HBO Bravely Takes the Blame for 'True Detective' Season Two, Which Was Kind of Terrible

"I set him up," Michael Lombardo revealed.

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Complex Original

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Though it ingeniously giftedColin Farrell with the single most important moment in e-cig evisceration history, True Detective's second season was ultimately kind of a drag. One of HBO's most tweetable series, perhaps bested only by the unbeatable Game of  Thrones, True Detective entered its would-be honeymoon period in 2015 on the force of the undeniable critical mass that lifted the ethereal mystery's debut season to unforeseen heights of dopeness.

What went wrong or—or in some instances very wrong—has remained a source of great debate among TV scholars young and old since the series bowed out (temporarily? permanently?) back in August. Speaking with The Frame earlier this week, the network's president of programming swiftly took the fall for all eight episodes of what might very well become the most controversialVince Vaughn performance of all time.

"I’ll tell you something," Michael Lombardo told Frame. "Our biggest failures—and I don’t know if I would True Detective 2—but when we tell somebody to hit an air date as opposed to allowing the writing to find its own natural resting place, when it’s ready, when it’s baked , we’ve failed." I don't know, Lombardo. That's not apology-esque enough. Try again:

I think in this particular case, the first season of True Detective was something that Nic Pizzolatto had been thinking about, gestating, for a long period of time. He’s a soulful writer. I think what we did was go, “Great.” And I take the blame. I became too much of a network executive at that point. We had huge success. “Gee, I’d love to repeat that next year.”

All is forgiven, Lombardo. Maybe make it up to Rachel McAdams and Colin Farrell by trying the whole thing again for the (please be happening) third season of True Detective, a once-great series that can most certainly be great again.

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