Pretty awesome. There's no way the series will ever reach season 1 levels of intrigue and cohesion. A lot of people don't realize that a huge force behind season 1 was Cary Joji Fukunaga. Having an entire season (or series) directed by one man makes such a massive, incredible difference that it's night and day. Directors are fucking assholes, they control and/or want to control EVERYTHING. Sometimes....only sometimes, giving a man who is talented enough that kind of control is the magic recipe, and that is the kind of director that CJF is. We'll never have that kind of synchronicity again, that might as well be a fact. To me, it is; because there's no two people in this world that have the same mindset or ideals. You can come close, but that slight difference in thought processes is going to change things. A lot.
That said, this season does it's best to replicate the utterly, painfully original and isolated experience that True Detective S1 was. S1 might as well hold the mantle for the TD name, and to many it does (myself included). This won't get there for the reason alone that it has different ideals and perspectives on what it "should" be behind it, referring to the directors. It's kind of like trying to replicate a menu of meals created by a singular genius chef by taking a bunch of really good chefs that all have different backgrounds. That one chef has such a mindset that no one can come close to creating his own very experienced, very delicate menu. Those other chefs...sure, they're good, but they're all different minds with different tastes and styles and ideals behind what they want to create. It's just not going to happen. It's not even that it "can" happen. It fuckin' WON'T.
Anyway, it's interesting and fun, for sure. I just don't get why HBO can't pay up to get Fukunaga back. But I'm saying that as an ignorant outside source. Fukunaga probably has a lot more integrity than to be swayed by money and if he doesn't have the innovation or motivation, he'll say fuck it (is what I'm thinking). Or someone else of that calibur. But having different directors for a multitude of episodes IMMEDIATELY kills my hope for the series, quite honestly. After S1, it's just so painfully obvious that the need for a singular mind, a singular vision and very concentrated view is absolutely necessary. This is just an imitation. Probably. But I'd LOVE to be proven wrong. It's hopeful so far though! It's got my interest and that's more than what S2 had in even the halfway point. (Actually by the halfway point I was like "Okay this is American Horror Story all over again"
)