8.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A Highway Patrol motorcycle officer stumbles upon the scene of a bizarre murder, in which the victim's body has been ritually mutilated. The crime triggers an investigation that brings together three law-enforcement officers from different cities, each with troubled pasts, and a thug-turned-entrepreneur in danger of losing his empire. As the case grows broader and darker - revealing multiple criminal collusions involving billions of dollars - it forces the participants to face their own inner demons in order to solve the crime, all the while navigating a web of conspiracy and betrayal in the scorched landscapes of California.
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Potts, Tory KittlesDrama | 100% |
Crime | 65% |
Psychological thriller | 54% |
Mystery | 40% |
Thriller | 3% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 2.0
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In the spirit of any good detective yarn, I’ll start this review with a confession: we don’t subscribe to HBO at our house, and therefore I have yet to see True Detective’s first season in whole, though I did catch two complete episodes and bits of other individual episodes at various friends’ houses when they first aired. That means I looked on with at least some befuddlement at the accrual of comparisons between the series’ first and second seasons, with many of those assessments coming down distinctly in favor of the first year’s characters and plot mechanics. Perhaps having “nothing” (or at least the show’s first season) to compare True Detective’s second at bat with turns out to be a relatively good thing, for while the series’ sophomore year has its share of issues, it provides a generally interesting tale of intrigue, conspiracy and various roiling dysfunctions that provide good opportunities for an eclectic cast to tear into their roles. Still, there’s a feeling of entropy that begins enveloping this season of True Detective that tends to offer some increasingly preposterous plot “twists” as things proceed, not to mention some stylistic decisions that may actually provoke some audience members into derisive laughter at times. As my colleague Ken Brown presciently commented in his True Detective Blu-ray review of the show’s first season (when a second season was still unannounced), any follow up seasons might well be “underwhelming”, at least when held up to the high standards of the series’ first year.
True Detective's second season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of HBO with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As has been discussed in some online interviews, while the first season of the series was shot on film, the second year was digitally captured with Arri Alexa cameras, albeit with some vintage Panavision lenses that cinematographer Nigel Bluck utilized to give the series a relatively retro, quasi-noir appearance. The results are largely commendable, if not exceptionally impressive, most of the time. This season is swathed in darkness, and for the most part shadow definition is at least above average, though occasional murk tends to creep into dimly lit sequences, especially several that take place inside cars at nighttime. A lot of the season has either been color graded or physically lit to exploit some kind of odd, almost fluorescent, tones at times, and those choices tend to bathe away fine detail in midrange shots, though close-ups still offer abundant fine detail. There is still some unexpected softness and even fuzziness on display (see screenshot 11), some of which might be attributable to on the fly captures by what I assume was something like a Go- Pro on drones (see screenshot 9). In brightly lit environments, the palette pops agreeably enough, though the entire season tends to exploit a more tamped down approach toward hues that fits its gritty subject matter. Contrast is generally solid, helping scenes segue from the sunny California exteriors to more shadowy interior sequences like the bar segments. There are very light dustings of noise on occasion, due to Bluck's propensity (which he discusses in the above linked interview) for shooting in extremely low light environments while pushing the Arri Alexa's ASA settings as far as possible.
True Detective's second season features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which supports the series' use of both source cues and underscore, as well as more bombastic elements like the huge shootout which serves as one of this season's big set pieces. The fictional city of Vinci has both rural and industrial sections, providing occasional opportunities for deployment of ambient environmental effects of various kinds throughout the surround channels. There's some really interesting sound design going on in various episodes, where music or other non- dialogue elements will morph into something else, giving a kind of hallucinatory feeling to various transitions. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly delivered, and is generally well prioritized (a few lines here and there get slightly buried in a couple of noisier moments). Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range very wide when taking the series as a whole.
Disc Two
There are a number of very interesting elements at play in this second season of True Detective, from the central mystery at its core (one which may reference such iconic Hollywood entries as The Maltese Falcon) to at least some of the performances. But there's a feeling of lethargy that starts invading this year, despite some hyperbolic action sequences, and the attempt to stuff so much loaded backstory into the proceedings keeps things oddly bifurcated feeling a lot of the time. Overly precious stylistic choices only tend to further point out how pretentious some of the philosophizing is in this season. As a relative "newbie" to True Detective, I found this season neither as horrible as some folks had described, nor as unabashedly brilliant as many found the show's first year to be. It's hard to build "brand loyalty" in an anthology series like this, something this occasionally clunky second season probably makes even harder. Technical merits are generally excellent, and with caveats noted, True Detective's second season comes Recommended.
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