true detective season 2. mild spoilers ahead but not enough to ruin the show.

despite the negativity surrounding true detective's second season i must confess to really loving it, not just for it's complex story but the characters and the semi mystical sub text, the soundtrack and the cinematography. 

the difficulty is that whereas season 1 was obvious in it's literary references season 2 is somewhat opaque.  

the original western book of the dead was written by a guy called  alfred schmielewski aka yogi narayana whom was also mysteriously murdered under unsolved circumstances.

the book claims that a yogi can leave his / her physical frame when they wish, therefore they have left the body long before it is dead. the body does not die but becomes something else. now things get tricky here as yogi narayana goes on to say, 50% of the population cannot transcend their own selves, they are not capable of understanding consciousness and therefore unable to contribute it. he mentions sufi mystic yazid who also says, ' humanity is asleep, few are awoken.'

at it's heart the characters are 4 completely different personalities one a gangster who are attempting to overcome their own natures and gain insight it what it means to be good while doing things that appear bad against a backdrop of corruption, madness, brutality and what one could be called evil. the world.

in the book of the dead travellers in the afterlife are given spells and enchantments to navigate their way into the afterlife and not the underworld. the underworld being rebirth.

clues are scattered through the narrative but they are not easy to find, it's all there. 

the last episode is particularly powerful, because emotionally we want these characters to make it, we know they deserve it and we know we have been their judges. 

i loved this tv series, such clever writing. so rare for tv.