True Detective Season 2 Is Here! Is It Everything You Dreamed it Would Be?

The HBO hit is back with Rachel McAdams, Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn and Taylor Kitsch

By Lauren Piester Jun 22, 2015 2:00 AMTags
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It's baaack! 

We're barely a week into our mourning period after last week's Game of Thrones finale and we've already been blessed with a brand new season of HBO's True Detective, complete with all the truth, detectives, and violent murders you could ask for. 

Tonight's premiere introduced us to a whole new crop of characters, along with a brand new murder to investigate. 

First, we met Colin Farrell's Ray Velcoro, a detective who just wants to be a dad to his son, who may or may not actually be the son of his ex-wife's rapist. His ex-wife, however, would rather take away custody completely due to Ray's habit of dealing with his problems through extreme violence. 

Then, we met Vince Vaughn's character, Frank, a businessman who once gave Ray the info on his wife's rapist. Now, he's working on some sort of illegal land deal with an L.A. city manager, and he speaks in staccato, context-dependent sentences like, "All the marbles."  

Next we meet the underwear-clad detective Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams), right after something went weird in the bedroom and right before she busts her sister at a possible brothel. We immediately learn from her sister that Ani has some interesting views on both sex and substances, and everything becomes clear when we discover that her father is the leader of a freaky religious cult. 

HBO

And finally, Tim Riggins, also known as Taylor Kitsch, plays a highway motorcycle patrolman named Paul who gets in trouble after an actress offers oral sex to get out of a trafffic violation. His suspension is especially difficult for him due to the fact that it means he can't be on his bike, which is probably the only time he feels truly alive. 

All of these perfectly True Detective-ian people come together when Casper, that L.A. city manager who's working with Frank, is murdered, and all of the cops' jurisdictions intersect.

Meanwhile, there are missing girls, a questionable small town, prostitutes/showgirls, dildos, and an angry Vince Vaughn all joining forces with Ani's dad's creepy cult to create the ultimate tale of hardboiled intrigue that only True Detective could bring us. 

In all seriousness, despite how completely different the show is this season, it still feels familiar. We've been down this dark alley at least once before, and it turned out pretty OK last time, so there's no reason to turn back now. We may miss Rust Cohle for a while, but that doesn't mean we aren't totally here for something new.

What did you think of the premiere? Vote in the poll below and then head to the comments to weigh in! 

Poll

True Detective

What do you think of True Detective season 2?
Love it
80.5%
Hate it
19.5%