SPOILERS for the first episode of True Detective Season 2.

I came to the True Detective party late for season 1, and I only started it once I could binge-watch it over the course of like four days. As I’ve said, I enjoyed it. I didn’t think it was the best series ever, but the acting from Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey was stellar, and they elevated what turned out to be a really fancy, artistic take on a crime procedural. I’ve also spent a few months reading stuff about Season 2 and I came into it with significantly lowered expectations. My worst case scenario was that Vince Vaughn would be the only one doing good work and considering Vince is the actor I least care about, it would suck.

So, were my expectations met after one episode? Eh. My general thoughts on the episode and the glimpse of the season to come: it’s like a mix of Chinatown and Weekend at Bernie’s. I seriously could not believe that mixed throughout the episode, we got to see a dead guy (the missing city manager) being driven around, posed like he was still living. And the plot already reminds me of Chinatown, so much so that I felt like I needed to watch Chinatown again because it’s been years since I’ve seen it. In Chinatown the conspiracy is about water in LA County. In TD Season 2, the conspiracy is about a federally funded railway being built through central California and everybody’s going to bilk the government, basically. THANKS OBAMA.

So, there’s a little something for everybody: money, power, murder, sex, Russians and Viagra. My thoughts on the acting so far…Colin Farrell has some difficulties sticking with an American accent, and his character (Velcoro) seems like he comes out of a Corrupt Cop Manual from the 1970s. He’s drunk, he’s corrupt, he’s an errand boy for what seems like a mobbed-up casino-and-real-estate magnate (Vince Vaughn’s character) and…? I don’t know, he loves his son? But even then, he calls his son a “fat p—sy” so I don’t know what to tell you.

Rachel McAdams’ character, Ani Bezzerides, seems a bit uneven so far. She’s sort of a rebel without a cause. She happens to meet up with her father – a hippie, New Age David Morse – and he efficiently summarizes her raison d’être as basically holding a grudge against him and wanting to do the opposite of whatever he does. He’s a New Age-y healer, she’s a hard-drinking cop. Blah. That was Nic Pizzolatto’s writing at its laziest. As for Taylor Kitsch’s character Paul Woodrugh… I’m not feeling it yet. During his scenes, I was mostly thinking, “Wow, his girlfriend is really pretty” and “I like her sheets.”

And yes, my suspicions were right about Vince Vaughn’s character, Frank Semyon. In a Californian No Man’s Land where all the cops are self-destructive nihilists, Vaughn’s mobbed-up casino owner has soul, depth and humanity. He genuinely cares about the cop he pays to do some dirty work (Velcoro), he loves his wife (the lovely Kelly Reilly) and he cares about his business and the people he works with. Vince is very good in the role too – it’s like a return to the dramatic actor we had a glimpse of in the ‘90s. He’s so tall and physically imposing and he can do so much acting with just his posture and his eyes.

So, will I stick with it? Probably. I do like crime procedurals and I appreciated the fact that the Weekend at Bernie’s part of the plot was wrapped up by the end of the first episode so we can start to move into the investigation. Bezzerides is going to be lead and Velcoro is her second in command. It should be interesting.

Photos courtesy of HBO/True Detective, WENN & Fame/Flynet.