There has been significant hype leading up to the anticipated premiere of True Detective's second season on HBO, but critics are surprisingly not all finding reasons to love the new story being told. 

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The series, returning June 21, follows the mystery of a California city manager's brutal murder during what appears to be an Occult ritual at the same time he was negotiating a big transportation deal. During the investigation, two detectives--Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrel), Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) and a motorcycle cop, Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch) try to work together and figure out who is responsible for the crime. 

However, critics have had a mixed reaction to the season--with reviews ranging from those which liked the new season, to those who claim it doesn't live up to the hype the first season, which starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. 

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Here's a round-up of some of the reviews for the new season: 

Positive Reviews: 

Stephen Marche, Esquire: "Based on the three episodes HBO sent to critics, the second season of True Detective is nearly as addictive as the first...it poses as a potboiler, but it's really an exercise in genre fused with existentialism.  

Devon Gordon, GQ: "It's still trash shined up like gold. The trash is a bit trashier this time, and the gold a bit less shiny, but the same theory still abides...the show [is] also still a ton of fun. Pizzolatto is far too shrewd, and far to base, to let his grander mediations get in the way of a rollicking story." 

Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Magazine: "Season two of True Detective is a nasty treat for the eys and ears. Every few minutes, there's an image that's as meaningful as it is lovely to look at...Throughout, the synthesized score keeps rumbling and droning. We're in the belly of some rough beast." 

Negative Reviews: 

Brian Lowry, Variety: "Those expecting anything approaching the magic conjured by the original Matthew McConaughey-Woody Harrelson pairing should immediately temper their enthusiasm for True Detective's second season...Although generally watchable, the inspiration that turned the first into an obsession for many seems to have drained out of writer Nic Pizzolatto's prose, at least three hours into this eight-episode run." 

Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter: "True Detective season one managed to hook us in the first hour, while season two srill keeps us at a cold arm's length all the way through episode three. But the strength of season one lived in its many, intimate and humble moments of greatness...the payoff was immediate with McConaughey and Harrelson, while the plot was mostly a letdown. It may be that season two's greatness is still waiting for us, lying not so much in character and place, but in the satisfaction of a story and plot that fulfills its promises and ends even better than it begins.  Or none of that could happen. And what we'll get is a sophomore slump. The pressure is now on for the remaining five episodes." 

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