To Live and Die In L.A
With the first series of True Detective declaring it's sheer awesomeness during its' fourth episode when we were treated to the now-famous one-take, gang-land escape scene, this week's episode of series two was bound to include some sort of monumental set-piece in some form or another. And boy, wasn't it just? The explicitly violent massacre that concluded "Down Will Come" not only was shocking as it was bloody, but also featured ten minutes of ramped-up action that had been absent from this season so far, concluding with Officers Velcoro, Bezzerides, and Woodrugh physically repelled at the sheer carnage they had just all witnessed after a search and seizure on a potential suspect was turned completely on its' head. Although such a scene was downright epic in its' own right, parallels to the first series was inevitable. regardless of how good such a scene was going to be, yet I think it's time to move away from comparisons to the first series and just enjoy True Detective for what its' attempting to be this year; a dark and brooding noir crime thriller that is trying it's hardest to shake off the plaudits of its' predecessor by not being just more of the same.
Of course, the argument that its' attempting to not be "more of the same" can be easily criticised due in part to the way in which such a set piece in this week's episode was pretty much expected, but on the whole, the concluding shootout worked and I believe if such a scene was placed into another, bog-standard crime show, it would be applauded. I know True Detective, you just can't win. Although the final scene was something to take away from this week's episode, in terms of the overall plot, not much was entirely expanded upon, with Frank Semyon still attempting to rebuild his legacy in the crime underworld, whilst the depth of the case was only focused on within the last ten minutes or so, aside from some rather confusing plot lines regarding spiritual seminars and land development, making this week's episode memorable in places, but overall, just filler in the overall context of the seasons overarching plot threads.
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