True Detective Review – “Night Finds You” – Knocking on the devil’s door.

Guys, this show is dark. I don’t know if you knew that. I mean, I’d like to think it’s not the case, but I imagine that people in this world can’t go to the bathroom without ominous, industrial drums clang-clanging in the background.

I feel that if True Detective’s second season is remembered as being great, people will be able to point to a specific episode and say, this is where it got good. It won’t be a gradual thing. It’ll just jump up and bite us in the ass. The reason I say this is because, so far, this season hasn’t given us anything we haven’t seen before. So far, this is just a really really really really dark cop drama. Taylor Kitsch fought in the war, but he won’t talk about it! Colin Farrell’s a drunk, and it’s messing with his personal life! Rachel McAdams had a bad childhood, so she watches pornography online–well, okay. Maybe that’s a little different. Still, though.

That’s not to say that I’m not enjoying it. I like the noir vibe. I like the slow burn. And the show’s soundtrack can be a bit heavy-handed, but it does leave you with this terrible sense of foreboding throughout the entire hour, so I suppose it would be hard to say that it’s not doing it’s job.

I feel like this is a tough episode of television to write about. Part of the reason for that is how slowly the story’s moved up to this point. If last week’s premiere was getting into the car, this week’s episode is putting the car into gear. We’re still getting to know the characters, and they’re getting to know each other. And for much of the episode, the show seems to be happy moving at that same slow pace. And it’s not until the last few minutes of the show that we’re kind of jolted out of our seats. Velcoro is out in Hollywood, taking a look around a house that Caspere may have been using while visiting a prostitute. This, again, is something we’ve seen many times before in shows and movies like this one. Anyway, just as Velcoro is about the stumble on the mother lode (I assume), a big, freaky son of a bitch wearing crow’s head mask sneaks up and shoots him in the stomach with a shotgun. And just before the credits roll, while Velcoro is laid out on the ground, the guy shoots him in the stomach again! Say what?!

Now, I remember watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica back in the day where Starbuck was supposedly being killed off. That felt like the show wasn’t paying one of its biggest characters her proper due, so I never really bought it. A few weeks later, in the third season finale, she comes back, and I wasn’t surprised at all. I was waiting for it to happen. True Detective spent so long trying to cast its lead roles that I don’t really believe that Colin Farrell would be dispatched after only two hours. Then again, I was one of those people who was still telling myself that Game of Thrones was going to find some way to keep Ned Stark from losing his head even as Ilyn Payne’s sword was coming down. So, whatever.

If Farrell was out, it may give the show the chance to bring it’s other characters together in different and interesting ways. I’m still of the opinion that Rachel McAdams is the most interesting character on the show right now. And I’d like to see her interact more with Taylor Kitsch, who the show has strongly hinted is a closeted homosexual. McAdams sucking on that e-cigarette and Kitsch throwing shade out the car window may not set any chemistry alarms off, but there’s a dynamic worth exploring there.

Still, I have to say that I’d like to see the resolution of Velcoro’s storyline. I was about to say preferably in a way that doesn’t end with him bleeding out on the floor. But he did make sure to tell Vince Vaughn that he doesn’t have too much more to be afraid of these days, so why not piss some people off and go out in a blaze of glory? Velcoro is a man who’s obviously seen rock bottom a few times. You don’t get a mustache that sad-looking without having seen some stuff. But despite that fact, I have no doubt that Nic Pizzolatto would have no qualms with having him rock bottom again, and then really going to town on him. As long as we can find out what happens with his son and his ex-wife, I’d be okay with that.

Oh yeah. The show also has to tell us what’s up with that crow’s head mask. Can’t believe I forgot about that.