WASHINGTON — As one HBO hit ends, another HBO hit begins.
“Game of Thrones” wrapped its Season 5 finale Sunday night, while “True Detective” kicks off its much anticipated Season 2 next Sunday, June 21.
While “Thrones” continually builds upon itself, upping the bloody ante with increasingly controversial twists, “Detective” takes a completely different approach.
Each season features a self-contained series of eight episodes, each with an entirely different storyline, written by creator Nic Pizzolatto. This is slightly different from “American Horror Story,” which recasts the same actors as new characters in a new horror subgenre each season.
“True Detective” Season 2 stars Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams as detectives and Vince Vaughn as a career criminal. Not only will it show Vaughn’s dark side 17 years after playing Norman Bates in the “Psycho” remake, it will also mark his reunion with McAdams after “Wedding Crashers” (2005).
Watch the Season 2 trailer below:
The fresh start means you don’t need to have seen Season 1 to follow the plot.
But if you don’t, you’re missing one of the best single seasons of television ever done.
The dialogue was profound: “The world needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door.”
The mystery unraveled with the institutional corruption of “Chinatown,” the biblical proportions of “Rosemary’s Baby” and the most nail-biting monster’s lair since “The Silence of the Lambs.”
The directing — by Cary Joji Fukunaga — rivaled cinema, namely that six-minute single take during Episode 4. Every detail mattered, like a key scene of John Wayne’s “The Searchers” playing in the background during a discussion of religion, or “North by Northwest” playing on TV in the serial killer’s home as Cary Grant says, “Not that I mind a slight case of abduction every now and then.”
Most of all, the performances were powerful, with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson delivering some of the best work of their careers, not to mention stellar support by Michelle Monaghan as Harrelson’s neglected wife.
It’s too soon to say whether the trio of Farrell, McAdams and Vaughn can match this level of performance. However, the idea of a new cast each season should continue to attract A-list Hollywood stars who may otherwise be hesitant to commit to seven seasons.
The format also allows the show to go more in-depth than a two-hour movie, while avoiding the temptation of playing the ratings game. This helps avoid the trap of “Lost,” which had a powerful first season, but tried to out-twist itself as the series progressed for multiple seasons.
The biggest reason for hope is that Pizzolatto returns to write every episode, just like last season.
The biggest reason for concern is the lack of Fukunaga’s consistent vision as director, opting instead to executive produce. A variety of filmmakers will juggle the directing reins this season, including “Fast and Furious” alum Justin Lin, who will helm the first two episodes.
Television has always been a medium of multiple directors. If film is a director’s medium and theatre is an actor’s medium, TV is a writer’s medium, with the auteur vision belonging to the showrunner.
Can “True Detective” continue to break the mold? Or will it stumble into a sophomore slump?
Either way, we’ll all tune in. And if Season 2 is half as good as Season 1, it’ll be well worth the watch.
