I say man s because let s be real the addition of McAdams to the cast as fantastic as she is does not change the fact that True Detective is a story about men. That in itself doesn t make the story less worthwhile in my opinion the commonly accepted myth of masculinity is the most corrosive substance on the planet any deconstructions are more than welcome in my book. But look This is an episode where Paul experiences angst about a blow job where Ray s wife s rape has so utterly destroyed Ray himself that he is reduced to beating up his son s bullies fathers with brass knuckles. Ani s gained admission to the protagonists inner circle by acting for whatever reason entirely like how men are expected to she doesn t talk about sex she eschews intimacy she wears pants she carries two guns. A good woman Frank says to Ray mitigates our baser tendencies. What a good woman is presumably is not Ani.
The bigger question is whether or not True Detective in its second season with an unexpected year of success under its belt can truly skewer what it means to be male and offer some kind of way out too for its tortured characters. In the first season we saw Marty and Rust alienate everyone and everything and nearly die in order to serve their higher purpose by the end they concluded that they might not be good men but they could be the bad men that understood evil and how it lived in themselves and use that to take down other bad men. Maybe that would help a little bit in their own way. Not a happy conclusion but it s one that resonated.
So as self parodying as elements of The Western Book Of The Dead are I saw them as self aware signaling this is where the story must start. It s most prominent in Farrell s Ray a character that is on the brink of total collapse a booze soaked dervish of destruction reduced entirely to the id of bloodying those in his way or paying them off with stacks of cash. Through Farrell Ray has a certain disastrous charm making him a reeling juggernaut of destruction that you want to watch figure his life out or die whatever would end this awful downward cycle. Ani similarly is so invested in her hard ass personality that as convincingly as McAdams sells it I found myself waiting for the inevitable cracks in her defenses as useful as armor is everyone deserves a chance to take it off.
And the real hero of the hour is Vince Vaughn who turns in a performance I forgot he could deliver the surprisingly sensitive crime lord who loves and respects his wife a man who can manifest both vulnerability and ruthlessness. Just as Rust Cohle offered Matthew McConaughey a role few of us had expected of him Frank Semyon delivers Vaughn in fascinating deadly form. He seems to sink into the atmosphere of True Detective s second season with an effortlessness the other three characters don t quite yet exhibit perhaps because he s meant to Frank is the one steeped in corruption after all.
But most of all what I loved about The Western Book Of The Dead is the moody build up to the final few minutes which even without season one s celebrated director Cary Fukunaga (reportedly Fukunaga and Pizzolatto clashed on set leading to Fukunaga s departure from the show) is still beautifully shot and in its way indelible. (Fukunaga is replaced on this episode by Justin Lin who is hardly an amateur.) The big reveal of the episode is that Ray and Frank are working together now as they did before and their mingled cigarette smoke is the only source of brightness at their dark dive bar booth. The camera plays with our notion of space so that it took me a few moments to realize they re not just in the same bar but sitting at the same table not just accidentally together but really together. And that scene with its haunting folk guitarist/singer (which hey Mad Men did it first but I m a sucker for that kind of thing) and the slow inevitable build to what we know will finally happen the meeting of our three police protagonists from three different jurisdictions and their suspicious appraisals of each other casting long glares across a darkened highway. It s what I expected from the episode which yes does cheapen it a tiny bit. But it s still a welcome thrill a little like coming home.
I m interested to see Pizzolatto turn his lens to California and I m interested too to see him write about two presumably Italian American characters Ani Bezzerides and Ray Velcoro are presumably somewhat Italian as is Pizzolatto himself. There is something fitting about this season beginning on the summer solstice it s a time for hot lazy reflection and staring up at the stars.
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