True Detective Season Two: So Long Small Town?

One of the reasons that the first season of True Detective worked so well was the setting. True Detective was a small-town world filled with mostly small-town people, dealing with a very centralized crime. That focus and attention to detail were part of the first season’s charm.

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Anyone who has seen the teaser for True Detective’s second season will surely have noticed that much of that charm is gone. In True Detective season two we’re dealing with satanic, corrupt businessmen and L.A’s winding cityscape.

One of the posters for the new season features a winding highway, perhaps letting us know that this isn’t the Louisiana small-town that True Detective fans were previously accustomed to.

But that doesn’t mean that all of that charm is gone. For example, Colin Farrell as Ray Velcoro practically embodies the feel of a mid-west small-town sheriff with the bolo-tie and mustache. In the scene in the trailer in which Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell sit across from each other there is a palpable clash of ideologies. And this can be sensed from a seven second shot that features not dialogue.

As we’ve discussed before, True Detective has to build anew and be judged on its own merits going forward. A complete change of scenery is a way to do that, and the mix of sensibilities that can see in the teaser is a unique way to do that.

We’ll know more about how True Detective intends to move forward, and how it will deal with its new setting once it finally premiers on June 21st.

Next: The production of True Detective's second season through five photo leaks.

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