True Detective Season 2 episode 1 gives deep background into the characters.
Here is our review.
ThisTrue Detectivereview contains spoilers.
But we are going to see procedures we dont get on other shows.
Its a novel onscreen.
The episode opens on a graveyard of sticks with measurements under red cop tape in a contaminated site.
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Colin Farrell plays Ray Velcoro, a sad cop.
Hes sending his son to a new school and they are both nervous.
He looks like a good dad.
Velcoro is looking for a mouthpiece and his attorneys teeth are too straight.
All the hype leading up toTrue Detectivehinted that Vince Vaughn was playing the villain.
This isnt entirely accurate.
Hes playing a villain, but hes just as much a victim.
Frank Semyon is a gangster going legit.
Velcoro made a deal with the devil and has been paying his dues.
The architect of the deal, his partner Casper, hasnt been to work in two days.
But if this deal works out, he will leave a true legacy.
Every fortune begins with a crime.
further reading: A History of the Occult in the Ozarks
The mayor also takes his problems to Semyon.
The city of Vinci is its own character.
In a city like Vinci, everybody gets touched.
Luckily, the mayor and Semyon have the same enforcer on their payrolls.
Velcoro used to work at the sheriffs office and he welcomes judgement.
Velcoro is working through some anger issues.
He is mucho macho and the kid he loves so much is a fat pussy.
Velcoros son isnt the only character with daddy issues.
Her fathers preaching the final age of man and the domestic staff is dwindling.
He runs the Panticapeaum Institute which teaches that we are in the final age of man.
Their followers are encouraged to spend their last days being fulfilled and soliciting donations to perpetuate their dogma.
Ani Bezzerides is no bullshit.
She has more testosterone than her trooper lover.
Bezzerides takes her job seriously and uses it personally.
She busts an online jerkoff site that her sister Athena Bezzerides (Leven Rambin) freelances at.
Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch) is a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer and war veteran.
Kitsch is bringing a lot of angst to his part.
Sure, hes facing desk duty and is an action guy.
But he brings such intensity to his anxiety that people get contact stress for blocks around him.
His constant agitation comes partly from his soldier past.
Black mountain, we were working for America, he explains.
What is this Black Mountain?
HBO series always have great secondary characters.
W. Earl Brown brings a certain Lewis Black quality to Teague Dixon.
Its like Harry Mudd warning people that hes lying.
Nails (Chris Kerson) is a henchman in the true classic gangster tradition.
He is a potential Luca Brasi with a subtle streetwise patter.
Im just a sucker for that, I guess.
The sad angry cop needs a good woman to mitigate his baser tendencies.
His chauffer, apparently, usually doffs a crows mask.
Whats up with all these masks on TV lately?Eyes Wide Shutreferences appear to be everywhere.
Vince Vaughn brings gravitas and barely repressed rage to Vinci Gardens Casino.
He sizes everyone up as he sees them, looking for an excuse to bust a chop.
It is Semyons business partners murder that brings the three cops together.
The CHIPs cop finds the body when hes spiraling out of control off duty.
This is a man whos seen too much and got fucked.
It follows from the sex den he disappeared from.
The first crime scene is so sleazy, Velcoros partner remind him I got instructions.
Anything happens to me, you burn my shit quick.
Nobody wants their private lusts exposed as their legacy.
They call it in as a kidnapping, a 207.
Last year, HBO sentTrue Detectivereviewers a devils trap to ponder while they appraised the going on.
This year I hope they send the lady in milk.
It is an establishing shot that pulls the rug out of the viewer.
It is a forced perception that skewers the entire room.
The initial crime scene puzzle piece is housed in a room thats been ripped apart.
Maybe whatever they were looking for is at the bottom of the bowl.
Want to go more in-depth on the episode?
Music to find a body by: All The Gold Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.
The Western Book of the Dead was written by Nic Pizzolatto and directed by Justin Lin.
Keep up with True Detective Season 3 news and reviews here.
Rating:
4 out of 5
