Fantastic first two episodes. Unless the quality drops precipitously I don't see the reviews being right on this (the ones that says it's a boring retread). Even if it ends up a by the numbers mystery the directing and acting so far put it miles ahead of season two and a good bit ahead of other genre efforts.
Ali is sublime but that probably goes without saying. But his brief tears in several moments really delivered a gut punch. The man can just sell pain so well. The surprise for me so far has been Dorf. I've always liked him enough but never really looked to him as a stand out dramatic actor but so far he's been really effortless in the role. Scooter is also doing a great job as the grieving father.
I also really appreciate the moments of levity (shout out to Dorf again. He cracked me up a bunch of times). I don't recall there being any in season two or perhaps they just weren't memorable but season one would occasionally drop some really funny lines in and it's a welcome respite from the suffocating tension and gloom.
I will agree that, at least so far, the dynamic of Ali and Dorf does play sort of similar to Woody and Matt in season one. The troubled pensive internalizer in Ali and Matt and the more white bread gruff Dorf and Woody. I'm okay with that though. If it ain't broke don't fix it