'True Detective' Season 2 News: HBO Crime Drama Heading To The Big Screen?

[MadsPLP]

Quote Originally Posted by Coa

I would watch anything with Mads Mikkelsen.

Coming from Mikkelsen's native Denmark and thus having been exposed to a lot of the movies he's in over the years, I can safely say that, frankly, no, you wouldn't.

His Hannibal performance broke my heart in the latest finale. He managed to be an imposing figure of dread whilst also on some level gaining my sympathy. Great acting.

I hope Season 3, as it presumably adapts Red Dragon, features some of the delightful songs from Manhunter. Gorgeous film, even if certain elements are very 80s MTV.

1. Strong As I Am - Manhunter (1986) | The Prime Movers - YouTube

[Druidic]

Personally, I was Thomas Harris-ed out a long time ago. After Red Dragon, so many movies and dumb TV shows 'borrowed' from Harris it was exhausting. (Perhaps it was fitting since Red Dragon borrowed heavily from Colin Wilson's "The Glass Cage")
Truly, I prefer True Detective Season 1.
I'll probably skip the new season, though. I think Nick decided on a smart strategy, removing all weird elements from the new one or (possibly) just minimizing them. He knows his greatest competition is his own creation, season one. He also seems to be smart enough to know you can't capture lightning in a bottle twice. Now if (when) critics complain about TD 2 he can say, "Hey, this is completely different, you idiots, you can't compare them, it's Apples and Oranges!"
We'll see how it works out for ya, Nick.

The serial killer has replaced the symbol of the Werewolf in our collective mythology/culture. Explicit and realistic sadism/brutality replaces atmospheric and symbolic fantasy at its darkest. Some would see it as another example of cultural impoverishment. The culture we presumably share, the glue that helps hold us all together, is a mythology of bad movies, sickly pop music, video games, comic books and dimwit celebrities. Nothing wrong with comic books or video games in themselves--but the trade-off was grim in general. Laugh, youngsters, but remember the last generation of Old Ones in Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness who couldn't tell how far their art and culture had decayed and thought the new stuff superior...As G. says Nothing stands still, evolution or devolution calls...

I think if you look at documentation from absolutely every era of history, they all thought they were in in age of moral or artistic decline (Lovecraft felt the same about his era, so he's not a great example). It's quite funny, actually. My view is certainly a minority (lone?) one on this forum, but I still overall would say that our culture is only worse in some ways whilst being better in substantially more ways (I wouldn't much fancy being around during the Victorian era, as it was nigh-on inhospitable if you weren't rich), and even though existence is quite hellish, we're actually in one of the least hellish periods of history to be alive in (rather than a comfort this is actually horrifying because there is still an unfathomable amount of suffering).

I also don't believe the fascination with murderers in horror fiction is anything particularly new. Poe was relishing in it with masterworks such as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado or The Black Cat, which contain the same psychological spirit of the Lecter tales. The Hannibal show especially screams Poe to me.

Bar a few exceptions (The Twilight Zone has aged extraordinarily well), 1950s TV was insanely terrible filler between commercials, whereas now I have Season 3 of Hannibal, Season 2 of Better Call Saul, and even a Twin Peaks revival to look forward to. I firmly believe we're in the golden age of US television when it comes to the quantity of decent shows out there, even if most of these are niche whilst the majority of TV is still as awful as ever. I'm always discovering decent distractions on Netflix, and the occasional artistic gem. The Wire and Breaking Bad wouldn't have been as good if made in earlier decades, as the level of visual artistry hadn't matched cinema yet, and they would have suffered from compromise.

I think people jumped the gun in declaring True Detective on par with those shows, as whilst it's good its writing didn't really match the superlative production/performances in a way that true modern classics such as Deadwood, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, etc all did. Still, I am looking forward to the second season, even if I'm skeptical I'll enjoy it as much without the director of last year's run, who was actually responsible for the weird fiction-esque atmosphere more than the lip service to Chambers was.

[miguel1984]

Yeah, I know Dick is short for Richard. And that joke I made was a pretty crappy one.

I love mystery, open endings, and ambiguities. I revel in obscurity, and vagueness is a blanket for me. It's why I am drawn to authors such as Poe, Lovecraft, Aickman, Campbell and Ligotti. As such, the ending of Twin Peaks has always felt fine to me, but I'm still glad we're getting more David Lynch material.

By the same token, I actually would prefer it if Lost had ended with the S3 finale, which didn't solve anything but ended on a more dramatic, climactic note than the one it ended its sixth season with. Most people think Lost left too many questions, whereas I don't think it left enough. Its ending was too neat for me.

[Druidic]

Actually, James, Poe's use of murder in his fiction was far removed from today's serial killer subgenre. I've never watched Hannibal and can't comment on it; but watch one or two episodes of The Following (no need to watch more) and you'll see what that subgenre is usually about: sickening sadism, misogyny and lazy writing. it's possible to write good fiction about serial killers: Wilson did, so did Harris; even Lovecraft took part in an enjoyable pulpy but surprisingly realistic tale of necrophilia. I wonder if McCarthy read it.

I think Lovecraft's prognostications regarding the future were pretty much on target. I read the papers with grim amusement. The wonders of technology have both helped and hindered, in some cases increasing man's sense of alienation. There's always a price to pay for magic.

I care more about atmosphere or storytelling than plot, so well told stories about serial killers, werewolves, or little girl unicorns, are equally able to enthrall me. Many genre conventions are overdone or trite, but that is true for every kind of horror including the Lovecraftian tradition. Unimaginative people flock everywhere.

I admire Lovecraft's fiction as much as anybody, and his views on horror literature were pretty much dead on, but his views on society were informed by nostalgia and reactionary conservatism. Not worth taking at all seriously. He just didn't like change.

[J.T. Edwards]

I see nothing to get excited about for season two of TD. Other than Colin Farrell's mustache. I'll no doubt be checking it out though.

I finally finished season one of Hannibal. Only took me two years. It's well written, great atmosphere, but terribly formulaic to this point. I'm going to attempt to get through season two before three starts in a few weeks.

[miguel1984]

You should definitively watch Carnivàle; it is that good. And, even though it was not completed, there is some kind of closure (God, I hate that word). This is probably because Daniel Knauf, the creator, wanted to divide the series into three "books", each lasting two seasons, so, if you decide to watch it, you kind of get an ending, the end of the first "book".

The two seasons take place in 1934-1935, and I believe the two remaining "books" were supposed to take place in 1939-1940 and 1944-1945, respectively, which means, in my view, that the most interesting time period of the three, the Great Depression, is covered.

Also, to better understand the series, I would recommend you to read the so called Carnivàle Pitch Document, where some of the show's mysteries are explained and which you can find online. And there is an interview with Knauf from The A.V. Club, in which he explains his plans for the series:

Daniel Knauf opens up about Carnivà le’s long, weird journey (1 of 2) The A.V. Club

Daniel Knauf tells us his plan for the end of Carnivà le The A.V. Club