A Fitting Conclusion

"Some men get the world. Others get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona." - Lynn Bracken, "L.A. Confidential"

There is a proud history of excellence in detective noir films and novels, especially those set in the seedy underbelly of Southern California. Nic Pizzolatto is obviously aware of that, how else would you explain the various homages to better stories embedded in season 2 of "True Detective?"

But there's the problem. The season was billed to be one thing -- something on the level of those greater stories -- but it materialized into something else. That's neither bad nor good on it's own, it's just an observation. But now, after all eight episodes of the second season have aired, it's reasonable to reflect on what we've seen and how it stood up to expectations.

The answer to that question is more complicated than some might think. It didn't meet expectations. It's not as good as the first season. It's now what fans hoped to see, and it's fair to say it was executed awkwardly. But does that mean it was bad? That's where it gets more complicated.

Some have complained about the character and story development throughout the season, and that's fair. Clearly Pizzolatto had a vision for what he wanted to say with the show, and only he knows if it was executed as he'd imagined. I think he got some good performances, and there were some memorable moments. But it isn't an eight-episode season that will resonate with audiences the way season one did.

But they were meant to be different. The structure was different. The characters were different. The story was different. And, to some degree, I think the aims were different. Say what you will about their personal comportment, but Rust Cohle and Marty Hart were good detectives. Their reputation preceded the story, and their dedication to the truth led them to fight all the way to the finish.

Ani Bezzerides, Ray Velcoro, and Paul Woodrugh were a lot of things, but they weren't good detectives. They were dysfunctional people looking for a second chance, looking for redemption. Their goals were, at times, noble, but their mission was folly.

In that sense, their story ended the only way it possibly could have ended -- in ambiguity and failure. That is likely what rubs people wrong the most. There wasn't a resolution, nothing was solved, the story just picked up, ran a while, and left off incomplete.

In America, we need resolution. We crave it and we're angry when it doesn't happen. That's why so many people struggle with independent films, which seek to capture life as it is rather than as we'd like it to be. Season two of "True Detective" wasn't great, but it was true to the story it was telling. It didn't wrap up in a neat bow because it couldn't.

That doesn't make it a success or a failure, it makes it complicated. Kinda like life.