No doubt because the last couple of episodes had a lot of action. :)
I think it's to reenforce Rust's point about everything repeating itself, people making the same mistakes, etc., and to provide yet another catalyst for him to go do his own thing outside of it all (whatever that may or may not be).
One is that, for one reason or another, Rust has become withdrawn and doesn't seem to trust anyone at all. That's why he's investigating on his own. The other is that Marty is the type of person that acts instinctively and doesn't seem to think about the consequences for his actions. If he does think about them, he can't control himself regardless.
Why did the episode burn a whole hour with this late characterization? After all, there are only two episodes left. Despite the writers doing things to cast some level of suspicion on Rust, I would be surprised if he isn't just intensely focused on getting to the bottom of it and bringing some form of justice to the perps. I would be much less surprised if Marty is involved. Don't get me wrong, I don't really think Marty is part of it. The only possible hint is with his older daughter, as she seems to have been exposed to something explicitly sexual early on. But why else would the writers spend such considerable effort and precious time on Marty's characterization at this point of the season?
Yeah, the episode felt a bit disconnected, like they aren't sure how to fill in the missing years and build up to the conclusion. Pretty much everything in the episode we already knew about:
* Marty's infidelity. I found it really weird that they brought back the young whore and that's who Marty ends up cheating with. Not to mention the whole bag of tampons, how can you NOT cheat when you buy tampons? :P (Umm, why did he even bring the bags into the bar and not leave them in the car? :P). Then there's the scene where she talks to him about having anal... sigh... or the little devil figurine in her room. Just too cliche. We get it, he's sinning.
* The sexual tension between Marty's wife and Rust. We already knew about it (he comes to cut the lawn and whatever else we haven't been shown). I hate that they had sex and how it was used. I would've preferred if Rust didn't fall for it but she still used the idea of it to get back at Marty). I'm not sure how I feel about that being the main reason for the split between Marty and Rust instead of having something to do with work (because we've had plenty of tensions already: like Rust covering up that Marty killed one of the rapists).
* A religious conspiracy. I really hope this is a red herring. I want crazy psychos and the main characters going crazy as they go deeper (the whole Yellow King and Cardosa references). A big religious organization behind it? Too predictable.
I preferred the first four episodes over the last four. In particular, episode six ("Haunted Houses") seemed like a waste of precious time in just an eight-episode series. That said, taken as a whole, the series was truly great. Amazing job by Woody Harrelson and Matthew Matthew McConaughey.
I agree. I liked the series overall, but felt like it lost traction in the latter episodes, like it didn't know where to go after the action in the middle or how far to push the overall arch. The characters were amazing, but the ending felt too easy and "nice" for my taste.
I thought the ending should've been a lot more negative, maybe with one of the characters getting killed or going completely insane because of all of this. It just felt like too happy of an ending even with Rust having his religious vision, which I guess could be a hint at insanity, it just didn't have much impact for me. I would've also liked it if they built up the final villain up more like they did with the one in the middle of the series.
why it has to be negative. I guess I've missed where in the timeline of my life audiences went from expecting positive resolutions to expecting the death of protagonists and the enduring of evil. It's hard to escape such depressing conclusions anymore, and I, for one, was glad to see things work out for once in serious drama.
Just my interpretation of the first half of the series, Cobra. The ending wasn't super happy either, but maybe not as powerful as it could've been. At least in my opinion. I LOVED the final confrontation with the villain, just wish there was a bit more to the episodes leading up to it. It's hard to explain, the 2nd half of the show just didn't feel as "complete" and lost me a bit. Still a great show.
Anyway, I'll probably end up watching the series again soon so my opinion might change. :)
I was expecting something tragic with the ending and was quite surprised when it didn't go down. As much as a crumble into insanity for one of the detectives would have fit with the themes, I have no problem with everything working out. I think there was room for another episode (or just cutting of some filler) to expand upon some themes I would have liked to see more in depth: about the killer, maybe more of a trek to find him, etc. You know, because NO ONE IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND HAS EVER PAINTED THEIR FUCKING EARS WHILE PAINTING A HOUSE (Once it was pretty much revealed who the killer was before the detectives made the connection I thought the green ears would be sound muffs...paint?). Perhaps have had the finale be twice as long with more killer flashbacks (did that motherfucker sew his father's mouth shut?)
Like everyone else here, I thought it started up very strong and ended a bit weak. Still good, but Ledeux seemed like a huge menace, even though he had about 5 min of screen time. That entire time I was pretty sure shit was about to hit the fan. The final killer, however, just didn't have the same effect on me, no matter how creepy they tried to make him.
Anyways, I really enjoyed it and would like to see what a second season brings to the table. I had no idea where this was going (if it was going to be really dark, sort of dark, have a super natural aspect, etc) and I think it'd be interesting to see what they do in the future and if they revisit some of the same elements, go in a completely different direction, or whatever. I will say that I read a couple of threads on this on reddit after and the general reply to any citiciism of the show and it's resolution is to go read The King in Yellow and then watch the series again. THAT'S bullshit and something that worries me - the fanbase for this show is going to fucking suck.
Yup. And that character is the reason I got excited about this season. I think we'll see him through flashbacks.
I can't believe they killed off Colin Farrell! His performance had me the most impressed of the four.
In any case, I'm all in on this season.
:D
He'd still probably be dead in RL. There was an actor that had blanks in a handgun and "shot" himself in the head and died because the mere force of the blast broke off a chunk of his skull and caused significant brain damage. Granted, Colin Farrell's character wasn't shot in the head, but he'd have some serious internal bleeding issues going on.
Depends on the powder charge? Police depts have been known to use rubber bullets on crowds of students. I know because I was in one. Ohio State, seventies.
People have gone into cardiac arrest and died from being tased too.
Depends on the powder charge? Police depts have been known to use rubber bullets on crowds of students. I know because I was in one. Ohio State, seventies.
People have gone into cardiac arrest and died from being tased too.
Oh yeah, I'm aware that rubber bullets are used as a crowd deterrent. I'm referring more to the second shot in the show, which was at point blank range.
bringing the 3 detectives together as one cohesive unit, with aligned motivations
The list Frank hands the guy when he says he needs some firepower only has 10 items on it, then repeats the same 10 items again.
So I'm lame, whatever, but while watching episode 7 I paused it when The list Frank hands the guy when he says he needs some firepower only has 10 items on it, then repeats the same 10 items again.
Hahaha! Freeze frames are the undoing of many a face and plot device.
Speculating here for Season Finale.
List x2 = could be 2 people.
Might mean he'll have someone help him take down the Russians.
Ray has interacted with him here and there - could be him.
If Frank ever really helps Ray find out who actually really raped Frank's ex-wife (since we got swerved 2 episodes back w/ Ray killing the wrong guy, thanks to Frank's poor info)...
...then Ray might owe him a favor here.
Speculating here for Season Finale.
List x2 = could be 2 people.
Might mean he'll have someone help him take down the Russians.
Ray has interacted with him here and there - could be him.
If Frank ever really helps Ray find out who actually really raped Frank's ex-wife (since we got swerved 2 episodes back w/ Ray killing the wrong guy, thanks to Frank's poor info)...
...then Ray might owe him a favor here.
Maybe. I'm thinking not though, or like items would be listed together. The full list is:
M4 - automatic rifle
Bennelli M4 - shotgun
Remmington 870 - shotgun
flash grenades x10
tear gas canisters x10
gas masks x2
kevlar vests x2
AK-47s x2
extra AK magazines x4
500 rounds per piece
M4 - automatic rifle
Bennelli M4 - shotgun
Remmington 870 - shotgun
flash grenades x10
tear gas canisters x10
gas masks x2
kevlar vests x2
AK-47s x2
extra AK magazines x4
500 rounds per piece
The M4 auto is listed twice, separated by other items, but the AK-47s are listed as x2 twice, also separated by other items. There are 2x kevlar vests though, so I expect at least 2 people, probably with the extra guns as backups.
Well, Season 2's Finale was all over the place.
This certainly had no business being 90 minutes.
I was really hoping this was going to deliver, after the season really turning the tide by Episode 4....and it fell apart by bad pacing, some non-sense, & some predictable things happening.
Finale could've been better. Way better.
One problem was it had multiple major events that could have each worked at the end of an episode (assuming they had enough interesting stuff to pad out that many more episodes). Also (finale spoilers)The show tends to be pessimistic, and until the very, very end, it felt like it just went in on this full force. A Pyrrhic victory was definitely not going to surprise me, but the way it ends you're not even sure if the victory will come or not. Also I'm disappointed in how much this turned out to be white collar crime that just led to the spilling of blood, where the first season felt like they were dealing with something truly evil.
Season 1 spoilers:
Season 1 was equally pessimistic, but at the end the bad guys were stopped, and Rustin had a bit of a change of heart in how he viewed the world, thanks to a near death experience. It ended on a positive note, and even if Rustin had died, it would have felt like a partial victory in that the murderer was stopped.
Oh, and the list from before, lol.
The list had an M4 rifle, 2 different shotguns, and 2 AK47s
There were 3 M4 rifles, one shotgun (the remington I think), a grenade launcher, and 2 handguns (the handguns were probably ones he already had)
Season 1 spoilers:
Season 1 was equally pessimistic, but at the end the bad guys were stopped, and Rustin had a bit of a change of heart in how he viewed the world, thanks to a near death experience. It ended on a positive note, and even if Rustin had died, it would have felt like a partial victory in that the murderer was stopped.
I think Season 1 was a bit misleading that way. As far as I can remember, they just killed one of the guys who did the actual killing (Childress), but there was a full on cult thing going on that was never exposed, and it had very prominent politicians, ministers, etc as members (Tuttles), and that was never exposed. I've always kind of seen it as a hollow victory - they did kill the guy who killed (at least most of) the girls but a lot of the main players seemingly got away or were never even exposed to the viewers.
I ended up watching the first season twice because my girlfriend wanted to see it, and the second time it really struck me that it wasn't the happy ending I originally thought it was
One problem was it had multiple major events that could have each worked at the end of an episode (assuming they had enough interesting stuff to pad out that many more episodes). Also (finale spoilers)The show tends to be pessimistic, and until the very, very end, it felt like it just went in on this full force. A Pyrrhic victory was definitely not going to surprise me, but the way it ends you're not even sure if the victory will come or not. Also I'm disappointed in how much this turned out to be white collar crime that just led to the spilling of blood, where the first season felt like they were dealing with something truly evil.
Season 1 spoilers:
Season 1 was equally pessimistic, but at the end the bad guys were stopped, and Rustin had a bit of a change of heart in how he viewed the world, thanks to a near death experience. It ended on a positive note, and even if Rustin had died, it would have felt like a partial victory in that the murderer was stopped.
I had no real problem in both Seasons 1 + 2 with things being constantly noir + pessimistic. I loved Season 1 period.
My problem was the pacing in Season 2 Finale was not good. While a few things did happen, a lot of them felt predictable....
...Namely, both Ray and Frank died. I knew that was going to happen. I had a feeling this was going to happen, given the list - and to me, it made the most sense that these two would work together, given the list of everything doubled. While they didn't die like I thought they would (i.e. together in a blaze of glory), they still died. Frank got left dead in the desert, while Ray predictably went to say goodbye to his boy - and he didn't think he'd catch the boat + was afraid he'd also lead all of their enemies to Ani. Predictable as hell.
Ani is telling the reporter about everything down South and the cover-up, that's it. She gives the reporter from The Times the info to do what they want w/ it.
But, this could've been a good episode, even w/ some its predictability, if it was say 45-60 min instead. A lot of it felt like it took too long to just go anywhere. With so many pieces and on-going stuff, this could've been paced better + much more interesting. Instead, it was just "okay" at 90 mins.
Let's forget positive endings for a moment, because tragedy is all the rage now. I still hated how 2 of the 3 characters may as well just have offed themselves about halfway through, but I can deal with it. Let's just concentrate on the concept of an ending, a resolution. There was none. Everything is as much up in the air when it all ended than when it started. The only difference is that a lot of participants are now dead. Did the corruption get in any way excised or at least exposed? Who knows? It all ends in the same depressing fog that it began, with absolutely no movement forward, whatever "forward" may be. It was straight and pointless murder porn and emo porn. Nothing made any difference, and much was left making little sense.
I don't have any problem with the series having no resolution or a "bad" ending. My issue is with the writing. The pacing in the series was all over the place: horrible dialogue, some scenes dragged on for too long without contributing anything (like the start of the last episode) or maybe just bad acting (with some exceptions). Too much time was spent on the police work (which was hard to follow) and not enough on the actual mystery or the gravity of the crimes committed (2nd episode seemed like it was going somewhere, but not really). Other than the gun fight in the middle and the drug/sex mansion there was just nothing interesting, no real wonder, no real "wow", no real "damn that's fucked up".
Characters were all over the place. I didn't like that all of them had some sort of hidden secret. Other than Ray, there was nothing that contributed to the story. Did it really matter that the chick was molested when she was young? Not really. That the cool cop was gay? Yeah, who cares, we all have issues. And that's the thing right there, I can't even remember the 2 cops names, only Ray. Heck, the lady chick wasn't even involved in the last episode, other than rescuing Ray at the train station or whatever it was. It was like they added the backstories for the sake of having fucked or normal or whatever characters.
Everything was just so forced, so ... gah, I don't know, off? The series had a few cool scenes, but that's it. I get the message the show was trying to deliver (we are all fucked?), but the delivery was just bad. It was a shit story that tried too hard to look fancy.
I don't have any problem with the series having no resolution or a "bad" ending. My issue is with the writing. The pacing in the series was all over the place: horrible dialogue, some scenes dragged on for too long without contributing anything (like the start of the last episode) or maybe just bad acting (with some exceptions). Too much time was spent on the police work (which was hard to follow) and not enough on the actual mystery or the gravity of the crimes committed (2nd episode seemed like it was going somewhere, but not really). Other than the gun fight in the middle and the drug/sex mansion there was just nothing interesting, no real wonder, no real "wow", no real "damn that's fucked up".
I think one of the other things was - a lot of the police work, wasn't cleared-up for most until the last 2 episodes. This is where things were really kicking into gear here. B/c Episode 8 really tried to explain things for people not paying attention closely + those not hitting any forums or sites analyzing things, w/ too much exposition. Those who had a clue what was going on were....not surprised by anything. Everything took obvious & predictable routes. There weren't many surprises. Things you expected to be hints early on that were doing foreshadowing - yep, you were likely right.
Everything was just so forced, so ... gah, I don't know, off? The series had a few cool scenes, but that's it. I get the message the show was trying to deliver (we are all fucked?), but the delivery was just bad. It was a shit story that tried too hard to look fancy.
I think some of the casting, writing, and whatnot was just all over the place. Certainly, somebody should've stepped in and hit the edit button. So much stuff, could've either been thrown out or expanded upon much more.
Pretty much - my feelings are similar to yours. Namely, the writing + pacing was all over the place. I still think this could've been told in 3 to 6 episodes, not 8.
Characters were all over the place. I didn't like that all of them had some sort of hidden secret. Other than Ray, there was nothing that contributed to the story. Did it really matter that the chick was molested when she was young? Not really.
I think it was a red herring to make us think that maybe Ani's dad might've had some involvement in the sex ring - b/c if anyone would've known about that guy w/ that kind of hippie-looking bus, the one Ani saw at the party when she saw the guy and had the flashback - mayber her dad did. Pretty much, nope. Seems like he didn't have a clue, when she saw her dad in either Ep 6 or Ep 7. Red herring thrown.
That the cool cop was gay? Yeah, who cares, we all have issues. And that's the thing right there, I can't even remember the 2 cops names, only Ray. Heck, the lady chick wasn't even involved in the last episode, other than rescuing Ray at the train station or whatever it was. It was like they added the backstories for the sake of having fucked or normal or whatever characters.
Revealed in the final episode, but which I figured the entire time - the cops + politicians were, more or less, trying to set all of these cops up.
I really had this bad feeling, when the lady cop brought them all back together in Ep 5 (which was after the shootout w/ the gang in Ep 4 that this would be the case). Of course, that lady got killed off in her car, left for dead - killing off another loose end.
Pretty much, close to the End of Ep 8: everything got covered-up.
And who knows if the writer is going to follow through w/ all the stuff Ani gave him. We didn't see it happen, so who knows.
The more I think about it the more I realize that this season was simply not a "true detective". It just lacked many of the elements of a detective genre.
Season 1
Rusty + Marty were your True Detectives in Season 1. It wasn't really about who was doing the killings, for us to figure out - that was the backdrop and secondary. It felt like it was more about who these characters were, their problems, and things of that sort.
Season 2
We, the viewers, this Season were the True Detectives - who was supposed to figure this all out, keep up w/ this tons of plot-lines + characters; stick w/ it; and put many of the pieces of the puzzle together. Things that felt like throwaways, whether characters or incidents - often weren't. A lot of it wasn't really explained w/ exposition to the viewers until the last 2 episodes. Those who weren't analyzing the show; not checking online analysis + re-caps; not re-watching the episode - they got what they needed. While we fans who tried to connect everything - we got screwed.
Likely, those who weren't mostly clued in to everything going probably got more out the finale than I did.
I dislike Vince Vaughn's onscreen persona in just about everything he's done. He comes across as the pushiest asshole in creation, even in light comedies.
An insult to Season 1--yes, that's the perfect way to put it. It's also an insult to the better actors in the production.
I think the biggest problem w/ Vince Vaughn and his wife was this story got WAY TOO much time; had some of the worst dialogue in this series; and felt often liked it was way miscast-ed.
I think Vince did fine w/ being bad-ass gangster part when he needed to be - i.e. when attacking the club surrounded w/ all the guys in one of the earlier episodes, when he killed the dealer for giving him bad info about who raped Ray's wife, in the next to last episode burning some establishments down, the shootout at the cabin w/ Osip, etc.
But, it's mostly the scenes w/ his wife that weren't working for me and when he did long monologue talks sounding like he was spitting philosophy or narrating something - which sounded more like 4th wall stuff from the writer Nick P than actually if Vince was performing.
One of the funniest lines was in the last episode when Kelly Reilly (Vince's wife) said something on taking action in situation, then delivers the meta-line w/ loaded w/ double-meaning: "You can't act for shit. Take it from me."