True Detective Season 2 Finale was Groan-Tastic and Mr. Robot Continues to Shine

I feel like supporters of True Detective Season 2 need a support group. I was a fan from the beginning. I followed the production and when I found out that Colin Farrell, Vince Vaugh, Rachel McAdams, and Taylor Kitsch were all going to share screen time and that it was going to be based in California and that it was going to have a noire feel, I was all in. The last time I was as disappointed in a season finale this much was for the Dexter series finale and that was God awful. So please if you haven't seen the finale, stop reading this because there are a ton of *SPOILERS*.

So when you begin to imagine a screenplay, from my understanding, you not only want to know where the characters begin but where they will ultimately end up. I'm sure George R.R. Martin has an understanding as to who will survive Game of Thrones and who will die. Nic Pizzolatto, I'm certain, knew what characters were going to walk away and which weren't probably after he had written the second or third episode. The problem with the finale, I felt, was that the decisions and behaviors the characters engaged in to get where they ultimately needed to be were rushed and done in a clunky fashion. Take Vince Vaughn's character for instance. Maybe Pizzolatto had an idea that he wanted Frank to end up in the desert slowly bleeding out and have all of his past naysayers there leading him on until he sees his wife and ultimately passes. Visually, that sounds amazing but the way in which he ended up there was silly. The Mexican cartel took him out because he wouldn't give up the clothes on his back. Now there's something to be said about pride cometh before the fall yadda yadda yadda but my God this was poorly done. A friend of mine felt like he didn't want to give up his jacket because of the diamonds that might have been in there but if we, the viewer, can't understand his exact reasons for his demise then this character was not fully developed. Same thing can be said for Ray.

Maybe Pizzolatto said it would be cool for this guy to die in a Redwood forest and go out in a blaze of glory while thinking about his son. But my God the way he ended up there was nonsensical. He couldn't remove a tracking beacon from his car and couldn't break into another one because "they" were watching him and thus he couldn't live the good life with Ani. I get the "we get the world we deserve" but again none of this made any real world sense. The only person that I think got the death he deserved and it was implemented in a fashion that made sense was Paul Woodrugh, Taylor Kitsch's character.

He felt that this world wouldn't accept him for who he was and he died because of it but he also died in his terms, I felt, that were real to the character. He was a military man who knew how to kill and kill he did. It wasn't until the very end that his own life was taken and that was satisfying and didn't feel weak in the least bit.

One last thing I want to say is Kelly Reilly and Vince Vaughn's last interaction was atrocious and confirmed my feelings towards the scenes that they had together previously. I don't know what their motivation was or what direction they were given but they were on an entirely different planet than the rest of the characters. Also the table staring scene between Ray and Ray was just too much and that guitarist in the bar was equally awful. And why was the finale 90 minutes? So much of this finale, nearly all of it, I hated.

But you know what show has come in to save the day, Mr. Robot.

Please please please watch, tweet, post, and talk about this show. It needs all the attention it deserves. It is a show I watch week after week and need to follow up on it the day after it airs because I love the characters, the actors, the way it's shot, the plot, really everything about this show. I have yet to find an aspect of it that I didn't like.

In the most recent episode an important plot point was answered, which I will not spoil because more people need to see this show, but it was a fantastic reveal and made me question whether or not anything we have seen so far has actually happened.

I also enjoy the gray area between good and evil that all of the characters within this show occupy. Nobody is ever completely good or completely bad, rather they do what they do for their own motivation and a way to further their own goals. Elliot destroys a man because this individual stands in his way and Mr. Robot holds a man hostage because he needs him in order for his plans to go forward. It's fantastic and incredibly close to reality because "good people" do bad things and "bad people" do good things and that's just life.

So in conclusion, watch Mr. Robot and maybe skip the season finale of True Detective season 2?