10 Best Episodes Of True Detective

True Detective season two (TD2) had a lot to live up to and received a great deal of unfair, overly harsh criticism. The plot was extremely complex and the setting had changed significantly, yet TD2 was still leagues ahead of the average television cop show.

The first episode introduces us to the three leads – Colin Farrell’s Velcoro, (essentially Sonny Crockett with a serious drink problem, moustache and all), Rachel McAdams’ Bezzarides (tough, independent with an abused childhood) and Taylor Kitsch’s Woodrugh (battling existential demons and exposure to the horrors of war). All three are troubled loners, their careers heading downhill fast and are given a case sabotaged from the very beginning.

Los Angeles plays a character in its own right, cut away cityscapes usually serve as transitional interludes yet here the twisting freeways and smoke spewing industrial plants we see from high above serve to illustrate the hidden, murky and obscured truth – L.A. is a cesspit of corruption and murder.

Velcoro spends his time and business meetings in a downtown bar, The Black Rose. This is where we first meet the singer, Lera Lynn, whose electric guitar provides the dark, bleak and haunting despair that sets the tone of the whole series. With bleeding mascara and bruised legs that imply she too has a sad, painful story of her own, Lynn deserved her own character.