The flat circle of time, part two: Get ready for the new season of True Detective

After the massive success of ‘True Detective’, HBO is back with season two of the series. The much awaited TV show returns with new plot, characters and locations on Monday. (Sunday in US) [caption id=“attachment_2306502” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Colin Farrell in true Detective Season 2. Twitter @TrueDetective[/caption] Season one, which starred Hollywood heavyweights Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in lead roles was revered in equal measures by viewers and critics. Season two promises to deliver on those expectations, at least in terms of its star power. Starring Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch, Vince Vaughn and Kelly Reilly, the show will follow a new storyline which plays out in Los Angeles. The Season 2 synopsis from HBO: A bizarre murder brings together three law-enforcement officers and a career criminal, each of whom must navigate a web of conspiracy and betrayal in the scorched landscapes of California. Colin Farrell is Ray Velcoro, a compromised detective in the all-industrial City of Vinci, LA County. Vince Vaughn plays Frank Semyon, a criminal and entrepreneur in danger of losing his life’s work, while his wife and closest ally (Kelly Reilly), struggles with his choices and her own. Rachel McAdams is Ani Bezzerides, a Ventura County Sheriff’s detective often at odds with the system she serves, while Taylor Kitsch plays Paul Woodrugh, a war veteran and motorcycle cop for the California Highway Patrol who discovers a crime scene which triggers an investigation involving three law enforcement groups, multiple criminal collusions, and billions of dollars. There have been speculations about the plot over the past few months. The most popular theory doing the rounds included an ‘occult history of U.S. transportation’. But in an Q&A with Medium, the show’s writer and creator Nic Pizzolatto, denied such rumors. It’s not, I’m afraid. There’s definitely bad men and hard women, but no secret occult history of the U.S. transportation system. That was a comment from very early in the process, and something I ended up discarding in favour of closer character work and a more grounded crime story. The complexity of the historical conspiracy first conceived detracted from the characters and their reality, I felt, and those characters are ultimately what have to shape the world and story. So I moved away from that. In another interview with Vanity Fair, he described the show as a detective story in the manner of Oedipus Rex, in which “the detective is searching and searching and searching, and the culprit is him.” Unlike the first season, which was directed entirely by Cary Fukunaga, the new season will be split among various directors. The first two episodes will be directed by Justin Lin of Fast and Furious fame. The new season will consist of eight episodes.