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Review: 'True Detective' wraps up its second season

I blame Nic Pizzolatto. Last year, the novelist created such a rare work of literary and cinematic art with the first season of HBO's anthology series True Detective that any follow-up, no matter how good, was bound to pale in comparison. And so it did.

I blame Nic Pizzolatto.

Last year, the novelist created such a rare work of literary and cinematic art with the first season of HBO's anthology series True Detective that any follow-up, no matter how good, was bound to pale in comparison. And so it did.

The second season, which will have its finale at 9 p.m. Sunday, garnered mixed reviews despite its exciting action-filled story line, solid writing, and standout performances from a lineup of A-list stars, including Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch, and Vince Vaughn.

The season opened with what seemed a straightforward murder: Ben Caspere, a corrupt city manager for the hamlet of Vinci in Los Angeles County, was killed after a sex party - one of many orgiastic bacchanals he was fond of attending.

The case brought together cops from three jurisdictions: Ray Velcoro (Farrell), an alcoholic crooked cop from Vinci; Paul Woodrugh (Kitsch), a soldier-turned-highway-patrolman tortured by his deeply closeted homosexuality; and the brilliant, ambitious Antigone "Ani" Bezzerides (McAdams) from Ventura County.

Things began to get complicated when Paul and Ani were tapped by the state attorney's office to use the murder inquiry as a ruse to investigate corruption in Vinci city government. Ray and his bosses, they were told, were in the pay of local gangster Frank Semyon (Vaughn).

For the last seven weeks, densely packed episodes introduced a slew of secondary players, including members of a private security firm who once operated in Iraq, a crooked land developer, a Russian Israeli mobster, and a gaggle of state officials.

Greedy, ruthless, and bloodthirsty, all were entangled in a byzantine conspiracy to make money off a multibillion-dollar scheme to equip the state with high-speed rail.

Pizzolatto has a great talent for drawing together heterogeneous elements in service of the story - he has even managed to link the Vinci conspiracy to the 1992 L.A. riots.

Despite the criticism, this season's show is a first-rate crime story, which makes one wonder why so many people were disappointed with it.

It's simple: The first season wasn't really a crime story. Sure, it was about cops solving a murder, but like Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, it used the trappings of the genre to achieve something that far transcends it. Pizzolatto carefully wove into the plot and dialogue brilliant allusions to great works of art and philosophy to create a work that raised profound questions about the violent roots and troubled legacy of the American dream.

This season's offering may be far more conventional, but it's still one of the best crime series on TV.

The finale promises to be an explosive affair. Having realized the conspiracy involved most of their superiors, our three heroes are isolated and afraid. One of them even manages to get shot in the final seconds of the penultimate episode.

Given the odds, it's doubtful the trio will prevail.

TELEVISION

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True Detective

9 p.m. Sunday on HBO.

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215-854-2736