True Detective

The Louisiana season: Or how existential crime series à la Dürrenmatt dealt with a Scandi overlap thriller à la Larsson in a Deep Southern (and thanks to Rusty, nihilistic, and thanks to Marty hypocritical) way, with the essence of Southern noire. Which resulted in a (pan)genre movie with inimitable genius loci which is extremely existential, very symbolic, not literally reading the unspoken between the lines, very dismal, very subliminally disturbing, very mosaic-like in terms of narrative and primarily very (but really very) good. The Arkansas season: After the second, conceptually boldly different (however not completely successful) season, the third “yellow-bellied" season returns to what worked first time. And it works again. Again we have an oppressive and disturbing atmosphere-oozing masterpiece of cinema where the genre plot takes the back seat and serves purely as a catalyst for in depth character study of ambiguous, unbalanced animate characters across time. For its casting, performances, camerawork, production design, easy to follow despite three timelines... All of this is worthy of one of the current flagships of quality TV. The bigtime problem storyline is the one connected with the present which, thanks to paper rustling games with a problematic memory, serves as a carrot on a stick leading us toward gradual and final (non)revelation. And to make it worse, this becomes the central storyline of the last episodes. It doesn’t help that the creators are constantly would-be mysteriously hinting “just wait, you’ll see". While, to the attentive viewer, it becomes immediately clear where things are headed. In a purely crime genre where the case and (not)solving it play first fiddle, this would probably work on a scale of a few episodes. But not as the connecting thread of an eight hour movie “about characters and relationships", which season three tries to be. P.S.: Even HBO itself jumped on the bandwagon with the creators by beating about the bush with the description “frightful case of child murders". But this is like saying that the Red Sox won, but when you look at the results you find out that not only did the Red Sox not play, but the game ended in a tie. | S1: 5/5 | S3: 3/5 | (01/28/2014)

This is something special, it has atmosphere that forces the viewer to watch and even though it’s no nerve-racking adventure, it forces you to “turn the page" and keep gulping down the True Detective. Pizzolatto is a cool writer and the stratification into two timelines and their gradual interlinking is a work of mastership. At least so far. The acting duo is a chapter for itself, Harrelson’s Marty is still a regular cop in the best sense, but McConaughey’s Rust is an awesomely twisted bastard. I can’t wait to see the next episode and it’s been a long time since I’ve had that feeling. Season one: Flawless work with characters and the best possible care in terms of screenplay, direction and acting. A light in the darkness, a story that it one of the oldest ever told, but Pizzolatto managed to deliver it freshly and in his own way. The hallucination scenes just go to augment the mysterious, while very realistic atmosphere. Rust is McConaughey’s lifetime’s role and Woody Harrelson certainly doesn’t lag behind. I’m going to miss this pair. No one episode stands out, they all burn with a strong, eternal flame. Season two: Daddy Colin takes the baton and Nic Pizzolatto shows that he has ideas. This case isn’t so dark, but rather ruthlessly realistic. Erring characters, slowly untangling threads and several storylines. The first season was very up front... mainstream. Not this. This is an epicurean performance with the most layered of characters. Spiced with philosophizing about life. Vince Vaughn’s Frank demonstrates the qualities of an actor who spent half his life making faces in comedies, and here he grabs this cool character by the Adam’s apple. The same revitalizing water as McConaughey drank last year. Excellent music. Has to be watched more than once. A sophisticated masterpiece, I’m already looking forward to what Pizzolatto comes up with next time.Season three: Another case separated into three timelines. Pizzolatto already knows that one should not experiment too much and he writes a story more about partnership than cadavers. Two lost kids, lies and money in the leading roles. Ali’s Hayes is brilliantly acted and even better written. A tough guy who wanted nothing and this nothing drove him not to obsession, but to a life that he is slowly but surely forgetting. When the timelines meet it makes for the most powerful moments of the series (the Viet Cong in the bedroom!). Also quality conversations in the car and partner altercations that cut to the quick. For my taste it’s pushed a bit too far into the black, but that seems to be popular these days. The end is realistic again, but this time quite pleasantly. True Detective still means quality that is worth waiting for. (01/13/2014)

Amazing atmosphere, great script, psychological complexity of the characters, brilliantly delivered by the two lead actors. True Detective is one of the most excellent series not only of this year. A crime thriller to which Se7en pales in comparison. (03/04/2014)

After a very long time, I was able to downright enjoy a TV show. One season was enough to make me realize that you can still wonder about a story even despite the fact that the creators tell you a substantial part of it right from the start. True Detective’s selling points are its story and its atmosphere. Although the story itself seems like quite a classic plot at first glance, its narration is so perfect that it immediately etched itself in my mind. And not just because of the story itself, but, above all, because of the lead roles that Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson performed so perfectly. I haven’t ever seen them act better. In any case, thanks to them, this TV show has become one of the most intense show experiences I have ever had. (03/13/2014)

True Detective develops a multi-layered plot that jumps back and forth in time between flashbacks, in which two diametrically opposed detectives, who have a hard time getting along, investigate a ritualistic murder, and the present day, where these detectives are talking about a 17-year-old case to other detectives investigating a similar murder. The heart of the detective story, however, lies in the gradual revelation of the changing relationship of the two main characters, whose accounts differ at times, and the reason why both have changed so much over the years. In doing so, the series plays with the concept of the unreliable narrator. The precise performances of the two leads (which are among the best of their careers) make for a riveting watch. HBO series have always successfully portrayed the atmosphere of a given place and time, and this existential neo-noir delights in the way it manages to build a dark atmosphere in a sunny Louisiana landscape. All eight episodes had the same director (Cary Fukunaga) and were written by one writer (Nic Pizzolatto), which was unusual in television up to this point. It is therefore more of an eight-hour film divided into eight chapters. In fact, HBO plans to treat the entire series as an anthology (each season will have a different story, different characters, and a different director). (01/14/2014)