot to discuss after the first episode arrives on Sunday, June 21st. Click the links above for full reviews and let us know what your expectations are.
