This series really takes chances with its casting, and those chances really pay off. Pablo Schreiber plays the loose-cannon pilot, sent to target Pakistan after a military coup there results in fears of World War III. Two comics who work superbly together here, Jack Black and Aasif Mandvi, play a low-level state department envoy and his driver on the ground in Pakistan. And back in the White House situation room, Tim Robbins, who's hilarious, plays Secretary of State Walter Larson. And when he picks a fight with the military advisor pushing for an immediate attack, even the President can't stop the bickering.
Finally, there's True Detective. Like American Horror Story and Fargo, it's designed so that each season of episodes stands alone, telling a new story with new characters, and mostly new actors. Last season, True Detective, with its grim flashbacks, was a combination murder mystery and character study, starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. This season, once again created by Nic Pizzolatto, is about a different murder, and involves investigators from three different jurisdictions. Those investigators, all with troubled pasts and abrasive personalities, are played by Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, and, from Friday Night Lights, Taylor Kitsch.
Taylor Kitsch, best known for his role as football star Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights, plays detective Paul Woodrugh in the second season of True Detective. Lacey Terrell/HBO hide caption
itoggle caption Lacey Terrell/HBO
And in scenes set in both the past and present, the lawman played by Farrell has an uneasy relationship with a local white-collar criminal played by Vince Vaughn. In a flashback, we see their first meeting, when Vaughn's character summons Farrell's street cop to give him some information regarding the cop's wife, who has just been brutally attacked. He slides the cop a photograph, along with a note with the name and description of the man he has heard bragging about the crime.
It takes the entire first episode for the main characters to be thrown together — but as soon as they are, you realize there's no predicting what they'll do, which ones to trust, or even which ones will survive. It's the beauty of the miniseries form, and True Detective uses it expertly. As with HBO's other new Sunday offerings, I didn't know what to expect until I previewed them — but in all three cases, I've ended up pleasantly surprised.