10 Best Episodes That Make Bad TV Seasons Worth Watching
2. Black Maps & Motel Rooms - True Detective (Season 2)
With True Detective being an anthology show, each of the three seasons are distinctly different from each other. Season One is still viewed as the apex and Season Three put in a solid showing to remind us all what the show could do.
Season Two, however, was a garbled mess which seemed bereft of ideas or identity. In the penultimate episode, Black Maps & Motel Rooms, it finally delivered, but by then it was far too late to save the season. If you ever go in for a rewatch though, you’ll be glad it’s there to look forward to.
Most of Season Two feels like it’s grasping at what it thinks made Season One great. There’s a lot of slow, whiskey soaked melancholy monologues and whispered conversations, but it’s missing what actually made Season One great: tension and dynamics.
Until Black Maps, all the characters felt too distant, too desperate to get in their ‘time is a flat circle’ quote. Black Maps finally remembers that this is a cop drama at heart.
Paul (Taylor Kitsch) actually does something plot worthy, Ani (Rachel McAdams) and Ray (Colin Farrell) are on the run, an actual conspiracy starts to unfold and eventually, we might actually care.