After a thrilling first season, many viewers of HBO’s True Detective were disappointed at the direction and outcome of the second season of the show. President of programming at HBO, Michael Lombardo, has admitted the pressure that was placed on the show affected the quality of its sophomore season.
“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,” he admitted. “And I think in this particular case, the first season of True Detective was something that [writer] 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.’ Well, you know what? I set him up. To deliver, in a very short time frame, something that became very challenging to deliver. That’s not what that show is. He had to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Find his muse. And so I think that’s what I learned from it. Don’t do that anymore.”
A third season of True Detective has yet to be confirmed by HBO.