Comments on: What Went Wrong with Season 2 of "True Detective"? Cautionary Lessons for Writers https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/ Author, Blogger, Social Media Jedi Thu, 12 Nov 2015 15:48:14 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 By: Maria https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60849 Thu, 12 Nov 2015 15:48:14 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60849 My God Kristen, thank you! I managed to watch 1 1/2 episodes and thought there was something wrong with me. I hated it. I understood nothing. Now I feel so much better for not having wasted any more time on the second season.

The first season? Brilliant! I was confused sometimes but things got taken care of. The acting was superb. The writing superb. I was thinking, dang, if I could do this some day…I’d be okay as a writer. I’d be happy. 🙂

Personally, I’m not sure they are going to find anyone else to equal or top the first season. IF they get a chance at a third.

]]> By: Author Kristen Lamb https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60848 Sat, 29 Aug 2015 22:18:05 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60848 In reply to Life Outside.

Word to that.

]]> By: Life Outside https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60847 Sat, 29 Aug 2015 18:29:06 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60847 In reply to Author Kristen Lamb.

The writer is relegated to writing on instructions of everyone else involved.
Or a different writer or writers are instructed.
A deteriorating spiral of non creative piffle results.
The creative original writer is at the the bottom of the pile of non creative non writers.
Resulting disasters emerge and invariably flop onto our screens.
Reinstate the original writer, move creativity to pole position.
End

]]> By: Rick https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60846 Sat, 29 Aug 2015 13:33:33 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60846 In reply to Author Kristen Lamb.

Hi. I’m a guy who really, really liked season one. I am a frustrated writer/actor; that said– I love to watch good acting and hear good writing. So I,m on my couch, popcorn on one side cold beer on the other–ready for a master class in all the above. After 8 weeks I was thinking ‘there must be something wrong with me.’ It wasn’t working. It was a festival of ‘chest voice’ acting. Vince Vaughn was like ‘Iago’ all of a sudden. Who talks this way? Half the time I’m thinking “What did he say?’ I’m thinking ‘why do we even need this CHP guy?”
Then, like you said, Russians, Armenians, Mexicans Huh….whaaaa??
And the kid? And then kill them all and….oh crap.

Bottom line. You made me feel better with this blog, and your clarification of all my thoughts.

Rick Miller

]]> By: Author Kristen Lamb https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60845 Sat, 29 Aug 2015 02:04:35 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60845 In reply to Life Outside.

…which I just said. Also, I began that the creator wrote for the critics (because critics can affect sales) which was a mistake. I think money does affect the writing. It becomes a “show by committee.”

]]> By: Life Outside https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60844 Fri, 28 Aug 2015 23:10:43 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60844 Kristen Lamb criticized the writer in her introduction to this post. Now the spotlight shifts to other influences, directors, producers, profit motives etc.
Writers suffer when their creative work is savaged by just about every other decision maker involved.
Some ( few) writers will protect copyright and probably starve.
The writing for TD is good , where it is obvious that the director / editor did not or could not destroy, distort or mutilate the artistic work, further.
The enigma for viewers is … how can anyone involved in TV or Film make so much rubbish.
Are they consistently deaf, dumb and blind?
It may be argued that relegation … of the writers’ work in weaving an audio visual language into a drama, story etc …by producers/ directors/ editors and backers, must result in the sort of crap churned out like a gigantic flood. Viewers drown in a perpetual flow of utter drivel.
Satire
Dandahan4.com

]]> By: Author Kristen Lamb https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60843 Fri, 28 Aug 2015 14:48:43 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60843 In reply to xxsarahcaroline.

I don’t think it is the fault of the writers/creators. I think it is the money and advertising that start driving stupid decisions. It’s like when a business becomes beholden to shareholders over customers and the quality suffers.

]]> By: xxsarahcaroline https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60842 Fri, 28 Aug 2015 14:32:11 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60842 This post is HILARIOUS. I love when anyone disses terrible writing – maybe I shouldn’t, but it’s a guilty pleasure.
TV always seems to suffer from either 1. developing too many characters or 2. failing to develop ANY characters. It drives me crazy that TV shows so often suffer from terrible writing. I don’t get it at all. Don’t TV show writers have to be really good at what they do to get a job? I get that TV show is all about the ratings so you have to try to please everybody but many of the shows I watch, I just think “HOW could the writers be proud of this?”
Which is why I want to write books, not TV shows.

]]> By: Some People Smarter Than I | Ninjas Riding Dinosaurs https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60841 Thu, 27 Aug 2015 07:31:06 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60841 […] Kristen Lamb: What Went Wrong with Season 2 of “True Detective”? Cautionary Lessons for Writers […]

]]> By: Helen https://authorkristenlamb.com/2015/08/what-went-wrong-with-season-2-of-true-detective-cautionary-lessons-for-writers/#comment-60840 Wed, 26 Aug 2015 20:15:43 +0000 https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=17644#comment-60840 Great article, I agree season 1 was better than 2, having said that I would say if you can take season 2 in isolation without reference to the first season it is quiet enjoyable and not a bad series at all. I did like the closing sequence with Frank in the desert, no spoiler if you havn’t seen it. I saw an interview with John Cleese recently in relation to Fawlty Towers season 2 and expectations being very high for it. Early success can be a problem funnily enough in terms of hitting the mark again.

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