They might not have explicitly referred to anal, but that’s the impression I got as well. I don’t find it too far of a leap to make the assumption. Asked my wife what she thought and she had the same impression. Just my $.02.
I think we win first prize for “threads taking an odd direction”. You’d think the show was called “True Detective: Anal or not Anal?”
And yes, David Morse did work surprisingly well as the cult leader.
It doesn’t feel we’re spellbound as ‘we’ were by the characters of those in Season One. The show has no witchcraft yet to me which makes me want to linger with the people, what they say, how they say it. Before I said 'contrived." when I watched half of it again last night, I was hoping for something to hold my spirit.
I will ‘look into anal’ after reading all of you.
Do you think they put women in more scenes in Episode One, Season Two since there was so much fussing on the show being too male in Season One?
Put me down for anal, too. (Please keep that quote in context.)
It was something that most women would not be into, but by implication something that guys would be into. (Otherwise, why would he raise the issue of gender at all?)
Anal was my assumption. Guess maybe she could have asked him for a money shot, but I can’t really think of anything else that fits.
We must live in very different cultures.
‘anal’ hasn’t been a gender thing, or any thing for, I dunno, 15 years or something.
Some of us prefer our partners a little older, Humbert.
David Morse is good in just about anything he does.
And since he played a character on St. Elsewhere who was sodomized, I guess he keeps in line with the direction of this thread. 
My recollection is that we (as in the sdmb thread for season 1) weren’t particularly into it after the first episode. I think it was two or three before we really fell under its spell. Possibly not until the marathon tracking shot episode when Rust kidnaps the biker dude from the projects.
Actually, looking back at last season’s thread we seemed more positive after the first episode than we are for this season. (Episode 1 comments begin here.)
The scene where the motorcycle cop turns his lights off and speeds down the road ended really oddly. I mean, he was going 100 mph, then loses control, and then seems to stop with no problem. I don’t know, but the scene was just off somehow.
I never thought he lost control. My impression is that he figured he was running out of straightaway but then decided to live, turned the headlights back on, saw that a turn was indeed coming up so he stopped.
I only saw that scene once, though, so I could be misremembering.
I think most of the mystery this season will focus on the city of Vinci itself. It’s pretty much completely corrupt, and the other cop had never even heard of it.
Also, what was the motorcycle talking about with his boss? Black mountain? He mentioned being in the army, so I’m guess some mercenary group?
I assumed Black Mountain is some sort of fictionalized version of Blackwater.
Apart from this "anal’ connection, what was the hook that makes you want to watch Sunday night.
So far, I gotta say, it seems contrived and inconsequential. Maybe I’m too intense and I want a 'bloodbath" of feeling or of caring about a character.
Episode One of Season One was kind of a puzzle I wasn’t sure at first I wanted to go into. But I was always listening to every word. The language held the answers. This one seems far more visual.
Relax, friends. This episode had a lot of characters to introduce. Now let’s see how well they play together.
I think “contrived” is a good word to describe the first episode, although “convoluted” might work as well.
Part of the magic of the first season was the dialogue. Rust and Marty had some great banter. Even in the very first episode, Rust’s philosophical ramblings had a hypnotic effect. In the season two opener, the dialogue ranges from mediocre to awkward.
I won’t judge the entire season by only one episode, but I admit I’m pessimistic at this point.
Yes. It’ll be so much easier if we just unclench.
Vince Vaughn is really the weak link here. And I really wanted to like him in this, too. Despite all the handwringing over his casting, I thought he could bring something interesting to the part. But he’s just trying way too hard to be serious and seems really uncomfortable in the role.
I did think he nailed it in his first scene though, the flashback scene, where he displayed a bit of that caddish hucksterism that’s sort of become his trademark. If Pizzolatto were willing to inject a little levity into the series, I could actually see that approach working pretty well.
The first season was gritty through and through, from the cinematography to the crimes to the interplay between Rust and Marty. It was like a perfect storm of grit.
I don’t know how to describe this new season. It’s almost the opposite of grit, but it’s certainly not polished or glossy. Shallow, maybe? No, that’s not it either. Hmmm. You know how film looks? As in movies shot on film? Compare that to video, like a daytime game show or soap opera. Not saying the new season is physically shot on a different medium, but the essence of the show feels like daytime video compared to season 1’s film.
At least through the first episode anyway.
EDIT: Note that in my comparison of film and video, I’m thinking back to pre-HD days, back when standard definition was all we had. There was a more distinct difference in feel back then.
For me, the first season was about the two characters. Both Harrelson and McConaughey brought something to those characters that made me watch to watch them and to know them. Hell, they could have been investigating missing library books, and I still would have been compelled to watch.
I binge watched Season 1 over a week. At the final episode, I actually felt real sadness that I wouldn’t be seeing the characters again.
That right there is pretty powerful and speaks to how good those actors are.
I ended up finishing the new episode (S2E1), starting again from the beginning. I found that I missed a lot during the first viewing. I also find that the contrived feel is still there. Right now, sitting here, I don’t really care for the characters (well, I am a bit interested to see where Farrell’s character goes), and so really don’t find myself looking forward to the next episode.
Now that I wrote all the above, I have to come back to contrived; I feel like the show is wasting my time for an amateurish, almost heavy handed approach at making a gritty police show.