Finally had time to watch this full-length movie-style mini-series at one time. The change from the dual protagonists in the first season to the four protagonists has further tested the ability of the screenwriter and director. Generally speaking, it is still a magical drama. The composition of the photography is perfect, but the plot still starts from a cloud of fog. The cast was not as eye-catching in the first season (worshiping under Uncle Xiu's suit pants), but the actual performance was more unexpected. Colin Farrell's strong fatherly love and bad uncle, Rachel McAdams' stubborn and kind-hearted female police officer with the shadow of childhood sexual assault, Taylor Kitsch There are deep cabinet mounted policemen who are traumatized by the battlefield in Afghanistan and troubled by homosexuality, and Vince Vaughn's former gang boss who is extremely persistent in wealth and principles because of his upbringing experience, all of them are well shaped. The performance of the other supporting roles is also up to standard. My only thought is that if I can invite Lana Del Rey, the queen of the mourning song, to play the guitar girl in the bar, it will be even more brilliant. Sister Dalei's song path is really suitable for really exploring this drama.
Like a movie, the plot doesn't reach its climax until the last two episodes, which is destined to be like the first season, making some viewers feel that the pace is too slow and abandon the drama after only watching the first two episodes. And the positioning of the second season highlights the "true" in True Detective, which will also affect its popularity. In the first season, Rust Cohle, played by Matthew McConaughey, is more of an idealized "demi-god". The protagonist's halo bodyguard can still survive even if he is tortured into a sieve by the villain. In the end, he watched the stars with Woody Harrelson and talked about the perfect ending of life. Invincible is the ending that everyone likes to watch the most, and it is also an idealized ending. In the second season, the 4 protagonists are just ordinary "people". No matter how capable, brave or ruthless they are, they are still entangled in their most entangled personnel. Only a few sparks of hope remained. However, this is actually the real world. Although the heartbreak is suppressed, it can be regarded as a kind of alert reflection. Louisiana-born head writer Nic Pizzolatto's pessimistic theories are more fully unleashed in the second season. This kind of ending that confuses the audience is not a coincidence, but HBO, as a pay-to-play station whose selling point is to abuse the audience, is naturally willing to try and innovate. (Game of Thrones has been abused a lot, and it is still very popular)
The second season also contributed several classic scenes, the shootout in episode 4 (the part after encountering the protesting crowd), the seventh episode of Ani's gangster party (in the house), Paul's dark subway line chase ( The part before climbing out of the tunnel), in the eighth episode, Frank walks in the desert after the knife (the switch between panoramic/close-up is even more bleak). The high standards of music and art are still enjoyable.
Of course, there are quite a few bugs in the plot. I picked three for your reference. 1. Paul, the handsome guy who made the girls feel distressed and cried, died a bit strangely. How did he know from which ground exit he would come out and lie in ambush? 2. The kinky den party that Ani went to was full of high-ranking dignitaries. She took aphrodisiac (although she vomited a part of it), and after slashing and killing the two, she could drag an unconscious female companion out of the building easily. With just 2 or 3 people, the security was so lax that it felt a little unreasonable; 3. Ray found that the car was attached with a tracker, why did the people who wanted to get rid of the chase have to drive into the forest? It's not normal to drive to a crowded place to find an opportunity to abandon the car. The big deal is not to pay for it. First, use the crowd and buildings to cover and escape, and the screen switching from high-speed to forest is too perfunctory and there is no transition at all.
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