Cinematic Zodiac

Sophomore Shrug

Sophomore Shrug

Let it not be said that True Detective’s second season was without any good episodes. The back half of episode 6 (“Church in Ruins”) and the entirety of episode 7 (“Black Maps and Motel Rooms”) are the gooey center of the anthology’s second outing, functioning as the culmination of all of the work that has been put in by the writer during the rest of the season. The show hits its stride beginning with the eponymous trio planning of the episode-ending raid on the Black Lodge a

Time Is A Regressive Circle

Time Is A Regressive Circle

After my initial review, I wanted to resist making further comparisons between the first and second seasons of True Detective. The drop in quality was so stark that, after the wave of shock and disappointment had passed, I felt that the fairest way to assess the second season was on its own merits. What if season one was such a perfect anomaly that we (the audience) must resign ourselves to the fact that we will never see its like again? What if, by holding it up as the stand

An Audience in the Dark

An Audience in the Dark

Halfway through its run, the second season of True Detective has cemented its identity as a crossbreed of pulpy cop drama and prestige show that combines the worst aspects of both genres. From the pulp corner we get characters weighed down by sordid histories being guided by opaque departmental maneuvering, and from the prestige end we have artsy cinematography paired with overwrought dialogue and swaddled in an unearned air of self-seriousness. Furthermore, like a sophomore

We Get the Season 2 We Deserve

We Get the Season 2 We Deserve

After two episodes of True Detective’s second anthology, the show’s first season is beginning to look like every auteur theorist’s new favorite example. Over the course of eight episodes, director Cary Fukunaga told a memorable story using the bones of show creator Nic Pizzolato’s script and the substantial flesh afforded by HBO’s casting leverage. From metaphysical conversations about the nature of life to timeline-bending depictions of the past and present to an ominous atm

About Cinematic Zodiac

Cinematic Zodiac is a repository of thoughts about media and art from Isaac Napell.

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cinematiczodiac at gmail dot com