True Detective 2: Through Frank Semyon’s Eyes

We’re two episodes into the second season of “True Detective” and so far, not so good. We’re not digging the dialogue. Oh, it’s not that we haven’t seen worse. But sometimes, the dramatic observations almost bring to mind ID’s Candice DeLong.

Vince Vaughn plays a crook named Frank Semyon in this new True Detective season. We first learn of his connection to Detective Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell), another main character, in a flashback when he does Velcoro a solid by giving the detective the identity of the man who raped his wife because “Some things don’t stand.” Velcoro wants to know what the price of this favor is, and Frank says nothing: “Maybe we’ll talk sometime. Maybe not.”

In the present day, he is married to a hot redhead named Jordan, played by English actress, Kelly Reilly. (Vince is 6’5″ and Kelly is 5’6″.) In the premiere, “The Western Book of the Dead,” Jordan fixes his cufflinks as he gets ready for an important meeting. As she tries to bolster his confidence, he says: “Behold what was once a man”, and worries over whether he should have sprung for the country club.

Later, at the casino he owns, he continues to worry about who is meeting some dude named Osip at customs. When his assistant wants to go, Frank schools him: “Never do anything out of hunger. Not even eating.”

The assistant has a newspaper article talking about a series of investigations into corruption in Vinci. He believes the series won’t touch them but Frank sets him straight again: “This place is built on a codependency of interest. Worries me you talking so stupid” and he wants Det. Ray Velcoro to take care of the reporter. Jordan dramatically observes “Everybody gets touched.”

Things don’t go so hot at the important business meeting because the city planner, Caspere, can’t show up– he’s been missing for two days. Frank thought Osip came to close the deal but Osip claims he has to do his due diligence and dramatically observes: “I will close when I’m ready to close.”

Later, Frank meets up with Velcoro who looks terrible and isn’t savoring his liquor. Velcoro has taken care of the reporter in between beating the hell out of the father of a boy who bullied his kid and checking out Caspere’s weird crib. Frank knows all about Velcoro’s troubles and advises him to get himself a good woman and have more kids: “A good woman mitigates our baser tendencies.”

The second episode “Night Finds You,” opens with Frank telling Jordan a sad story from his childhood about his father locking him up in a basement for 3 days with an unfriendly rat. This traumatic episode left him wondering if he’s really alive or if he died in there or something like that and Jordan never once says “Ewwww!”

Frank later learns that Caspere never bought the properties he was supposed to buy with Frank’s 5 million dollars. Poof! Frank’s assets are all gone but he says he will get it back. “Every dime.”

Frank is understandably upset and worse, he has to keep meeting his payments to Austin Chessani, the mayor, who is “busting his balls” for being $10K short. So the mayor’s holding the better hand (for now — the Attorney General just announced a shakedown). Maybe that’s why he gets the lame one-liners in this episode:

“Some people can’t handle the deep trip.”
“Children are a disappointment. Remain unfettered, Frank.”
“Innuendo is nobody’s friend.”
“Nobody muscles me, Frank.”

Frank gives instructions to round up some head-busters because he can’t wait for a burnout like Velcoro to start making like Rockford. Frank visits a guy with gold teeth that say “f— you” on them. He learns that Caspere had a second house to indulge in his sexual fetishes and he sends Velcoro out to investigate it. Velcoro doesn’t really want to and tries to tell Frank that the reasons he was in with him have gone away. Frank’s innuendos work with Velcoro though. As he is poking around the second house, he gets shot twice by The Crow, the assumed killer of Caspere. Well, so far that’s assumed only by the audience.

We’ll pick up through Velcoro’s eyes tomorrow. We assume that he will survive since the Crow went to a lot of trouble to avoid shooting him in the head.