Probably doesn’t matter if you just want to get at the story. Part of the attraction of the show, though, is that it was carefully shot and composed. I think it’s worth an extra few dollars to see it in HD.
Yeah, I’d go HD as well. It’s about $31 for the HD digital versions of the season via iTunes or Amazon, and the Amazon Blu-ray set is about $40 right now. Definitely don’t pay the full suggested retail of $79.99 if you go Blu-ray though, if the Amazon price changes again before you decide to pull the trigger, just wait for it to go on sale or drop again. HBO shows are always pretty expensive if you go by the MSRP, but can usually be found for much more reasonable prices if you just watch the sales online or at Target/Walmart/Best Buy/Whatever for a few weeks.
I will go HD then and purchase in Amazon on Demand etc.
Do you think the show can be watched again or is it view once only?
I am on vacation so I do not mind spending a few bucks, there is nothing at the movies for me to go to this week so I can splurge on this instead and the whole family can watch (no young kids anymore).
For what it’s worth, I’m nearly done rewatching the season and I’m definitely appreciating it more the second time through.
I think you’ll want to see it at least twice, if only to pick up on stuff you missed the first time.
Just finished this for the first time last night. Overall I liked it, maybe not blown away as much as some of my friends were as it aired, but well done overall. All the actors were really good, although I found McConaughey’s character a little one-note and I was often left wondering if there was any way they would let someone with whatever his psych evaluation would be carry a gun as a police officer. Then again, since LA lets you carry drunk on Bourbon Street, maybe they would. In that sense, I feel like Harrelson had sort of the more interesting job to do… to take the cop we’ve seen a million times (someone mentioned The Wire earlier… a few McNulty similarities here and there) and keep him interesting and sympathetic.
In the end, I get tired of the need for cops to go into incredibly awkward locations alone for some mano a mano confrontations just because that’s what scripts do when it would have been perfectly honorable to know where the guy was, try to hold him there, and let a SWAT team clear him out. The immediate need to action seems like it needs a motivation (like hey, a recent kidnap victim). On a useless aside, I also thought the Green Ears worked better as maybe his ear protectors instead of getting paint on himself, but that doesn’t matter at all.
In the end, great use of the LA setting. While I had some trouble believing that particular nemesis could get away with so much, having the remoteness of the bayou went a long way to assuaging that doubt. I know some people who had trouble with the very end, but I thought McConaughy’s revelation made sense and it was nice to see something crack through his Russian novel protagonist veneer. Good stuff, curious to see what season two brings.
I agree with you this kind of thing is overused, but I do think it’s also worth pointing out that by the time the last episode rolls around, neither Cohle or Hart are cops anymore. And since the other cops already figured Cohle was guilty of all the murders, plus the fact that they had put the screws to their former teammate who was now sheriff in another parish, they didn’t really have anyone to go to for backup. If I recall correctly, they could only trust the one investigator (forgot the name, been a while since I watched) to take the call if things went bad.
While they aren’t technically cops anymore, I assume they want to live on some level. And they had that one investigator to call, that’s all they need (as the swarm of cops that show up demonstrates). If Harrelson believes he can count on that cop to do the right thing, then they have back up. If they have back up, there’s no reason not to call them once they genuinely know. I also feel like they went out of their way to cover how that other “thing” won’t come back to bite them. That particular moment, to me, just felt like the easy 7 pages to wrap things up in the most expected way possible.
So Deadline is reporting that Colin Farrell is in final negotiations for Season 2.
Here’s an article from IGN about Colin Farrell being in talks for Season 2: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/07/11/colin-farrell-in-talks-for-more-exciting-season-2-of-true-detective
Is he the right guy for this? And Taylor Kitsch as well???
Both men are capable of brooding, though Seven Psychopaths and In Bruges have proved that Farrell is better when he’s tetchy and funny.
Ferrell is clearly not at his best as the American-type leading role that the big studios have put him in (where he ditches the accent). But, yeah, he’s far better in supporting roles, or where he doesn’t have to use an American accent.
So, brace yourself: The buzz in Hollywood is that Vince Vaughn is in final negotiations to join S2. And that Nic Pizzolatto wrote the role with Vince Vaughn in mind.
… that makes me so happy.
I’ve had some time now to absorb the first season. I binge-watched it over a two week period, and saw the last episode about 3 weeks ago. I think the greatest crime about that last episode is that it turned what was otherwise more than just a detective show into a detective show. It’s a tribute to the acting, writing, music, and incredible directing in some episodes, that the show was more than just a show about a serial killer. The way the cops chasing after him were portrayed, the way the story was told in flashbacks, the different reveals, the occasional drug trips, the philosophizing between the two leads, it all added up to make the show more than just a buddy cop show, more than just a search for a serial killer. But that last episode sort of ripped off that illusion. Suddenly it was a show about hunting down the serial killer, and it had always been that, it turned out. So the last episode really brought the whole experience down for me.
Someone upthread linked to an interview where the writer described the show as 3 acts. And the first two acts were pretty awesome. But since the last act let me down, it’s sometimes hard to remember how much I enjoyed the first two acts. That’s just the nature of how our memories work as human beings.
It would have been tough to have the show conclude without some kind of resolution. You could do it and it would be wide open for people to read all kinds of different things into that kind of ending, but I think more people would have been dissatisfied than happy with it. They want people to tune in and watch again next year.
First 2 episodes were greatest, which I think were written before HBO picked it up. Loses lift from there and almost stopped watching. The women, writing and acting, felt neglected and hollow, but I guess that’s all part of the show’s POV. McConaughey’s acting at the end was one of those rare, amazing things.
Looking forward to season 2. Heck, will probably HBOgo it so I’m not watching five months after the air date and missing all the speculation. The reset on characters and setting is refreshing and a gamble I wouldn’t think network would take.
A network show (American Horror Story) did this before True Detective.
American Horror Story used mostly the same actors though, I think? The gamble is replacing the entire cast IMO.
HBO has confirmed the stars of next season.
Colin Farrell as Ray Velcoro, a compromised detective whose allegiances are torn between his masters in a corrupt police department and the mobster who owns him.
Vince Vaughn as Frank Semyon, a career criminal in danger of losing his empire when his move into legitimate enterprise is upended by the murder of a business partner.
Justin Lin will return to direct the first two episodes.