TRUE DETECTIVE SEASON 2 HBO SERIES - 8/12/15

I rushed home every Sunday night to see TRUE DETECTIVE - SEASON 2 (8 parts) even though I could barely get through the convoluted plot which involved the corruption of political figures, land deals, gangsters of every ethnic stripe, sex parties with lovely young "women of the night" forced to open their mouths wide so that the drug "molly" could be eye-dropped onto their expert tongues making them more pliable to the community’s pawing, fat-bellied and well-heeled politicians and financial titans who were their clients. Yet there was a mesmerizing fog of melancholic desperation hovering over the series baring the soul's dissolution ( a persistent theme of the creator Nic Pizzolatto), heightened by quick cuts, and the murky presence of universal evil invading the most innocent of hearts. The dialogue was cryptic - nothing was clear including the vaporous air. But I still tuned in weekly to get my fix of danger and despair.

Upon reflection I believe that the dialogue and plot were deliberately apocryphal, the ominous beat of the music purposely underscoring the characters’ secrets and lies; the rapid shifts in place contributing to the lack of clarity in all relationships; we never really “know” who or what we are dealing with.

The series focused on 4 main players - Detective Ray Velcoro (an intense heavy-browed Colin Farrell who I loved as a “hit-man” in film BRUGES,) Detective Ani Bezzerides (excellent  job by an unglamorous Rachel McAdams ), Frank Semyan (Vince Vaughn a steely mobster attempting to go “straight “ showing he can act without playing an oaf in some Grade C puerile comedy,) and Officer Paul Woodrugh the closeted gay State Trooper ( performed by the handsome “hunk” Taylor Kitsch) - their professional and private lives are the essence of TRUE DETECTIVE which is absorbed in revealing each of the character’s deeply felt  personal ignominy and disgrace which has poisoned their intimate selves.

Languidly unraveling the main personas through confrontations and memory was psychologically elegant, but alas by the final episode there were only 90 minutes left to the series, so I was really disappointed to view a Deus Ex-Machina finale - the tempo speeding out of control.  Attempting to rapidly tie up all the loose ends in the criminal investigation; the threads got warped  and distorted and the “detective” story -  always secondary to Pizzolatto’s pessimistic view of human nature and the ability to forgive oneself and others - was put front and center; predictable and worst of all sentimental and cheap. What a shame! This might have been a contender!