Five Reasons You Need To Check Out The New Season Of True Detective

But those people thought better of the original True Detective than others of us. Season One was captivating, looked gorgeous and its stars had an undeniable chemistry. But the story leaned heavily on southern gothic cliches and… well, women were almost invisible, appearing onscreen as either wives, whores or cadavers.

Season Two has some weaknesses (for starters Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell are no Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson) but it’s tried so hard to be different from the first that it’s actually difficult to compare the two seasons. 

HBO have previewed three episodes and what we witness in those episodes is enough to to reel you in for the full season's ride. Below are five reasons you may want to give the show another go round.

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

The action for Season Two has moved to the West Coast of the States. And just as Louisiana served as a major character in the first season, the Californian landscape of Season Two should get star billing alongside Vaughn and Farrell. A lot of action takes place in and around the Pacific Coast Highway, one of the most scenic parts of the US - and here it is filmed lovingly. 

Hanging over from season one are those long, lingering aerial shots and here the camera hangs over the intertwining freeways of LA and its outlying areas, appreciating the lines and movement as if a masterpiece hanging in a gallery. Or… road porn.

RACHEL MCADAMS

A female lead. Yes, it’s true. 

True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto copped a large dollop of shit for the aforementioned lack of three-dimensional female characters in Season One. He copped more of it when word went out that once again two more male Hollywood actors were inked to star in Season Two. But don’t let the trailers and pre-screening hype mislead you, McAdams is one of four major players in this new story. In fact, McAdams’ tough-as-nails, hateful-of-her-new-age-upbringing cop is the freshest character in Season Two.

LEONARD COHEN

This season’s opening credits theme is Nevermind, lifted from last year’s Leonard Cohen album Popular Problems. It evokes a slinky, exotic and stifling atmosphere. At once sexy and post-coital sweaty. Its bassline is funky as balls. How very LA.

And what do the lyrics reveal? “I was not caught but many tried…”

TAYLOR KITSCH

If you only know this guy as that actor who appeared in a string of big-budget flops a few years back, you don’t know shit. Just three words tell you all you need to know about why Kitsch is king of TV drama. Friday. Night. Lights.

So Kitsch miscalculated his move to the big screen with John Carter, Battleship and Oliver Stone’s Savages. For those of us who pray at the altar of Friday Night Lights, he will always be bad-boy footballer Tim Riggins.

Here, he’s a homophobic highway patrol cop (maybe too homophobic, ifyaknowwotimean…) with a chip on his shoulder (actually, there is literally something on his shoulder, but you'll see more of that once you start watching). He's like Erik Estrada in ChiPs, only homophobic. Did we mention his character is homophobic?

And so, while Vaughn and Farrell fail to sizzle together onscreen as McConaughey and Harrelson did in True Detective past, this season it’s Kitsch and McAdams’ scenes together that bring the chemistry. And for that we are thankful.

THIS IS TRULY A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORY

Clawing its way out of southern gothland, Season Two brings to mind classic Hollywood tales like Chinatown and LA Condfidential. There’s seedy inner-city livin’, kinky sex, murder, dildos and corporate greed. 

But the story is dense. D.E.N.S.E. You may want to take notes to track who is who doing what to where and why… The many sub-plots circle each other before colliding together and then taking off again in a wide variety of directions - and one assumes it will all come crashing together again somewhere along the way. Oh… just like traversing the roadways of California.

True Detective screens on Showcase at 3.30pm Mondays (encore screening at 7.30pm).