What is it? True Detective, Season 2, eight episodes on three discs from HBO Home Entertainment
How much? $59.99
When? Now
I remember this show. Is this a continuation of the first season? No. New cast, new location, new mystery.
Instead of rural Louisiana with its creepy, supernatural-tinged atmosphere, Season 2 finds us in Vinci, Calif., an industrial city on the outskirts of Los Angeles. It's a place where corruption runs rampant and some shady relationships are about to explode.
Businessman/criminal Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn) and his wife Jordan (Kelly Reilly) are ready to get a high-speed rail corridor plan up and running, so to speak, but then the scheme hits a pretty big snag when city manager Ben Caspere is found murdered.
The case brings together three officers from different law enforcement agencies:
• Vinci Police Department Detective Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) has a nasty temper and a lot of emotional baggage tied to the rape of his wife years before -- a crime that led him to an unofficial partnership with Semyon. The rape and Velcoro's subsequent actions also threaten Velcoro's relationship with his pre-teen son, who may or may not be biologically his.
• Sgt. Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office has major family problems and a history of sexual violence of her own that's still interfering with her life.
• California Highway Patrol Officer Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch) likes to work solo and still has physical and emotional scars from his time as a soldier -- time that may or may not have included war crimes.
The three (with Semyon paying close attention) are put to work investigating not just the murder, but the corruption and backroom dealing that infests Vinci.
All these people plus their various family members, friends and assorted criminal types get thrown together in one toxic mixture and it's pretty certain it's not going to end well.
How is it? Grim. Unrelentingly so. Seriously. There's little here to lighten the mood. Everyone has a depressing, twisted, troubled life, so if watching miserable people doing awful things and/or having awful things done to them is your idea of quality entertainment, this is for you.
Most of the acting is good, as one would expect from the cast list. But some of the writing is cliched and awkward.
The cinematography is great and does a good job of setting the mood, but that mood is not going to suit everyone's tastes.
Extras? Yes. Besides episode commentaries, there's "Making the Vinci Massacre," a very detailed, analytic half-hour look at filming the season's big shoot-out scene. There's also the 10-minute "A Look Inside True Detective" (your standard puff piece) and "True Detective's California," which is basically a four-minute music video of scenic shots from the season.
New this week: Black Work, miniseries; Da Vinci's Demons, Season 3; Doctor Who, Season 9, Part 2; Downton Abbey, Season 6; The Facts of Life, Season 8; UnReal, Season 1.
Next week: Courage the Cowardly Dog, Season 3; Falling Skies, Season 5; From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, Season 2; The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, Complete Series; The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Season 2; Mercy Street, Complete Series.
Style on 01/24/2016