HBO reveals why True Detective season 2 sucked
'To deliver, in a very short time frame, something that became very challenging to deliver - That’s not what that show is'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Unfortunately, the second season of True Detective didn’t manage to win over fans like the first did, with critics branding it very middle of the road.
Many more fans were left disappointed by the Collin Farrell and Rachael McAdams starring drama, leading to umpteen articles being written in the show’s defence.
It seems the criticism has affected those involved, particularly the president of programming Michael Lombardo who spoke to The Frame about why the show was not one of HBO’s finest, hinting that he takes the blame for what happened after rushing show creator Nic Pizzolatto.
“I’ll tell you something. Our biggest failures — and I don’t know if I would consider True Detective 2 — but when we tell somebody to hit an air date as opposed to allowing the writing to find its own natural resting place, when it’s ready, when it’s baked — we’ve failed.
“And I think in this particular case, the first season of True Detective was something that Nic Pizzolatto had been thinking about, gestating, for a long period of time. He’s a soulful writer. I think what we did was go, ‘Great.’ And I take the blame. I became too much of a network executive at that point. We had huge success. ‘Gee, I’d love to repeat that next year.’
“Well, you know what? I set him up. To deliver, in a very short time frame, something that became very challenging to deliver. That’s not what that show is. He had to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Find his muse. And so I think that’s what I learned from it. Don’t do that anymore.
“And I’d love to have the enviable certainty of knowing what my next year looks like. I could pencil things in. But I’m not going to start betting on them until the scripts are done.”
In the same interview, Lombardo addresses criticism levelled at the network for featuring too much nudity in its programming, saying: “I’m often told that relative to other premium services, we don’t have enough nudity.”
He goes on to explain that nudity works both ways, and then it is “bulls**t” when show runners blur out male genitals and not female.
In recent True Detective news, Quentin Tarantino said he’s not a big fan of the show, offering this great takedown.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments