True Detective

Jaybee_sl said:

What was the director trying to convey when he interspersed a completely unnecessary sex scene with a gunfight in a subway? Was he trying to exhibit the frailty and fleetingness of love, and how difficult it is for these characters to experience?

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Eros and Thanatos! Not that bizarre or original.

With the guy being right outside I just figured they could have had ALL exits covered and that just happened to be the one he came out of.

i thought there was no cell signal down on the platform? how did burress know to stand sneakylike at at that spot at that time?

Wasnt that just a trick to get close to Holloway ? going to be shitty if he did call them and they were busy fucking

Szlia_sl said:

Let's play.


It is indeed a staple of classic narration to have the guy who is trying his best to be straight (in more ways than one!) shoot unarmed people in the face...


Maybe you do that after a thinly veiled death threat?


Maybe because Osep was hoping he would stay to run the clubs and maybe because the suspicion materialized in the form of a goon that took a bullet in the head?



Yeah when they dropped 10 names of characters that had 2 minutes of screen time each if at all I really felt like they went too far with the hand holding...



Maybe because he got some radio info from the guys remaining in the underground tunnels? Maybe he himself tailed Paul in the tunnels and took another exit when it was clear where Paul might exit? We don't know and we will never know because, once again, the type of narrative focalization used will result in huge chunks of information the viewer will never get access to (which also explains while several of these chunks are made clearer through dialogue, because, by choice, they cannot be shown).

As far as the document being inadmissible in court... who cares? That really would be a problem if they were in a situation where they knew everything but needed evidence to incriminate people. They were in a situation where they had very little idea of what was going on and how people where linked with each other and these documents proved extremely precious to establish that. They will not be admissible in court, but now, at least, they know what is going on and are in a much better position to work the case and find witnesses and evidences. Well... they were before people started dropping left right and center that is!


The double list is probably just a prop blunder by a director that does not realize HD is HD and forgot people can and will press pause whenever there is a note of some sort on screen. I can hear it from here: "That list looks too damn short! Fill this page with lines so we can see something big is cooking! 5 minutes break until we get the new prop!" On a side, the shopping list make it look like a 2 men job... Seymon and Nails? Or some Bonnie and Clyde action with him and his wife?

Lastly, Vaughn was indeed better, but mostly because his lines were better and the character is no longer holding his horses so tightly. Even when, he got verbose with the diamond seller it worked well in a super passive-aggressive 'I am taking none of your hypocritical shit motherfucker' kind of way.

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I think my point was, when writing a show, you simply demonstrate your meaning in the things you're writing and showing on-screen instead of just randomly having shit happen for the fuck of it or because it's cool and hoping people with throw out a ton of 'maybe' defenses to explain things. It really wouldn't be that hard, and in plenty of instances would have heightened the suspense, tension and drama.

For instance, instead of just having Lt. Burris inexplicably standing by an exit and leaving us to guess if the Captain was just knocked out and phoned him for help, you show, get this, the Captain waking up and phoning for help. Then, instead of a random threat we don't know about suddenly gunning down a main character for cheap shock value, you actually have a main character potentially walking into a known threat so you can worry about him. Too often the show settles for cheap thrills via inexplicable unexplained action instead of actually building suspense and tension by letting the threat be known.

Yeah, exactly, another prop blunder. In a show that has felt rushed all around. Like they haven't had anyone editing or even beta reading the script. Like the editing sometimes makes no sense. Incongruities like the big fight scene where the final raid boss gets show and falls on his back, and then the next cut he's laying face down, then he's suddenly on his back again. On an objective, nuts and bolts level this show has been a mess and is clearly suffering in quality on just about every level, and instead of just recognizing that as fact, people are vehemently defending the show and shouting down any detractors as if there haven't been a ton of quality issues on all levels.

And the editing really is shitty. Fucking distracting shitty for those cursed with noticing that kind of thing. Breaking scenes right in the middle of a conversation to cut away to other action, only to return right back. The opening scene where we got the relatively boring, calm scene of gaycop looking over contracts, implying they've settled into a motel after some crazy shit, and then we get scene where Ani is flipping out like they just got into the hotel and she's having a hard time decompressing. Very simple fix to just switch the sequence of those scenes which not only demonstrates a more plausible passage of time and events, but starts with the more interesting scene more immediately (sorry gaycop but contracts are boresville). And if you're showing a series of events like Frank setting shit on fire, you intersperse other scenes to give a sense of time passing, which they started doing, so you understood he was driving around setting the town on fire, you don't have him lighting shit on fire in one scene and then immediately cut to him on top of makeout point overlooking the city (unless he can teleport). Just shitty, shitty overall editing and pacing and scene choice and logical flow; again because it's evident this season is very rushed and nobody seemed like they were prepared.

Admittedly, most people don't care about this craft-level shit because it doesn't change the fact they're excited to see an explosion or sex or a shootout, and whether it made complete narrative sense or not doesn't change their 'that was cool' titillation. So, no, I don't give a shit if 'maybe' somebody in the tunnels called someone else or any of the other 'maybe' explanations because it would be pretty easy to just write something that makes sense so we didn't have to discuss dumb shit like that and could instead discuss why the only people sad that gaycop died are the ones that like inexplicable shootouts.

ganthorn_sl said:

With the guy being right outside I just figured they could have had ALL exits covered and that just happened to be the one he came out of.

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I thought Lt Burris was just psychic and it was a cross promotion with the return of the show Heroes.

See, bad writing leaves us having to ask stupid questions like this. They could have very easily just set the scene, showed they had the exits covered, then we'd not only not be confused and having to have this conversation, but the stakes would be even higher because we'd know gaycop to still be in danger upon seemingly getting away instead of just randomly being shot in the back for cheap shock value.

And exactly, either they'd been using cell phones to communicate with all the guys that had the place surrounded and wouldn't have fallen for Paul's no bars trick, or they had no contact with the guys on the outside and were just hoping Lt Burris would be standing at the exact right exit. But, we don't even really know if Burris was working with BrokeBlack Mountain. Hell, we don't even really know why they dramatically met in underground tunnels only the bad guys know about except that it's such a cool place for a shootout, so who cares the plausibility, get them into those tunnels man pew pew pew pew badass!

Ugh I dont know why paul went outside, I would have hid for a minute and tried calling Ray

Chanur_sl said:

When Paul arrived he was told they were watching him. It's painfully clear they had people stationed outside. Watch the fucking show.

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Unreliable narrators suddenly become really reliable when it's convenient to defend something and tell others they're stupid. Duh, you fucking moron, the bad guys TOLD the protagonist something, so it MUST be true!!!

Chanur_sl said:

Obviously we know it was because they were there and shot him. How fucking dumb are you? Pretty god damn dumb it seems. See we know this because in the past via your last post you showed us.

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You calling me dumb doesn't make the show better or well made.

And meanwhile you literally just said something in a television show has to be true because the bad guys said it while threatening a protagonist.

Chanur_sl said:

When Paul arrived he was told they were watching him. It's painfully clear they had people stationed outside. Watch the fucking show.

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wait a second, so you think the 5 guys with guns on unarmed gaycop were so scared of him killing them and escaping that they stationed door watchers? and instead of sticking a random goon at that door, they put mini-boss Burriss?

They probably werent sure if he would show up a lone. Obviously this is a big issues for Catalyst and wouldnt want any chances. Also these are contractors not navy seals, they take a lot of retards. People act like these are the cream of the crop soldiers, ive seen people get hired by private security companies that had no experience essentially or send them to a 2 week course.

Shit even happens with Vswans/drones, when we were in Fallujah we had to do the contractors job for the most part because he was given a 4 week course and sent overseas and had no clue what he was doing. On top of it he was getting paid something like 130k tax free for doing a 8 month tour

Maester Chuk_sl said:

wait a second, so you think the 5 guys with guns on unarmed gaycop were so scared of him killing them and escaping that they stationed door watchers? and instead of sticking a random goon at that door, they put mini-boss Burriss?

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Well, Burris had been well known to be a co-conspirator of the Black Mountain security force that had re-branded and was Catalyst's personal security unit we only learned about moments before when instead of dealing with a threat they stood around outlining their entire evil plan.... Man, if Gaycop just hadn't been keeping his sexuality a secret from a ton of people that wouldn't be at all surprised to learn it than Lt Burris wouldn't have had to be standing out there for like 30 minutes behind a random door hoping Paul came out after killing an entire elite, trained security force. Poor Burris being stuck on exit duty, and all because it's absolutely true Paul couldn't get cell reception since he even said so right in the show!

Ah, now Homsar is an expert on government contracted security forces running ops in Afghanistan. Truth is, they're actually usually former elite soldiers, like Navy Seals, who find they can make 5 times the money without all the red tape. You know, the kinds of people that wouldn't have picked up their flashlights so the armed guy they were hunting would know their every fucking move in the dark of a subway tunnel.

As if incompetence should ever be an excuse for an implausible plot point.

VV was awesome in the scene where he kills Blake. When he said "and now youve shit my carpet" and made that face...was pretty fucking priceless.

Also, lol at my Black police chief being the killer prediction. Prolly not correct but pretty close haha.

that meeting was intended to lure gaycop in alone, thats why they used compromising images. when he showed up, the 5 guys who were making sure he was alone clustered up and all went inside. was no reason for buriss to be acting tricksy at that exit other than it would make for a cool looking death scene

Jozu_sl said:

VV was awesome in the scene where he kills Blake. When he said "and now youve shit my carpet" and made that face...was pretty fucking priceless.

Also, lol at my Black police chief being the killer prediction. Prolly not correct but pretty close haha.

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i wasnt sure if he said "now you're just shit on my carpet" or "now you just shit on my carpet"

No, im pretty sure he said shit my carpet, because he said it right after he coughed up blood on the carpet.

Jozu_sl said:

No, im pretty sure he said shit my carpet, because he said it right after he coughed up blood on the carpet.

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he also said that after he said blake had potential. so im still not 100% on it.

Szlia_sl said:

Eros and Thanatos! Not that bizarre or original.

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Wrong! It was a trick question! He wasn't trying to convey anything. He was trying tohidesomething - the fact that he is a hack.