MAJOR SPOILERS for last night’s finale of True Detective 2.8 “Omega Station”
Last night, Season 2 of True Detective concluded with what I can only describe as a clusterwhoops of nonsensical bulls—t. The actual, real motto for this season was “We Get the World We Deserve,” and we ended up getting the show we deserve because we kept hate-watching and caring (at a minimal level) about some of the characters.
After sitting through hours of scenes where nothing happened beyond characters staring off into space while spouting nihilistic crap, is it any wonder that all three male leads were slaughtered by the end of the season? Taylor Kitsch’s PCH bike cop was killed at the end of the penultimate episode, then in the finale, Vince Vaughn was stabbed and left for dead by a Mexican gang (????) in the desert (???) and we had to watch as he tried to walk it off, hallucinating the entire time. It was deus ex machina via Mexican gang, because seriously, that “plot twist” made no real sense. It actually felt like Nic Pizzolatto was trying to do a Breaking Bad thing and he just failed f—king miserably.
As for Ray Valcoro’s demise… of course he stopped to see his son. Of course. Because that’s the one place James Frain would have looked for him, so of course Ray was that stupid. But I still don’t understand how a tracking device = death. This was a guy who just hours beforehand stormed a heavily guarded mountain retreat and slaughtered everyone with machine guns and smoke bombs. I don’t understand why he led Frain and his men to a secluded (if beautiful) mountain area. Was it just Ray’s death wish? Eh.
And why did Ani get sidelined for most of the episode? Out of the three primary cops – Paul, Ray and Ani – she was the strongest, the most clever, and the best overall law enforcement professional. Why did she not get to kill a bunch of people in the mountains? Why didn’t Ray ask for her help at the end? Was it just because of Nic Pizzolatto’s misplaced and twisted sense of chivalry? Pizzolatto thought to himself, “This time, only the ladies get to live and all of the men have to die in the stupidest ways possible.”
Other questions: Why did James Frain’s cop end up taking over the whole operation when he really seemed much too young to be a part of the original conspiracy during the LA Riots? If Tony Chessani is such a big deal, how come we only saw him once in the entire series and he came across as a cheesy pimp? Why did Tony Chessani’s dad (the drunk mayor of Vinci) have to die? Why didn’t we get any resolution with Paul’s mom and baby-mother? Why didn’t we get any kind of resolution with Ani’s dad and sister – you know, the people she sent out of town with the promise that they would be able to come back in a few weeks? Oh, and was Ben Caspere having sex with his daughter? I think that one is obvious, because the whole season was about daddy issues and Oedipus Rex and Antigone and sh-t. Of course Ben Caspere was banging his daughter and he just didn’t know it.
So yes, in the end, Ani lived and so did Kelly Reilly (playing Frank’s wife). Ani got to Venezuela and found Kelly Reilly, probably around the same time that Ani realized she was pregnant with Ray’s baby. They stuck together, improbably, and now they protect each other and the baby and Frank’s loyal henchman carries the baby stuff. And a year after the main action, Ani contacts someone at either the LA Times or the New York Times to give some random dude the story. And that dude was… Nic Pizzolatto!!!!!!! MIND BLOWN. Except not really.
Here’s my question: is anyone even going to bother watching Season 3?
Photos courtesy of HBO.
What a garbaging piece of garbage deep fried in (you guessed it) garbage.
Nothing made sense, the dialogue was at its worst, and what was with the tacked on love story between Ani and Ray?
But I’m so on board for season 3.
HORRIBLE== actors were good but writing and storyline just TERRIBLE
I couldn’t believe people were excited about Season 2 — it was obvious the moment they started talking about casting that it was going to be this bad.
The best things about 1 were the stars’ chemistry and the directing — this had neither. The worst thing was the writer, which 2 again had.
I mean, Vince Vaughn?
Vince was actually my favorite part of the show.
Me Too and also !
I mean it wasn’t actively trash like Two Broke Girls but the expectation vs the reality just wasn’t worth the hype…. also land Deals were MUCH less Juicy than Missing kids ( point of coverup wise) and too many leads to follow ( vs two main Guys and shadowy figures) and too heavy handed with the “We Are messed up you guys!” and to sad and pat an ending as opposed to some sort of justice or a kernel of happy
Also Kelly Reilly last episode Lines and delivery Looked Like Drunk Nicole Kidman fresh from a Botox OD
Lastly as a Venezuelan: NO ONE Goes to Barquisimeto in a Patronal Fest To be safe FFS
Yep. There was no point to having Ani’s dad in the story.
Frank and Ray were smart enough to plan that shoot out but then screw up the getaway? Ray couldn’t have taken a different car?
Burris needed to bite it in the end. F that guy.
As a fellow Venezuelan ( epale, como estas?? ) , I concur with you QQ. 🙂
Are they really going to make a season 3??? After that shit show, I thought for sure HBO would pull the plug.
Don’t do it HBO! Seriously, don’t do it!!
WORST. SHOW. EVER.
Raises hand. I will watch season 3. I may have found this season a disappointment but the performances of the all the actors were very good, even if the story wasn’t that great. I wish Taylor Kitsch had more to do.
I am guessing Ani was sidelined so she could survive to tell the tale. I knew Vince Vaughn’s character was done when he and his wife were talking about meeting up again in less than 2 weeks wearing white…I was like he’s done.
I guess the point of the season was that corruption continues no matter what. Ani can have the expose but the audience will most likely have moved on and they’ll still believe the “official” story. Really kind of grim ending, not only due to the character deaths, but the fact that the creeps got away with it and might even do so after the story is exposed.
I thought the finale and episode 7 were great episodes. I just wish 1-6 were at half of that level.
That white dress speech was awful.
I’m with you. I’ll watch next season but I really need him to do better than this. I actually liked the finale but it’s would’ve been great if the whole season was more fluid. My biggest gripe is that Caspere’s murder wasn’t even important but it’s was at the forefront of the season. I’d have been much more satisfied if revealing corruption was the main plot but “oh look this caspere guy got killed in the process, wonder why” came up after. I didn’t like how even though the dark side won, as I knew they would, there was still way too much sadness. Did they BOTH have to die? But Vince Vaughn killed it this episode, so that alone deserved a rewatch for me. My favorite lines were: “That was a big diamond”, “Are you dense?”, and “Oh, hey Ray, I was just thinking about you.” Right after he called Osip a kike… I’ll give it one more try. Maybe he won’t George R. R. Martin this one…
I am impressed you kept watching. I stopped episodes ago. Stan ‘s death was too much for me to handle. Lol
Although I didn’t see Frank’s death coming at the hands of minor characters we just met like, two episodes ago (apparently TD’s version of “Surprise Bitch! I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me”), Ray and Frank dying by the end of the series has been obvious for a while.
Honestly, the whole series was a mess from beginning to finish. Last nigh’t episode was was so unsatisfying-basically, crappy, corrupt people living in a crappy, corrupt town basically get away with everything and everyone trying to expose it ends up dead or exiled. Okay. I don’t need a happy go lucky ending in my shows, but this was unnecessarily grim. I assume the ending was Pizzolatto’s attempt at a happy ending, except it came at the expense of the female characters. The womenfolk were sent away for their own safety and now Ani can be happy since she must be fulfilled since she had a baby and she has Jordan there to be her nanny-but more importantly-they still have a man there to look after both of them! Like, she is even robbed of her right to expose to the whole sick mess-she has to hand it over to a reporter!
“You can’t act for shit!” I can’t believe he left this line in the episode. I was crying with laughter.
Yes! I understood why Jordan was side lined (she’s worthless) but Ani? Hiding away with the bartender looking after her? Please.
I’m glad I didn’t notice Nic Pizzolatto was in the final scene. I would’ve probably tried to punch my tv.
I’m sure that I will be in the minority, but I really wanted Ray and Ani to make it to Venezuala! I wanted them to find some happiness together. I didn’t care about Vince Vaugn, and his wife. I thought that was the worst storyline. The writing and directing in Season 2, was terrible! I kept watching, because I remember it took me a few episodes to get into Season 1, and was hoping Season 2 would get better, but, NOPE! I was thinking of Breaking Bad, also. With them staying in that secret room, waiting to leave, the meeting in the desert or dunes, or whatever, was sraight out Breaking Bad! But, too bad, that is the only thing TD2, had in common with BB….Breaking Bad……sniff, sniff….I miss you so much!!!!
I also wanted Ray and Ani to make it. I cried my eyes out when he died 🙁
I haven’t seen it yet, and just completely skipped the post. I’m just here to say that I hope Stan faked his own death and orchestrated everything.
I don’t even watch tnis show, I’ve just been following the posts here.
But I can’t believe HBO would renew this for another season. they need to find some new writers and directors, or just put the show out of its misery and find some new programming.
You could have summed up this whole season in five words: “Everybody got dead. The End.”
No, I won’t be watching next season. What’s the point?
^^THIS^^
To be honest, I felt like the first season was way over-rated. I felt like the performances by Matthew and Woody really raised it up. I was only able to make it through 2 episodes of this season before I gave it up. Hopefully, the powers that be will analyze what made this such a suckfest and make changes next season.
Agree
MM and WH had amazing performances. Without them the terrible writing would be exposed. Much like season 2. Only season 2 storyline was a nightmare with meaningless storylines, loose ends, and plot holes. On top of pointless scenes.
I was such a fan after the 1st season but I’m with Kaiser, I was certain that all of loose ends would be tied up in season two and I would feel satisfied that I hung in there……not so much!
I stopped watching after episode one. That was enough for me and it was a harbinger of the all nonsensical crap that followed. Convoluted story [TV can’t be that convoluted, due to the limited time/episode arc], questionable casting [i.e. Vince Vaughn and that other guy, whoever he is, I forget his name, the one that was on the motorbike in episode one] and rubbish dialogue.
I’m still not quite sure what happened this season, but I’m now too exhausted to even care. It’s a problem when you feel compelled to have to take notes to keep up with a TV show, but even that doesn’t really help you follow the plot. The finale wasn’t bad, but it was pretty predictable in terms of Ray and Frank dying and Ani and Jordan living.
i watched it all and still have no clue what actually happened and i swear i’m a smart clued in chick…….but this was…….i mean i LOVE me some Vince and Colin and its the only reason i stuck with it…….but it was BAD
Season 2 is officially 100% crap, in my opinion. It wasn’t worth the time, but I toughed it out anyway mostly because all of the other shows I usually watch are currently off-air.
I will check out season 3 since this is an anthology series and they have a chance to do a better job by learning from their mistakes considering the general public opinion seems to be negative about this season. The only thing I’ll do differently next time is give up on the season if it turns out as bad as this season was.
Kaiser,you should start recapping ray donovan. Now that’s a good show.
Totally agree!
LOVE Ray Donovan!
This season was not good. But I also thought last season was super overrated. I will not watch season three, unless Tilda Swinton somehow gets cast in it. Then I’ll be there with bells on.
Ani was my bigget pet peeve this season. It’s such a cliche character and it’s upsetting that Nic doesn’t know how to write women. We’re supposed to think she’s this dark and brooding badass because she watches adult videos, vapes, and takes it up the butt? She was such a let down for me and i’m glad they all died.
Not reading the spoilers; all I know is that Season One was astonishing. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth your time to go back a season and check it out. There were definitely some big shoes to fill with Season Two.
Boring and hard to follow. I do love me some Colin Farrell though!
This show was SO BAD. The whole 10 minute scene between Vaughn and his stupid slow talking marble chewing wife was a joke. i thought it was a deleted scene for a minute. seriously, throwing your rings out the door? and the stilted pretend ‘go on, get outta here!’ that immediately turned into the opposite, omg was just so bad I can barely even articulate it. I hated their stupid marriage storyline, and I didnt care AT ALL about their fertility issues, or her stupid dramatic loyalty. that one random cop who shot woodrow? WHO CARES, where did he even COME FROM? the stupid strung out wife of the mayor? that scene with her and vince vaughn was such a waste of time! the handcuffed chick, how long was she handcuffed there with her hair looking all perfect?
what about vince vaughn’s diamonds at the end? we never got to see that, and how did the GD mexicans find him to begin with?
there’s so much more crap but I think I blocked it out in the trauma of how BAD this show was.
Beyond disappointing, it was predictable and trite. I was really hoping the finale could redeem the season, and it did the opposite. While they may have found Vicaro more competent than they expected, he clearly proved that he wasn’t by doing the one thing he shouldn’t have. And the Frank thing couldn’t have been more random. And Ani having the baby was just cheesy.
That said, I’ll watch season 3 to start with, but if it looks to be more like season 2 than season 1, I’m giving up.
I turned it off after it was revealed that Ray survived the gunshot after episode 2 (3?). I felt it was a cheap stunt, and there is just too much other good tv out there to waste time with the bad! I’d spent the summer with Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell indulging in their conflict regarding respectable English magic instead. Absolutely worth it and beyond. I’d recommend that as a palette cleanser for you!
“Here’s my question: is anyone even going to bother watching Season 3?”
NOPE
Feel like the title of this season could have been, “True Detective: Haha… Just Kidding. We’re All Pretty Terrible at Police Work”
LOL!
I used to wonder why this season was so difficult for people to understand and then I realized unless you grew up in LA there wasn’t the background knowledge to be able to put the story together with ease. It would have required a lot of reading about Commerce, the LAPD of the late 80’s and 90’s, the LA underworld especially surrounding the sleazy casinos in and around the area, the level of human trafficking being done by the rich and powerful that is blatent, and finally understanding how Cartels and gangs are integrated into the fabric of the story and LA itself. It was a great season if you really got what was going on. Perhaps Nic believed viewers would do the research on the backstory’s main character, LA, like viewers did for season one.
I think it has less to do with the setting and more to do with trying to do too much. Aside from the crap dialogue, one of the most common complaints is, “Wait, who is that?” NP just spent too much time trying to develop too many different storylines, with the result being that none of them got enough attention to seem important enough to remember.
@meanusdevilo – you’re probably right, and it’s not that I have anything against brushing up on the background of something because I don’t, but if a show requires me to do extensive research before I can even get an inkling of what is happening, I don’t want to watch it. It’s Pizzolatto’s job as a storyteller to give us a compelling storyline that we can all understand and follow. I didn’t research anything about season one aside from a few interesting articles I stumbled upon about The King in Yellow and I had no difficulty following that storyline without a reference guide or a lengthy history on the subject they were delving into. They made something I knew nothing about interesting enough that I was compelled to keep watching.
For myself personally, even if the LAPD in the 80s and 90s is an interesting topic (I’ve heard about it being corrupt, but that’s as far as my knowledge goes), and I believe it is, they didn’t do a good job of relaying that and the writing was dull at best the majority of the time. What I think hurt this season more than anything else was all of the unnecessary minor storylines. So much time was wasted on things that turned out to be completely irrelevant in the end, like Ray’s relationship with his ex-wife and son, and Ani’s relationship with her sister and dad, and Paul’s entire storyline–there was no resolution with any of these things in the end. We didn’t even get to see how Paul’s future baby-mother and mom turned out. It was sloppy.
I’m an L.A. native and have lived here for over 3 decades, and know some LAPD history and that didn’t help *me* with the convoluted, tedious plots and the poor dialogue and cardboard stiff characters one bit. I really don’t think good writing should make it necessary, either, for one to know a fairly detailed, extensive history of the surroundings and background of the place in which a story is set, in order to be able to understand what is happening. That’s not the problem w this show: vague, often aimless, poor writing is. I wish i’d given up on this show sooner; having read the ending, here, I won’t be bothering to watch 90 more minutes of this senseless and unsatisfying season!
I loved season one, hated season two…depends on the plot (and casting) whether I come back for season three.
The whole thing was so hard to follow, I couldnt get what was going on at all. I watched the whole thing only because I liked the actors, but it was not good, except for a few scenes here and there. I kinda predicted they were going to kill of all the main players, but it was really disappointing overall. I will probably watch season 3 , if there is good actors involved. But hopefully they will come up with a better storyline than this one, because it was way too confusing.
Yeah this season was about 90% garbage and a waste of time. It had a few decent moments but overall I strongly disliked it. I wanted it to be better for Colin Farrell because he deserved for it to be better, but Nic Pizzareia is a hack and it’s official. That ending was BAD.
This whole season was a massive dookie pile. I really need to give the actors the benefit of the doubt here… I can’t criticize them if that is what they were given to work with. Although after reading the script(s) I probably would’ve been doing a lot of head scratching.
I want to pretend it never happened… I want to forget that I wasted 510 minutes of my life watching that hot mess. I am actually pretty disappointed that HBO renewed for a third season. I don’t trust that Nic Pizzolatto is all that talented…and quick frankly, was insulted by how poorly constructed this season was. I guess he thought because it shared the same name, he could broadcast this cluster and people would drool over it. Not so much.
yes, exactly. i feel like this was a big bait and switch. It’s like a different person wrote this compared to the first season. like i dont know how you take the white dress speech and melodrama tossing rings out the door and frank’s slow stupid death with all his childhood bullies (WHO THE F CARES NOW ABOUT HIS PSYCHOLOGY, HE’S DEAD AND WAS LAME ANYWAY) taunting him along the way, and say that’s the same author. this seriously felt like some parasitical worm ate through Nic’s brain and we ended up with this season.
Vince was awful. the season was watchable but the casting was off, the writing horrible & it was very cliche.
This season was so disappointing, from start to finish. I don’t really blame the actors (except maybe Vince Vaughn for that performance). I imagine they did the best they could with that writing. I’m just baffled by how it was so bad.
I don’t even blame Vaughn – he had the worst dialogue of any of the characters. That “white suit” speech at the end, I don’t even know how he got through that.
I thought the whole season was fragmented, unsatisfying, and too try=hard for noir. I toughed it out and hated the ending. What a downer! I actually started to like the Vince Vaughn character and wanted him to live after he stopped whining about losing his $5 million and started kicking some ass. I never could care a whit about Velcoro. As an aside, I was waiting for the main characters’ livers to explode from so much hard liquor consumption or develop nasty coughs from all the cigarettes.
So agree with you. I was really rooting for Frank this last few episodes, annoying dialogue and all. At the end, I kept watching only to see Vince Vaughn walk around in those nice suits. He’s looking good!
A very dissappointing season. Agree with most posters who say that the plot was way too convoluted (and I like my shows complex and with many characters). It was a bad sign that I couldn’t be bothered to rewatch to clear up questions or figure out the who’s who of the characters, I just couldn’t bring myself to care.
Nicolas Pizzolatto must be reigned in by a competent screenwriting partner for me to think about watching another season.
Why were you watching people? First season was so exhausting and boring. I almost quit it few times. But watched to see how it will end. There was no way I would watch season 2.
And after boring casting and trailer – I was sure that I made right decision. Did not watch an episode.
I was hopeful with this Season, but it quickly became confusing and tedious. I got the first season well too, so it is not like I am always confused here. Everyone I know who watched it could not understand it either. I liked a few parts (the gay surprise was nicely done, the Ani Ray hookup I was waiting for, the Ray’s love for his son was VERY touching), but other things felt unnecessary and just plain boring. UGH. Will I watch season 3? Maybe. Who is in the cast?
I didn’t bother watching season 2, so I don’t really see myself bothering with season 3 either (unless it gets amazing reviews).
What was up with the diamonds? Why did Frank buy 3 million dollars in diamonds from the Hasidic Jewish diamond merchant? That went nowhere. Did he die in the desert with diamonds in his pocket? What was supposed to be the point?
I also thought it was lame that they resolved the paternity issue when the POINT all along was “You’re my son. I’m your dad. No matter what.” We believed that! We didn’t need any more!
I am so mad that I wasted time in my life watching this unmitigated CRAP. Blarg.
Maybe he mailed the diamonds to his wife person.
I sat through the entire season and got more out of the recaps than the mess onscreen. I tried to watch the finale but gave up on it and read another recap. I loved the first season and hope there is a third that is written by someone else. I undid the damage by watching the excellent documentary series “The Staircase.”
I’ve been watching this because there is NOTHING else on TV right now but it’s so bad I stopped half way through the final episode because I just didn’t care anymore and it was flat out boring.
I didn’t really like the casting, not a Vince Vaughn fan. Rachael McAdams was the best part, I didn’t think Collin Farrel was all that great. He used to be really hot but in this he was just too greasy and his dialog was tragically awful.
I think the writing was also tedious last season but Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey were great actors, they played their roles perfectly, so we were able to gloss over the bad writing because the actors brought interesting characters to life. This season’s plot was way too confusing and seemed to lack the depth last season had. I think season three might be ok if the casting is better but who knows? It could be even worse.