‘True Detective’ Is ‘Not As Dark’ In Season 2, Says HBO President

The rumors surrounding Season 2 of True Detective have been totally out of hand for a few months now, so let’s briefly ignore the casting fiasco and stick to what we actually know for certain, from people who are in a position to provide reliable information: According to creator Nic Pizzolatto, it’s set in California. That’s it. Even the number of major roles, which we thought we knew, appears to be in flux, as you’ll see in a moment. We know one thing.

Well, let’s go ahead up that to two, kind of, as HBO President Michael Lombardo had this to say at the Guardian International Television Festival in Edinburgh this week:

[Lombardo], who revealed he has read the first two hours of the new series script by Nic Pizzolatto, acknowledged the spectre of the debut season, saying, “It’s a challenge… how do you not be haunted by the success of what you’ve just done?”

But he professed the writing on the second series to be even better than that on the first.

“It’s still dark,” he said. “Nic explores the darkness in people’s souls.

“It’s not as dark, but it’s not a light ride.

“Nic likes looking into the crevices of the soul.” [HuffPo]

He also revealed that the new season will focus on “three cops, one of whom is a woman,” which (a) doesn’t really jibe with the thing Pizzolatto said about there being “four central roles” this season, unless there’s a non-cop or someone who appears after the first two scripts that Lombardo read (which would almost have to be true for those rumors about Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch, Vince Vaughn, AND Elisabeth Moss circling the project to be accurate, and WHEN HAS A TRUE DETECTIVE RUMOR EVER LIED TO US?), and (b) means I can officially start referring to this season as “Two Guys, A Girl, And A Murder Mystery.” That last part is probably the biggest takeaway here.

But anyway, to recap: In California, two dude cops, one lady cop, not as dark, but still dark. Probably. I’m glad we settled that.

×