Seriously though, I won't stop watching it since it's half over anyway and the main plot is still kinda interesting, but most of the characters just annoy the shit out of me.
Also, wtf was up with that shot prominently displaying the American Sniper billboard in what's supposed to be late 2015?
Yeah, there was paperwork in episode 1 that had October 2015 on it.
I have to say, I'm kind of scratching my head about several critics comments that the director shown in this episode was supposed to be a dig at Fukanaga. Guy looked nothing like him, and even if he did, it wasn't an unflattering portrait. I was waiting to really grit my teeth at Pizzolotto being so petty, but now I feel like the critics were grasping, and one of those graspers was Sepinwall, so what the hell?
I watch this on my tablet and photosnap anything of importance. All calendar evidence is on the 2014 calendar. All ATM data the detective pulled is October 23-24, 2014.
The newspaper article from episode 1 date is October 27,2015.
That newspaper article you guys are referencing also runs in a loop, repeating the exact same content, if you screen cap and read it (episode 1 11:25, repeat starts about half way through). I bet listing the date as Oct 2015 was just an oversight. The paper clearly didn't matter enough to justify writing a full flake fluff article.
Evidence seems to suggest its actually 2014, unless time is a flat circle...............
I agree that the director wasn't a huge dig, but the show took several slightly subtle shots if we believe that the director represents Fukanaga. The director, like Fukanaga, seems to be of Asian descent and Fukanaga has worn his hair similarly like the director does.
The conversation with the set photographer implied that the movie will be a cliched mess. When introduced to the director, we see him shout an expletive and move on from a take that he clearly wasn't happy with. These two points suggest that the director is likely a hack.
"...I drink, so it makes my recollection unreliable." This statement, if the character is to be believed, says that the director not only drank so much that he couldn't clearly remember the party or parties he attended but he likely is an alcoholic who habitually drinks himself into that state.
The photographer characterizes the parties as sex parties but the director implies that they were tame affairs which plays as a discredited account based on what we know of Caspere.
At first glance, the slights may seem mild, but I'm sure that Fukanaga would be less than pleased if that director was a stand-in for him.
So who do you think is the mask guy/girl? Looks pretty slender to me and does not move like a real professional. Although they say the rubber(?) buckshot is like the ones from the police, I somewhat doubt it was a policewoman. I am also not into the Caspere's secretary theory, I do not think she's a murderer. Anyway, I kinda expect the show to be a sort of awakening thing for Ray. Actually he has lived a miserable live since the whole rape thing, has gone down the dark corruption road and now gets the chance to wipe up the dirty floor and draw a line under his mess. Of course it'll be messy but after all the struggles he would eventually rediscover his will to live.
I'm not as mad about the riot-pellets thing as I thought I would be. Think about it this way:
A. These things exist.
B. Actually killing a cop as opposed to sending a non-lethal message draws a lot of unwanted (FBI) attention.
C. It's a clue that dirty cops might be involved and there could be a security leak.
D. Would you really expect them to ruin the tension at the end of the episode by showing he's still alive and forfeit that cool intro we got this episode?
So I also noticed they're doing the I'm-gay-and-coming-out-of-the-closet-would-exonerate-me-from-my-legal-issues-because-bi-sexuality-doesn't-exist spiel with the highway patrol cop, that's always a good spiel to do. I saw that same trope yesterday when I was watching Legally Blonde 2. Can't wait for that to play out /s
@Bountlyn I agree it looks like a change in him is about to happen. He is definitely at his lowest point now. He literally has no-one who cares about him, not his colleagues and he isn't allowed to see his kid, gangsters just use him like a pawn. His motivation for quitting the drink is anger, that's never good...
Also Vince's character is getting increasingly desperate - this is an explosive situation and the fuse has been lit...
All in all pretty exciting stuff, I'm still very much invested and on the ride
Sorry A. Ron, I agree with firewalker601. The shots were subtle, but they were definitely there. Just because they didn't give the guy the name "Cary" and had him randomly shitting his pants doesn't mean there weren't intentional shots there.
As for the episode...I've come to accept this season isn't going to sniff Season 1. That doesn't mean I can't have fun with it though. I'm watching solely so I can listen to the podcast and read theories on Reddit. Like Nick Kroll said on Twitter last night: True Detective is just CSI with cursing and slightly better lighting.
I was about 90% done with this show and now I'm at 100%. I agree with Jim, writing/dialog is terrible. Add to that the over acting by everyone. Feels like everyone is trying to hard. This is a better version of The Leftovers, which isn't saying much. Moody and dreary is fine, but this is ridiculous.
So Ray not only lives, but he is just left on the floor. The masked man took the Webcam and Hard-drive and left. Why the crowd-control bullets instead of a real shotgun? Did the guy know that another person was headed for the house? Did he know that person was a cop? I've got a few different scenarios running through my head that make sense.
1. Birdman did not know anyone would be there. He was sweeping the house for whatever information they were trying to get out of Casper by torturing him. Ray shows up, he grabs a mask off the wall (hence the missing mask) and the shotgun. The shotgun happens to have crowd control bullets in it, because it was used as a prop in the snuff porn that was being made in the house (which we will see when they find the hard-drive).
2. Danny Santos (the club owner, who just had his teeth ripped out), knows who killed Casper but doesn't know much of the details. Once Frank leaves the club, Danny questions the escort about the house she had just told Frank about; she mentions the video camera in the closet. He makes a call, the killers race to the house to get the camera/hard-drive. They know Frank might send one of his police buddies, so rather than bring live ammunition they bring the crowd-control bullets. A dead cop would bring way too much attention to the case. Ray pulls up while Birdman is in the house, so he waits in a side-room and then incapacitates Ray before taking the camera and hard-drive.
3. Felicia, the waitress at the bar where Frank meets Ray, eavesdrops on their conversation. She hears Frank tell Ray to go to Caspers place in Hollywood. Felicia tips off the killers, and lets them know that someone is on the way to the house and it's definitely a cop. Same as in option 2, they bring crowd-control bullets to avoid killing a cop. While I like this theory the best for why they brought crowd-control ammunition, it doesn't really give the killer's a motive to go back to the house. Maybe Danny tips Felicia off about the camera?
I wanted to do a little more thinking before really commenting about this, but two quick things:
1. I laughed my ass off (literally, I no longer have an ass which I am honestly concerned will create future logistical problems, but anyhoo). In the middle of the episode, not long after the Vince and Colin scene my wife shouted out "Why don't they talk like people?!" Another vote for @Jim on that.
2. Man, that intro scene was about the most Lynchian thing not actually done by David Lynch that I've ever seen. The only thing that could have made it more Lynchian would have been for the singer to be Michael J Anderson. This isn't to say that I didn't like it, which I really did, but wow.
I really hope they have something more planned for these murder/arson/sex dungeon cult guys than spooky masks. It works for a little while cause it looks cool, but showing a dude in a goofy paper plate Princess Mononoke mask stumbling through a hobo camp knocking over grocery carts cause he cant see shit is taking the edge off the spooky mysteriousness.
@hypergenesb I'm pretty sure it was you (sorry if it wasn't). Thank you so much for mentioning the Welcome to Vinci podcast. I'm really enjoying that a whole lot.
Seriously though, I won't stop watching it since it's half over anyway and the main plot is still kinda interesting, but most of the characters just annoy the shit out of me.
Also, wtf was up with that shot prominently displaying the American Sniper billboard in what's supposed to be late 2015?
Oh shit! I saw this and totally forgot we were supposed to be in the future. Sheesh, what a slip.
Someone posted this on Reddit, this is now how I'm imagining this cult until we get some more info on them (ugh, the timecode isn't working skip to 1:25):
I mean seriously, look how impractical this mask is:
Comments
American Sniper released in January 2015 so the billboard lines up.
I have to say, I'm kind of scratching my head about several critics comments that the director shown in this episode was supposed to be a dig at Fukanaga. Guy looked nothing like him, and even if he did, it wasn't an unflattering portrait. I was waiting to really grit my teeth at Pizzolotto being so petty, but now I feel like the critics were grasping, and one of those graspers was Sepinwall, so what the hell?
The newspaper article from episode 1 date is October 27,2015.
Anyway, I kinda expect the show to be a sort of awakening thing for Ray. Actually he has lived a miserable live since the whole rape thing, has gone down the dark corruption road and now gets the chance to wipe up the dirty floor and draw a line under his mess. Of course it'll be messy but after all the struggles he would eventually rediscover his will to live.
A. These things exist.
B. Actually killing a cop as opposed to sending a non-lethal message draws a lot of unwanted (FBI) attention.
C. It's a clue that dirty cops might be involved and there could be a security leak.
D. Would you really expect them to ruin the tension at the end of the episode by showing he's still alive and forfeit that cool intro we got this episode?
So I also noticed they're doing the
I'm-gay-and-coming-out-of-the-closet-would-exonerate-me-from-my-legal-issues-because-bi-sexuality-doesn't-exist
spiel with the highway patrol cop, that's always a good spiel to do.
I saw that same trope yesterday when I was watching Legally Blonde 2. Can't wait for that to play out /s
@Bountlyn I agree it looks like a change in him is about to happen. He is definitely at his lowest point now. He literally has no-one who cares about him, not his colleagues and he isn't allowed to see his kid, gangsters just use him like a pawn. His motivation for quitting the drink is anger, that's never good...
Also Vince's character is getting increasingly desperate - this is an explosive situation and the fuse has been lit...
All in all pretty exciting stuff, I'm still very much invested and on the ride
A chase scene with a potential suspect. Was it a rabbit mask that the person was wearing?
1. Birdman did not know anyone would be there. He was sweeping the house for whatever information they were trying to get out of Casper by torturing him. Ray shows up, he grabs a mask off the wall (hence the missing mask) and the shotgun. The shotgun happens to have crowd control bullets in it, because it was used as a prop in the snuff porn that was being made in the house (which we will see when they find the hard-drive).
2. Danny Santos (the club owner, who just had his teeth ripped out), knows who killed Casper but doesn't know much of the details. Once Frank leaves the club, Danny questions the escort about the house she had just told Frank about; she mentions the video camera in the closet. He makes a call, the killers race to the house to get the camera/hard-drive. They know Frank might send one of his police buddies, so rather than bring live ammunition they bring the crowd-control bullets. A dead cop would bring way too much attention to the case. Ray pulls up while Birdman is in the house, so he waits in a side-room and then incapacitates Ray before taking the camera and hard-drive.
3. Felicia, the waitress at the bar where Frank meets Ray, eavesdrops on their conversation. She hears Frank tell Ray to go to Caspers place in Hollywood. Felicia tips off the killers, and lets them know that someone is on the way to the house and it's definitely a cop. Same as in option 2, they bring crowd-control bullets to avoid killing a cop. While I like this theory the best for why they brought crowd-control ammunition, it doesn't really give the killer's a motive to go back to the house. Maybe Danny tips Felicia off about the camera?
I wanted to do a little more thinking before really commenting about this, but two quick things:
1. I laughed my ass off (literally, I no longer have an ass which I am honestly concerned will create future logistical problems, but anyhoo). In the middle of the episode, not long after the Vince and Colin scene my wife shouted out "Why don't they talk like people?!" Another vote for @Jim on that.
2. Man, that intro scene was about the most Lynchian thing not actually done by David Lynch that I've ever seen. The only thing that could have made it more Lynchian would have been for the singer to be Michael J Anderson. This isn't to say that I didn't like it, which I really did, but wow.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0027199/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
I mean seriously, look how impractical this mask is:
it's also In Mulholland where some woman sings it accapell in Spanish. That's the part I was refering too.