I've stayed away from this until I got a chance to see the season finale last night.
I came late to True Detective. I watched the first season over a few nights a couple of months ago, just ahead of this season airing. While I knew that it was unlikely any knowledge carried through from one season to the next, it seemed proper to do things that way. This season has definitely been different to the first. Probably only the opening credits have been completely retained in tone. But there are clearly stylistic devices too - the helicopter establishing shots of roads and highways, and occasionally (particularly in the finale), the pacing. That all said, I really enjoyed season two. Yes it was different - substantially more characters for a start. And it clearly takes its cues from Chinatown or LA Confidential in a noirish take on contemporary LA. I loved the fact that like the first season, we got to see a side of America that isn't commonly portrayed on television on in film, even though it's based in LA and southern California. Indeed - I only latterly learnt about SCPR's "Welcome to Vinci" podcast which added to my appreciation of how hard the makers were trying to show a different side of the area. Was it perfect? No. But given the structure that Nic Pizzolatto and HBO are taking with this series, they wouldn't be being true to themselves if they just made a duplicate of season one's storyline. In the end, we still had "broken" police. Some of the criticism I've read is particularly misjudged. Yes, you have to work with the storyline. It's not all laid out before you. But I like that. Even in this gold/diamond age of television, storylines in television are still mostly have straightforward narratives: A to B to C. There's nothing wrong with playing with this. I do wonder sometimes if it's the need to concentrate - you can't be using a second screen with a series like this and get by (That's why I hate in-programme "Tweeting" of anything other than reality/sports). As to why the internet has "decided" that this was an awful season? I'm not sure. I do think polarised opinions drive click-throughs and "engagement," so it's an easy default option. And having read Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed which I think was very good for the most part, I'm not convinced that's really a relevant comparison. The book explores a different side of human nature. (The dentist probably doesn't quite fit this criteria either because one way or another he thought that killing the lion was entirely legitimate.) Adam On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 5:10 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 5:35 AM, JW <[email protected]> wrote: > >> PGage, >> >> My impression from what you've posted here is that social psych isn't >> your specialty. I'd imagine social psychologists have had a lot of fun >> parsing internet reactions. >> >> Social media and comments sections provide outlets for everyone. In many >> cases, it's nothing more than "I'm right and you're wrong," whether the >> topic is that killing lions is bad (or good), Obamacare is awful (or >> great), Donald Trump is a doofus (or presidential), or One Direction is >> great (or terrible) without Zayn. People will rush in to agree or disagree >> without adding anything more to the conversation. There are corners of the >> Net like this one where people carry on civil and intelligent discussions, >> but there are lots of venues that seem to be about who can shout the >> loudest. >> >> As far as True Detective goes, all I've seen of it is clips on talk shows >> that didn't stick with me, so I'm completely agnostic on the subject. The >> reactions I've seen from reasonably thoughtful people are that season 2 is >> significantly worse than season 1, but, as always, YMMV. >> > > Ha. I do have a pretty good understanding of crowd behavior, which is why > I dislike it so much. My question is not why do internet crowds act like > mindless sheep, but why do they form around this and not that. I did not > launch an exhaustive internet search on TD last night, but I did do a > cursory google check. Of the three or four things I read (these were not > drooling rantings in the comments sections of the dark web, but various pop > culture pieces, and one of those inane late night "games" I guess inspired > by Fallon but this one by Meyers) there was an underlying assumption that > of course everyone hated Season 2, with only the most general of reasons > why. > > I also think that S2 was not as good as S1, but that is not my point. > Something can be less good without being disgustingly horrible. I guess I > am just looking for a thoughtful review that explains in useful and > insightful terms why S1 of TF was evaluated as one of the best shows on > television, while S2 is seen as one of the worst. Isn't that the kind of > thing we kind of expect from pop culture criticism? Or are we at the point > that all we can get is outlets stumbling over themselves to reflect back as > snarkally as possible what they imagine the majority of web-clickers > already think? > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! 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