'True Detective' Season 1 director distances himself from Season 2

Cary Fukunaga, who directed the first season of "True Detective," is taking no credit (or blame) for the lukewarm reception to Season 2.

Although he's credited as an executive producer, Fukunaga said he had nothing to do with the HBO drama's second season.

"I really wasn't involved," he told Variety. "My involvement in the second season was as much or as little as they needed me. It turns out they didn't need me."

Currently promoting his new film, Netflix's "Beasts of No Nation," Fukunaga, who won an Emmy for directing the first season of "True Detective," said that the plan was for him to step away after he finished directing the season.

"The whole pitch was that in a true anthology, we want to sit it on a shelf, and every season we have a new feature director and make this wonderful miniseries," he recalled. "I was going to be the first one. And I'd be there to shepherd as much as I could the following seasons. My departure was always planned."

Creator Nic Pizzolatto used a stable of different directors for the second season. Unlike Fukunaga's season with stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, Season 2 got mixed reviews from fans and critics. And HBO brass defended the season as some critics delivered harsh reviews.

Business Insider's Joshua Rivera, for example, wrote "True Detective" is simply not a good show" in a recent review of the series. The Hollywood Reporter's critic, Tim Goodman, said "the show was terrible on almost all fronts."