True Detective

Rather than a genre revolt, it’s more so a surgically precise analysis that dilutes the classic detective story with a metaphysical overlay and skillfully leads the viewer by the nose. This works in 1995, whereas the events of the new millennium follow established principles. My true detectives continue to swim against the tide of The Wire. (03/28/2014)

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)

A very good crime drama with a couple of great actors and a priceless gloomy atmosphere. I liked the way the filmmakers played with various details, such as the aging of the two characters (although Harrelson's "young" tupé was very obvious, even worse than his accent, which was also agonizing) and how they managed to piece together the story, even in pieces. For my taste, however, True Detective lacked any surprises. I didn't want a shocking point right away, but still, some "Well, I didn't expect that!" wouldn't hurt. "It used to be just darkness. In my opinion, light wins." (08/26/2015)

The moral imperative in me and the starry sky above me. A semi-ultimate dialectical existential detective story (until about the 5th part), followed by a procedural metaphysical thriller / horror, referring to the tradition of storytelling fools of the 19th and early 20th century. The conclusion is like a bromance written by Immanuel Kant. Overall, one of the most interesting projects in the history of TV, which suffers a bit from the imbalance of the script, but then balances it with perfect directing, set design and acting. If there is a consistent and meaningful counterweight to Scandinavian noir, it is True Detective. However, True Detective also properly teaches the "Nordic" combinatorics about straightforwardness. [90%] (03/12/2014)

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)