10 Reasons Why Season 2 Of True Detective Is Actually Awesome

Season One had some wonderful use of music in it, much of which truly helped convey the raw adrenaline of that story arc. This year though, the show used a lot more original music than it had done previously, all of which was composed by the extraordinary musician and producer T-Bone Burnett. 

The stark, brooding score amplified the emotional scenes in a way that a 'found' song simply could not. The music in Season Two ran through the very core of the characters and their emotions in a way that wouldn't have worked in Season One.

This technique was further exemplified by the use of Lera Lynn in the bar scenes between Frank and Ray. Lynn's lilting, country-blues lullabies punctuated each scene, heightening the emotion and adding a surreal, almost Lynchian quality to Ray's self destructive drinking sessions - as though she was vocalizing his inner pain. Subsequently, that single shot of Lynn leaving the stage, guitar in hand, in the finale worked as a poignant, almost prophetic image of Ray's forthcoming demise.

The songs still worked when they were borrowed, too and while Leonard Cohen's growling opening theme was not as immediately satisfying as the first season opener (Far From Any Road by the Handsome Family), it was a grower, adding to the sexy, seedy and corrupt mood of the show and embodying the atmosphere and grimy underbelly of Vinci City, California.