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Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 11:51 am
by Wombaticus Rex
BrandonD » Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:02 pm wrote:
I felt compelled to comment because the above quote, the type that is designed to shame people who take the "paranormal" seriously, is the type of thing I'd expect to see outside of RI, not within the walls.


And you know I take the paranormal quite seriously, so....nope, that's not what I'm saying. Guruilla nailed my response almost verbatim. There were very real monsters and secrets that never got unwound -- Osip's "board," Ani's entire trauma, and whatever the fuck Caspere was really up to.

For the record there's also a fourth option: "I can't stand the slow pacing and florid writing and didn't think this was a good TV show." I have no response for that one because it's 100% valid.

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 12:07 pm
by Luther Blissett
BrandonD » Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:02 pm wrote:
Wombaticus Rex » Tue Aug 11, 2015 6:27 pm wrote:1) "I felt like there were all these tantalizing occult angles but they wound up being so mundane."
Yes, Virginia, that's Earth. There are only men behind those hoods, there is only lust behind those incantations.


Not necessarily.

From my POV you've moved from critiquing a TV show into making a sardonic debunker-style proclamation about the "real world", one that I don't agree with, and one I don't believe you're in a position to make with the certainty you are projecting.

I'm open to being corrected if I'm wrong.

I felt compelled to comment because the above quote, the type that is designed to shame people who take the "paranormal" seriously, is the type of thing I'd expect to see outside of RI, not within the walls.


My first thought upon reading that was "maybe we'll see a ufo coverup in season 3." Wouldn't that be exciting? I feel that to avoid jumping the shark, though, they should focus on something that's an established but hidden part of canonical U.S. history: MK-Ultra, Midnight Climax, Paperclip, Mockingbird, Bakken, Pine Ridge, prison-industrial complex, the militarization of the police, the New Jim Crow, etc. Not that I don't count ufos as canonical U.S. history, but it would be a hard sell for most.

There don't seem to be any real rumors about the direction. Tons of speculation about casting but I couldn't care less, other than adding more diversity.

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 12:56 pm
by stillrobertpaulsen
Daniel Hopsicker's latest. Wasn't sure if this would be better in this thread or another.

True Detective: Chicago, El Chapo, & Vince Vaughn’s Mom

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:00 pm
by Hunter
http://jaysanalysis.com/2015/08/11/the- ... -season-2/

The Hidden Meaning of Season 2. Some interesting analysis for the RI minded.

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 5:01 pm
by Forgetting2
Hunter » 12 Aug 2015 12:00 wrote:http://jaysanalysis.com/2015/08/11/the-hidden-meaning-of-true-detective-season-2/

The Hidden Meaning of Season 2. Some interesting analysis for the RI minded.




Good stuff. Thanks.

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 1:03 pm
by guruilla
The first podcast is up, here

Content summation:

First of a two-part psycho-exploration of Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective season 2 with Lovecraftian Heather Poirier, on comparisons to season 1, the armature of espionage, plot as a delivery device, the implacability of archetypal forces, Greek tragedy and the underworld, the death drive, Oedipus, the scapegoat mechanism, and the structure of detective fiction, class structure, expanding agency, and Frank’s failed ascendancy, transportation and double society, Frank’s naive bid for legitimacy, the inaccessibility of multi-generational lines of power, ancestral poisons, tearing apart the tropes, intentional opacity of plot, season two’s midway slump, sound and texture in season 2, parallels with The Counselor, the bleakness of defeat, the irony and futility of Greek tragedy, Pizzolatto’s sowing of doubt & fanning the tiny flame of hope, killing Frank, Frank’s will to power and the walk into the abyss, Woodrugh and the power of concealment, confounding expectations, season 1 backing away from the implications of conspiracy, social engineering and unrevealed hidden agendas, the ancient impulse, the impossibility of justice, a Pavlovian system, the protecting wall, controlling Woodrugh, the reward-and punishment control system, Antigone’s quest to bury her brother, Ray & Antigone’s core pain, who is in who’s underworld, the art of handling people by keeping them triggered, gods like men/men like gods, everybody gets touched, innocence unregained, what is immortality, money & children, children as currency, how Woodrugh is handled, masculine impotence and lack of autonomy, the id and the eternal return, Woodrugh’s death plan, the American Dream and the child within, the puer aeternus, the new Eden, “new year, new you,” being locked in the past, having all your boxes ticked and fate sealed, getting to the core pain, acceptance of pain and maturation, autonomy through defeat, the beginnings of integrity, Ray’s broken pieces, Colin Farrell’s facial hair, why cops are less effective, the necessity of sacrifice, the false hope of leaving the underworld, Pizzolatto’s use of names and language, conspiracy culture and season 1, everybody becomes an investigator, the absence of interrogations in season 2, fair play in detective fiction, Mad Men a soap opera about social engineering, Don Draper’s Esalen epiphany and the spiritualization of advertising, Snow Crash and weaponized memes, The King in Yellow, the wages of the American Dream.


First part of the written piece is here. Most of it already appeared at this thread, but part two will be all-new material. With thanks to Wombat for his friend's take on ep's 5 & 6 and the Heroic Journey Fantasy.

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:49 pm
by Laodicean


Everything's ending. Time to wake up.

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:51 pm
by guruilla
I love how Ray disguised himself as Brad Pitt. :D

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:58 pm
by Laodicean


Dope remix. Spoilers.

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 4:58 am
by zangtang
I do so hate missing out - & obviously in a big way.......

will have to get my 'man who can' on the appropriations case.......

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:22 am
by Monk
The problem with the first season is a lack of resolution. The conspiracy behind the murders, the supernatural elements, and even the subplots were hardly dealt with; additional episodes would have helped.

For the second, I stopped after the second episode, and the main reason (problems with the plot) have already been mentioned.

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 1:30 am
by justdrew
well, I just powered thru all 8 of S2. I've waited and listen to the critics, but actually, all together, it works for me, good show, probably better than 1st season in some ways. I can totally see waiting a week between episodes would have sucked, much better to watch closer together.

I'll see about writing more later, but I did want to speak up for it.

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 1:38 pm
by guruilla
Piece I wrote at Disinfo on TD 2 Weaponized Memes:

http://disinfo.com/2015/08/true-detecti ... zed-memes/

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 4:32 pm
by RocketMan


Wow, that is very good. It came up on my Facebook feed via Disinfo recently and here I am finding out it's one of RI's own! :angelwings:

Re: True Detective on HBO

PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 11:55 am
by elfismiles
ImageThe Horror of the Unreal
By Peter Bebergal

Thomas Ligotti says, “I tend to stipulate in my work that the world by its nature already exists in a state of doom rather than being in the process of doom.”
Credit Courtesy Chris Mars / Chris Mars Publishing

The TV show “The Walking Dead” is one long exercise in tension. But the zombies—the supposed centerpiece of the show’s horror—are not particularly frightening. Gross, to be sure, but also knowable, literal. You can see them coming from yards away. They are the product of science gone wrong, or of a virus, or of some other phenomenal cause. They can be destroyed with an arrow through the brain. More aberration than genuine monsters, they lack the essential quality to truly terrify: an aspect of the unreal.

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-tur ... the-unreal