It looks like the finale of HBO's True Detective is getting a little bump to its running time. The network revealed that the final episode of season 2 clocks in at exactly 87 minutes, which is about half an hour longer than a standard episode of the TV drama.
This season of the crime anthology has failed to live up to the critical success of its predecessor, which featured Academy Award Nominees Matthew Mconaughey and Woody Harrelson as Louisiana investigators solving a decade long murder mystery.
The second season shifted the setting to California and featured an expanded cast of four main players played by Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, and Taylor Kitsch. The expanded roster is probably the main reason why an extended finale is needed to wrap up all the loose ends.
At the TCA press tour last week, HBO boss Michael Lombardo hailed showrunner Nic Pizolatto and urged fans to tune in to the "enormously satisfying" finale.
"I think you need to watch the entirety of it...I think it's enormously satisfying. I think Nic is a very - "adventurous" is not the right word. He's a bold storytelling, and I mean that only in the most positive way. I think he takes risks in how he lays out a story, in the pacing of stories. And I think it pays off in this particular season."
Despite the dip in quality, the show is still raking in the viewers. At the same event, Lombardo claimed Season 2 is averaging nearly 12 million viewers an episode:
"I don't believe this season or the last season was intended for as big an audience as we're getting. We're getting 12 million viewers an episode."
The season 2 finale dubbed "Omega Station" airs Sunday, August 9 on HBO.
