[PancakeBrah]

The biggest problem this season has, compared to season 1, is the lack of focus and intrigue. The first season, if I remember correctly, opened with the murdered girl splayed on the tree with antlers. All of the character building and mood setting was done as a backdrop to a legitimate mystery. The murder was graphic and weird, and it all got more eerie the further it went. Rust Cohle's nihilistic monologuing was interesting because the show had a hook and a purpose. This season put to much emphasis on character building, with rather uninteresting characters, prior to really having us give a shit about the murder. Plus, the crime isn't that riveting. It's a dead city official, killed over a land deal. This isn't an exploration of insanity or psychopathic tendency in people, draped in gothic murder. It's just a run of the mill business-related murder in an outskirt of LA no one knows about. I think Farrell and Vaughn (yes, Vaughn) have been great actors in this, but neither character is that interesting. Farrell's entire wife/son storyline is pointless to me, the wife a cardboard cut out of a cliche wet blanket cop wife. We get it, he's self destructive, at the end of the road. I don't need seven scenes of him in a dive bar slamming whiskey set to emo-core Fiona Apple. Woodruw/Kitsch is a closeted vet with repression issues. Noted. McAdams is a hardass with internal struggles due to daddy issues. Ok, let's get to the part where the murder solving is interesting. The whole "who's investigating who!?" angle isn't interesting when the characters aren't working. The bird head seems like a shoehorned call back/hook to the season one, and didn't really work for me. I will say that the end of episode two was dope. The setting, the music, how efficiently and ruthless the take down was. I almost wish the show had the balls to kill Farrell off. He's been a plus, but it would have been interesting and may have given me reason to give a shit about the murder(s).

As it stands, I like watching it but it's not nearly as good as season one. Maybe that's too high of a bar, but I expected more. Still will watch going forward.

And whoever mentioned the pounding drums against city shots is on point. That first episode was like a goddamn Inception trailer every two minutes. Tried WAY too hard to be serious.