Season Two of Nic Pizzolatto’s anthology crime drama is experiencing a sophomore slump, but did it ever have a chance?

Rarely does a show experience such groaning disappointment and fervent ‘trending’ anticipation all at once. This combo has crowned into a hysterical mob of cultural sadism, like a car crash, or say, an overwrought mass shootout you can’t turn away from. Critics reveling from their mezzanines, throwing tomatoes with one hand and tossing popcorn into their cackling mouths with the other. Social media has been a schoolyard beat down of jokes poking at everything from the confusing plot to the faux mysteriousness of its characters.

There was nowhere to go but down, and in retrospect, we should all be kicking ourselves for being so optimistically hyped about the succeeding season of Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective. What did we really think was gonna happen after Fukunaga departed. Rustin Cohle would be laughing at our blind hopefulness. 

This is the part of the article where one gives a quick run-through of the shows premise. Easier said than done. Ok so, um, well you have Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell), an alcoholic detective in Vinci, an industrial municipality run by corporations. He’s going through some child custody drama but more importantly is bent to the whim of Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn), dirty mob entrepreneur trying to go clean, due to a past favor. Ani Bezzeredes (Rachel McAdams) is rough-around-the-edges cop possibly dealing with some repressed sexual issues due to having been raised on some sort of spiritual commune. And then there’s Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch) former seen-some-things armed forces motorcycle cop who’s struggling to stay in the closet.

These characters are brought together by the brutal murder of Ben Caspere, city manager and business partner of Semyon. Semyon entrusted Caspere with $5 million for a legitimizing high speed rail project, which he finds out Caspere embezzled before his death, causing Frank to lose most his fortune and faith of potential investors and developers. Velcoro is sent by Semyon to investigate, while simulataneously put on the case by the Vinci PD along with Bezzerides and Woodrugh. As a result, feathers are ruffled, alliances are tested. 
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