The first episode was an absolute abortion. A trope parade with the character depth of Paris Hilton. Every terribly boring, overdone stereotyped character gets a ding. Let's start the dingathon!
The characters
A washed up, alcoholic cop that struggles with controlling his impulsive nature, battles in isolation from peers, and, of course, systematically destroys any hope of shaking off the residue of a past relationship involving a child. His son is the only person in the world that he will allow himself to express passion towards for the better of somebody else. Ding!
A dark, brooding motorcycle cop who props up his wiener with pills while revealing a scar that he refuses to talk about. Especially to his empty, one-dimensional dick space, who presents herself as an empty, one-dimensional dick space, but wants to be valued and close to the dark, brooding, emotional unavailable motorcycle cop who refuses to reveal anything (except for the scar...that he just revealed). He is also painfully handsome in that dark, "he is probable to rape me", Ray Liota kinda way. Ding!
The "in too deep, playing for keeps" business man. An obviously dark person who does obviously dark things to obviously dark people for obviously dark reasons. He calculates everything. He is also an opportunist. Somehow, we will cheer for him. Odds are, he will die. Either him or his foxy, mysterious lady, who is just as obviously dark. Their relationship will suffer as he becomes narrow minded. Ding!
And last but not least, the rough-edged, power hungry, strong female character who will inevitably struggle with unresolved family issues by acting like an absolute asshole, challenging every male character's decision (and she will save the day by doing so), and reinforcing her harsh, unlovable, self induced Messiah complex. She will be heralded by every major media as an icon for modern women. Feminists will stake their claim in her character. Hating her character will result in you being caused of hating women. Ding!
What's missing
A no nonsense, gruff sergeant who puts the main characters in their place.
A laughably obvious plot twist that doesn't really raise the stakes at all.
A token black dude who is fucking HILARIOUS and good hearted. He has to befriend one of the main characters.
A pointless sex scene where Rachel Mcadams' character preys on a male for a one-off sexual copulation. This will bring her no joy.
A "no way out" scene involving either an escape or near death, exhausting, standing while in slow motion panning shot. Redemption will soon follow.
The good parts
Season one is 100% available online through HBOGO and you can watch it on repeat.
There are only eight episodes in season 2.
I can't wait to make a drinking game out of every Sunday for the next seven weeks.