I was just talking with my buddy, too, and I was saying how the real theme of the first season was this lurking evil in the Louisiana swamps, and I thought the larger theme tucked into s2 was this idea that there's lurking evil in California, too, even in this supposedly "pristine" locales.

And look, I'm on board with that! I think a huge percentage of those people hiding up in the redwoods are broken, lonely, confused people. I think those remote places CALL them there, then they build up this wall of hippie dippie this or that which is all just a facade for a bunch of weirdos living in the woods together -- some semi-survivalists, some people who just reject society as a concept. I lived there. I know. Like I've driven by the church that Jim Jones set up shop in up there. I've gone by the Wavy Gravy camp more times than I can count. I've gone to the weird bars and been in the areas where locals might attack you for driving down the wrong road. So I was excited when the show would finally reach Guerneville and I had a sense that the darkest evil would always be lurking there.

But maaaaan -- what they gave us? Like two "weird" establishing shots to bring us to that cabin up there? I wasn't trying to throw stones, but it's hard to look at that and say the director didn't MISS big time on that. It's rather non-jokingly called "living behind the Redwood Curtain" for a reason (and okay, Guerneville isn't THAT far out there, but it's in the ballpark). To me, that was the clearest example of the gap between this season and last season -- and okay, I've never lived in Louisiana, but still -- the sense of place was just soooo much stronger in Fukunaga's True Detective. It's something that's just lacking this year.

I still like it. I still think it's interesting, think it has an interesting story to tell and has actors challenging themselves to create interesting characters, but men -- I do understand the people who just feel a general "lack" this season. It's just some of the smaller stuff, it isn't clicking quite the same way as the fucked biker bar, or the country bars, or truck stops, or church revivals, or trailer park brothels, as last year...