HBO’s Michael Lombardo Takes the Heat for True Detective Season Two
Michael Lombardo is taking the blame for what happened with True Detective season two.
Everyone is talking about season two of True Detective again, but not in a good way. Having True Detective back in the spotlight hasn’t been a good thing, and perhaps that’s why HBO’s Michael Lombardo chose to talk about it recently. Lombardo, quite candidly, takes the brunt of the blame for derailing True Detective season two.
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The Frame sat down for a conversation with the HBO head, and although it wasn’t True Detective-centric, it did come up. The Frame didn’t waste any time getting to the heart of the matter by asking Lombardo straight-up what he took away from the season’s critical failure. His answer is shockingly honest:
"“I’ll tell you something. Our biggest failures — and I don’t know if I would consider “True Detective 2” — but when we tell somebody to hit an air date as opposed to allowing the writing to find its own natural resting place, when it’s ready, when it’s baked — we’ve failed.”"
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That first statement is important because it helps frame the situation. Basically, HBO wanted to rush season two into production and that’s when they started to see problems. It may have felt like a long time for fans in-between True Detective seasons, but for an anthology series that effectively starts from zero every season, it just wasn’t enough. Lombardo takes further blame for the situation:
"“Well, you know what? I set him up. To deliver, in a very short time frame, something that became very challenging to deliver. That’s not what that show is. He had to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Find his muse. And so I think that’s what I learned from it. Don’t do that anymore.”"
Season one of True Detective was well-formed when HBO got their hands on it, but season two didn’t have such luxury. Lombardo simultaneously admits that season two wasn’t as good as the first while also saying it was his fault. That’s something.
With all of this come to light, it puts more of a question mark on the True Detective season three situation. This interview should put to rest any doubt that True Detective would air before 2017 at the very earliest, but it could be even longer than that. Hopefully by adding more writers the production will go a bit smoother.
Next: Should True Detective season three be based on actual events?
Still, it’s nice to see HBO speak openly and honestly about True Detective. This isn’t the first time this has happened, as Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin also spoke about season two, but this does go into more detail.