Sufficient Cynic

The second season of True Detective was never going have an easy road. The first season was the equivalent of a newborn baby who sleeps through the night. In other words, it was, seemingly, perfect. No one knew much about it while it was in the production phase, so there was little build up of expectation. The early buzz was that the performances by leads Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson were everything from revelatory to career-defining. Perhaps most uniquely of all, it had one director and one writer collaborating on the entire project. It was a bit like a television unicorn. Director Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre, and a producer on Season 2) and his cinematographer, Adam Arkapaw, brought a distinct atmosphere to the screen. Not just Southern Gothic, but a unique kind of Trailer Park Creep, the kind of aesthetic that basks in the word "seedy". Its premiere was a massive success for HBO. Naturally, it was renewed for a second season, almost immediately. It was to be the …