I rewatched both seasons recently and that's what I found, that SE2 was much better and entertaining and interesting than SE1. I loved everything about it, the music, the characters, the actors, the plot, etc. SE1 was fine, but the follow up was superior imho.
I just hope there will be a Season 3.
S1 was an intriguing experience, the story not extremely original but presented in a very captivating way, the case was interesting, and I enjoyed the dynamic between the two main characters a lot. But the idiotic conclusion of the case cheapened the season quite a bit.
I liked S2 as well, I found it quite brave to make the case that complex and so much less sensationalistic that the S1 case. And the characters got to me, especially Paul and Ray. My criticism is that the deaths seem too forced. And although I liked Vince Vaughn's character he got too much screen time imo, I would have preferred to see more interactions between the three detectives. But all in all it's a strong season, and I believe that it would have gotten more positive reactions if people wouldn't have expected a copy of S1.
Season 2 worked better for me when I watched it all at once instead of week by week on HBO. It's really slow, so it helps you keep track of everything when you see it in one solid binge. The ending is just terrible though... and I'm not talking about just how it all played out... but the writing was really forced and they didn't do a convincing job of leading up to the Velcoro/Bezzirides relationship, so despite Antigone's epiphany... the dramatic shift in tone just doesn't make sense. On the other hand, they did do a decent job of developing Frank and Jordan's bond... but still that train station scene was ridiculously over the top. I could go on, but I won't in case others reading haven't seen it. Bottom line, I think it was a decent season and it could have been a good season if it was paced a little better and they completely retooled the ending.
shareS1 is easily the better season. But S2 was still very impressive and was very right to not imitate S1. All it's criticism is completely unfounded. The consensus seems to be that- S2 isn't quite as good as S1, therefore it's terrible. This makes no sense to me. And unfortunately this dismissive attitude has probably killed our chances of getting S3.
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