‘True Detective’ season 2, episode 3 reaction: What has the shooting aftermath done?
Tonight’s “True Detective” was probably the first time all season long that we have been genuinely excited to catch a new episode of the show. They gave us such an intense, dramatic cliffhanger at the end of this past episode, and of course we wanted to see very much what the end of result of this would be.
Unfortunately, what the HBO series presented to us may go down in some sort of history book as one of the biggest letdowns that we’ve seen from a premium cable show, at least since maybe the series finale of “Dexter.” Enter Ray Velcoro. You have a troubled, layered character played brilliantly by Colin Farrell, and he finds himself shot multiple times with a shotgun at the end of this past episode.
What would logic dictate as a result of this? You kill him off, or at least have him find a way to help with the case in the hospital for at least a week or two. Instead, we had a guy get more or less bandaged up and sent along his way. Ray was running at the end of the episode, even if eventually his broken ribs and the pain gave way. We understand adrenaline, but not that nor anything else can really wipe clean the logical leap that executive producer Nic Pizzolatto was asking of us. It was too much, especially for this show.
An obvious comparison for us is the midseason finale of “Arrow,” which booted Oliver Queen off the side of a cliff, only for him to be more or less revived with some magical tea over the course of the next episode. We were willing to suspend some belief only because this is a superhero show based on a comic book. “True Detective,” however, is grounded in much more realism, and the problem here is not just the fact that fact that Ray was shot, but that it was presented like the sort of bait-and-switch move that we’d see on network TV.
We’re going to stick with the show, but it would be a lie if we were to say that our expectations or are feelings about this season are the same. We have a much harder time buying into this world.
Are you having a similar problem now after tonight’s episode? Let us know below, and click here to read our full review for this installment. Also, sign up here if you are interested in some other TV updates on all we cover, sent to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: HBO.)