Taylor Kitsch’s True Detective Season 2 Performance Redeemed By Dark Wolf

Taylor Kitsch’s starring role in The Terminal List: Dark Wolf is making waves, and it’s making me reconsider his oft-maligned season of True Detective, which I think we all gave a bit too much flak. Taylor Kitsch is having some kind of 2025, and I’ve previously spoken of it being the early stages of his comeback.

The Kitsch-aissance, if you will, but I like the “Re-Kitschening”. If you hear that one anywhere, please give me credit. If not in the comments section, at least in your mind. In 2025, he starred in both American Primeval and Dark Wolf, taking the lead role from Chris Pratt, who went from lead to co-lead between sequel and prequel.

There’s no denying that Kitsch has had a tough time since Friday Night Lights, though his struggles haven’t been of his own making. If you followed his career closely, you would have seen an actor who only improved every year. His role in True Detective stands out, and season 2 probably deserved a little more love than it got.

Taylor Kitsch Stars As Officer Paul Woodrugh In True Detective Season 2

Taylor Kitsch is one of the three leads, four if you count Vince Vaughn’s Frank Semyon, of True Detective season 2. Unique for a season of True Detective, season 2 has three detectives on the case: Detective Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) of the Vinci PD, DS Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) of Ventura CID, and Woodrugh, a California Highway Patrolman.

All three officers of the law are brought together when Woodrugh stumbles across the mutilated body of city manager Ben Caspere on the side of the highway while riding his motorcycle one evening. Woodrugh may seem the most upstanding in temperament of the three detectives, but he has the most mysterious backstory.

Among his many jobs, Woodrugh is an army veteran who served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was while he was in the army that he came into contact with Black Mountain, a private military outfit that he eventually joined. Supposedly, his time with Black Mountain resulted in several undocumented war crimes.

Woodrugh Has One Of The Best Storylines Of Season 2

Paul Woodrugh is a complex sort of man. While Ray and Ani wear their anger and traumas on their sleeves, and let their outsides reflect the turmoil they have going on inside, Woodrugh is desperately trying to keep all his experiences and impulses in check. The way Kitsch flexes his jaw lets you know how much strain he’s under.

In fact, while riding his motorcycle on the night he found Caspere, Woodrugh was speeding on his motorcycle with his eyes closed, trying to feel something. Woodrugh’s mother is a sex worker, and it’s implied his father is one of her unknown customers. Her relationship with Paul is one of bitterness, over-protection, and something Oedipal as well.

Furthermore, Paul’s possible involvement in atrocities in the Middle East is meshed together with a sexual relationship he had with his squadmate, Miguel Gilb (Gabriel Luna), while he was there. His reluctant rise in the ranks combines explosively with him coming to terms with his identity.

It’s a powerful performance from Taylor Kitsch, who perfectly captures the agony, intensity, and silence of someone who is desperately trying to find something pure in his life to hold on to. If it were up to Woodrugh, it seems, he’d like to disappear, but there’s a core of integrity and justice that keeps him in the line of duty.

True Detective Season 2 Is Overhated

True Detective season 2 may have been one of the most anticipated seasons of television ever. The follow-up to what is still considered one of the greatest television shows of all time had an intense amount of pressure on its back, and when it was announced that Taylor Kitsch, Farrell, McAdams, and Vaughn would be starring, expectations rose even further.

Fans of True Detective know what happened next, and the season is often ranked least of all the True Detective seasons. However, there is a lot to love about it if you don’t compare it to season 1. The change from Louisiana to a Los Angeles stand-in was a bold decision, and makes it feel distinct.

Farrell, McAdams, and Kitsch are all fantastic and their chemistry feels real. The way their stories wind towards one another feels organic and when we lose one and two others act on their romantic feelings, those moments are powerful and earned. Each cop’s backstory feels appropriately tragic. We know these characters.

It’s a beautifully shot season as well, filled with dazzling neon colors despite often being set during the nighttime. The bland city blocks of Vinci are made bright and ominous in the high California sun, and there’s a very real sense of place in the show. You understand Vinci as well as you do the swamps of Louisiana.

Season 2 Of True Detective Still Has Some Glaring Issues

That’s not to say that True Detective season 2 is not without issue. Even having written all this, I would still rank it last among the seasons of the show. One major issue is with Vince Vaughn. It’s admirable that he wanted to take on the role of a brutal mob boss, but it is the wrong part for him.

His physical stature works for Frank, but otherwise, he can not provide the menace a character like Frank needs. There’s definitely a villain somewhere in Vaughn’s repertoire, but it’s not the kind created by Nic Pizzolatto, who is almost out of Shakespeare, spouting off half-formed philosophical ideas like, “Never do anything out of hunger, not even eating.”

The story in True Detective season 2 is also needlessly complicated. With so many main characters, there are too many storylines to juggle, and True Detective insists on making sure they each tie into the main plot in equal measure. Despite its flaws, True Detective season 2 is worth returning to, for Taylor Kitsch, or for any other reason.