‘True Detective’ season 2, episode 8 (finale) spoilers: Final tease, and is 90 minutes enough time?

HBO logoThere are a few assorted highlights on TV Sunday night, but the biggest one is arguably the 90-minute season 2 finale for “True Detective.” This will likely feel like a movie, and at some point by the end of this the series is going to do just about everything that it can to pay off a convoluted mystery involving the death of Caspere, insane parties involving rich, powerful men, and unspeakable violence that has already led to us losing one beloved character in Paul.

We’ve seen some prevailing theories already as to the the killer or killers are, with the orphans being one of the top guesses at the moment. The only effective reveal here is that there is a strong personal motivation behind what happened, and Erica and Leonard the photographer could have it. Obviously Burris has found his own way to get mixed up in all this, but we really just hope that he gets some sort of comeuppance for what he did.

Now, we have to wonder this: Would this show have been better if if was running for nine or ten episodes versus eight? It seems like there are so many loose ends still that need to be tied up, and another episode or two could fix that. (Of course, the problem here is that there is probably only so much writing that Nic Pizzolatto can really do within the amount of time necessarily.)

What makes this show ultimately so strange is that the first four episodes felt almost like they could have been told in three; yet, the final four feels like they could be jam-packed still told over six, and we’re rushing over a few little things here and there.

Pacing aside, the last couple of episodes have been very strong, and that does give us hope that season 2 at least can stick the landing after a very rough start.

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