It’s a piece of shit. The only defense I can muster is that an HBO exec said it was rushed, which was clear from the sloppily edited trailer and the straight-up-silly writing and acting.
The idea of the highway cities scheme, the story of the kids/killers, Rachel McAdams’s character in general, all had some good stuff, but never expanded beyond good potential. It was a boring first draft of a story.
And a lot of the most characterizing stuff about the season was lifted from other film/tv/art. The Twin-Peaks-style Elvis dream sequence, the Eyes Wide Shut masked orgy, etc. The LA noir story isn’t a new genre, and this one took more than it delivered.
Of course, as mentioned, this is after the tall order of following up season 1, but this wasn’t a Photosynthesis-to-Mind-Field situation. This was more like a post-exodus Alien video where you’re working to take inventory of what you like rather than being blown away by it.
I liked season 3. May have needed the shitcan buffer of season 2 to like it more. Would rather have seen a continuation of the season 1 story or the cult behind it.