True Detective: The Complete Second Season

The second season of the crime anthology series created and written for HBO by novelist Nic Pizzolatto takes on an entirely new mystery, complete with a fresh setting and cast of characters. This one comes out of the tradition of L.A. crime fiction with political corruption and compromised cops, an elaborate web of criminal cover-ups, gangsters, and graft. Colin Farrell plays Ray Velcoro, a detective with anger issues in the mob's pocket; Rachel McAdams is Ani Bezzerides, a rising detective whose reckless personal life threatens her career; and Vince Vaughn is Frank Semyon, a smooth career criminal trying to go legit in a major new redevelopment scheme. The tangled storyline kicks off with the murder of a city manager and the disappearance of Frank's seed money, which lands him in trouble with his mobbed-up partners. Ray and Ani are then teamed with a motorcycle officer (Taylor Kitsch) for a murder investigation that isn't supposed to go anywhere but draws them into a conspiracy involving the rich and powerful in a (fictional) economically depressed California town. After the acclaim for the Southern gothic vibe of the brilliant first season, audiences were disappointed in this more familiar urban crime drama and critics lambasted the show for its shopworn character types and plot twists. But it's well-written, overall, with a vivid atmosphere of seediness and desperation. Compiling all eight episodes from 2015, extras include episode commentaries and behind-the-scenes featurettes. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)