Yes, in other words, it's absolutely dreadful.
Female cop: "I should have been there for you."
Porn sister: "You couldn't even be there for yourself."

or

VV: "Those moments--they stare back at you."

I mean, seriously, just LOL atrocious.

I do like Riggins in a firefight, and it was good to see the gal from The Bridge, but overall it's just barely watchable. Such a far fall...

You put it better than I did. This is exactly how I feel. Take individual scenes and you have some cool moments with lots of style and some great acting. Put it all together and it doesn't feel like it's working. Lots of style, little substance.

It would make sense. Time jump a few months to a year. The Caspre case is closed because the higher ups think the Mexican gang did it and they're all dead. Meanwhile our 3 heroes believe that the Mexican gang wasn't involved and they go rogue to find the truth. I can see them finding out that the Mexicans were tipped off by the department to help close the case and even kill off our troubled main characters. Seems cliche but so has a lot of this season.

or how about...

Male partner: I've been your friend through all of this.
Annie: With friends like these....

AND... scene.

I said the same thing, that was dumb. It was like an entire group of redshirts except the 3.

Same plot points as last season. The shootout will close the case. It will all be pinned on baldy.

Fast forward a bit, the three will reunite because of a nagging feeling that they missed something and need to make it right by going after the real perpetrator. Hell, same plot point as LA Confidential.

The ending of that episode sure woke me up.

An awful lot of the dialogue from this season is barely video game cut scene quality.

And does anyone not fast forward when the apocalyptic hipster chick in the worst bar on the planet is singing?

I just think that it's weird that folks thought that this season would also keep its southern gothic tone in L.A. Youy know, because Los Angeles has a southern gothic tone to it?

I do have to wonder why that bar bothers scheduling live music for its three patrons.

Who the hell is saying that? You're the only one that's brought that up. We're mostly saying that compared to last season, the dialog is insipid and the story is rote.

i like the goofy singer. it feels like someone wanted a David Lynch vibe and got his developmentally disabled cousin once removed. they should have a backwards talking conway twitty come out and dance, give some clues.

i am starting to think this disjointed feeling people have about how it flows is intentional. i know there are ways to shoot something so things "flow" and for this to be the 4th episode and it is still happening, and with different directors, it may not be accidental or ineptitude.

maybe we get the show we deserve. *swigs a modelo especial*

Everyone is saying that from a consensus point of view. Everyone is a fucking cynic all of a sudden this season. What the fuck were you guys expecting? The same TONE? It's what I just said.

Sometimes we watch the show, but mostly...(takes a long drag on a cigar, exhales a billow of thick, viscous smoke)...it's watching us.

Is Why so blu Butthurt? Must be a day that ends in Y.


Seriously, the dialogue in this season has been atrocious. Or maybe it's just that Matthew McConaughey can take terrible material and deliver it like a song. Because, I mean, it's still there, but without Woody to properly cut it and McConaughey to properly deliver it, it's just coming across terribly. Regardless of the southern gothic theme or not. This is just not entertaining.

This could be at least part of it. In S1, MM would say something like, "Sometimes our worst self, is our best self," and WH would just look at him like he was insane and say something witty in response. Here in S2, apparently everyone talks like Rust Cole, or what feels like a caricature of Rust Cole.

Since last season's fourth episode ended with that great continuous-shot shootout, one can't help but make the comparison with last night's episode-ending shootout.

Last night paled in comparison.

Agreed last season episode 4 was amazing.

^ It was funny, literally 5 minutes before that shootout scene started, I was thinking to myself, "I think the big shootout was ep 4 last season, wonder if we'll get something like that soon."

It was well done if not even close to last season's.

I just finished that episode from last season. That single take was breathtaking.

While this one was fairly eye rolling.

I mean, it felt like they were trying to channel the North Hollywood shoot out, but HEAT already did some amazing L.A. shoot outs in the streets and this just felt really really lame.

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Not at all. It's just weird to me. Must be a millennial thing. Southern Gothic noir doesn't translate to L.A., so I'm floored that people think it sucks. It's fine to think that but it doesn't mean it's true.

Hardly. TD's episode centered around an enclosed protest/sweatshop area. It never left. Think of that opening scene in Predator 2 but less moving around.

I haven't seen too many complaints about that but I've skipped the reviews other than the initial impressions, it's just a pretty subpar show this season, sophomore slump. Season 1 was long in the works and originally intended to be a novel, which I assume he had done quite a bit of work on long before it was pitched at HBO. Season 2 had to be written, cast, and shot in under a year.

No shit, but you're the only one bringing up this "southern gothic" straw-man. The complaint, plain and simple, is the stupid script (and Vince Vaughn), which isn't nearly as strong as last season's. And yes, it's objectively true that last season had a far stronger script (and cast) than this season.

If this had been S1 there never would have been a S2.