The second season of HBO's True Detective concluded with a 90 minute final episode last night. The consensus among fans and critics is this latest instalment has failed to live up to the heights set by its Matthew Mconaughey and Woody Harrelson fronted predecessor.
Nevertheless, the internet and social media were buzzing during and after the finale, with everyone chiming in with their thoughts on the conclusion.
Prior to the show, The New York Times released this spoof video mocking the season's convoluted plot and characters. As expected, none of the respondents can give a straight answer on their what their thoughts were about the season. The term 'hate-watching' was also thrown around a few times.
Marlow Stern of The Daily Beast was not as harsh. In his recap of the episode and the season as a whole, he says that it may go down as a 'cult classic' in a few years' time:
"Whether by design or not, Pizzolatto has created a deliciously campy, tremendously entertaining whodunit that will, years from now, be celebrated as a cult favorite. Where else can you see Taylor Kitsch play a closeted gay biker cop who pops Viagra to sex women, Vince Vaughn ripping out a 400-pound pimp's gold grill with pliers, Rachel McAdams slicing-and-dicing an orgy security guard, or Colin Farrell threatening to butt-fuck a small child's father on his family's front lawn with his mom's headless corpse?"
Brian Lowry of Variety wasn't as enthusiastic as Lowry. He believed the beefed up running time of the last episode wasn't enough to redeem the season as a whole:
Even allowing for the high and perhaps unfair expectations, this represented a misfire on almost every level. The only beneficiary might be "Fargo," since the bar for second flights of dense cable crime shows has been dramatically lowered.
