Created by Nic Pizzolatto
True Detective ended its groundbreaking first season on Sunday night. Much like the rest of the show, this season finale bucked expectations, and still managed to deliver an intelligent and satisfying hour of television.
Stepping back a bit to the beginning of the season, True Detective was an experiment in some ways. Set up more to be a series of miniseries, rather than an actual tv series, with each season telling the story of a different group of characters. Viewers went into this show knowing that, in terms of the characters of Rust Cohle and Marty Hart, these eight episodes were it. Add onto it the fact that the entire series had only one writer and one director and True Detective felt more like an 8-hour movie than a tv series.
True Detective's first season tells the story of a murder investigation. The victim, Dora Lange, was a young girl whose body was found posed in a field, covered in and surrounded by satanic markings. Two detectives, Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) recall the story of their investigation 17 years later, as well as revealing their own personal demons that they have had to overcome.
Throughout its entire 8-episode run True Detective made it apparent that it was something more than the rest of what is on television nowadays. There was a little extra care put into all aspects of the process than we are used to seeing. The writing had no wasted moments. The directing kept a creepy and unnerving tone constantly high, and the cinematography and editing were all operating at heightened levels.
One cannot talk about this show, though, without mentioning the performances. On that front, the big story to talk about here is Matthew McConaughey. As buzz was building for McConaughey's inevitable Oscar win for Dallas Buyers Club, it was also becoming incredibly apparent that he was going to win this years Emmy for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. He infuses the character of Rust with a very unique, but very real, set of demons which eat away at the character. He is a character just as real as, although totally unlike, any other, and though much of that goes to the brilliant dialogue and writing, McConaughey is so committed to the role that his brilliance cannot be denied.
Harrelson turns in a very strong performance as well. Marty Hart is just as deeply flawed a character as Rust is, but he is also a more "normal" character. As such, it is inevitable that Rust will wind up being the more interesting character, no matter how great a job Harrelson does portraying Hart. This is such a two-man show, however, that there is really only one other performance of note to speak about, at least without spoiling the whole thing. Michelle Monaghan, playing Marty's wife, Maggie, does a good job with a somewhat underwritten role. This is simply a result of the series being almost exclusively about Hart and Cohle, and in the end her character only truly exists in reference to those two.
The other primary strength of the series is its tone. The entire proceedings secrete darkness at every possible opportunity. The one exception to this is in the more sexual scenes of the show. Some of them feel much lighter, as if they belong in an entirely different program. While this does sometimes feel more like HBO's influence than the writer's, it still functions as a subjective realism, with these moments being the one respite from darkness for the characters. As such, I cannot truly call it a complaint (and depending on one's viewpoint it could very easily be seen as a benefit. HBO has certainly used it to bring people into the show.)
In the end, True Detective is an absolutely impressive new show. Its consistency and gutsiness are nearly unrivaled, and it makes the best use of actors at the top of their game. While it's sad that the story of these characters is over (That is not a spoiler of any kind, it is well known that True Detective functions more as a miniseries than a series) the makers of this program have earned the trust that the next True Detective will feature an equally great set of characters in another engrossing story
Season Grade: A
Best Episode: Who Goes There? (Episode 4)
This was a hard decision to make. Episodes 5 and 8 could just as easily have been here. In the end, though, the show has such a consistent quality that one sequence could put an episode ahead, which is what happened here. "Who Goes There?" is already a fascinating episode, possibly the darkest point of the series, this is the episode where things truly start falling apart for the characters. Harrelson is given a lot to do here, and this is probably his best hour of the series. In the end, though, what puts this episode at the top is the truly exciting final sequence, which earns every bit of buzz it has received.
True Detective's first season tells the story of a murder investigation. The victim, Dora Lange, was a young girl whose body was found posed in a field, covered in and surrounded by satanic markings. Two detectives, Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) recall the story of their investigation 17 years later, as well as revealing their own personal demons that they have had to overcome.
Throughout its entire 8-episode run True Detective made it apparent that it was something more than the rest of what is on television nowadays. There was a little extra care put into all aspects of the process than we are used to seeing. The writing had no wasted moments. The directing kept a creepy and unnerving tone constantly high, and the cinematography and editing were all operating at heightened levels.
One cannot talk about this show, though, without mentioning the performances. On that front, the big story to talk about here is Matthew McConaughey. As buzz was building for McConaughey's inevitable Oscar win for Dallas Buyers Club, it was also becoming incredibly apparent that he was going to win this years Emmy for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. He infuses the character of Rust with a very unique, but very real, set of demons which eat away at the character. He is a character just as real as, although totally unlike, any other, and though much of that goes to the brilliant dialogue and writing, McConaughey is so committed to the role that his brilliance cannot be denied.
Harrelson turns in a very strong performance as well. Marty Hart is just as deeply flawed a character as Rust is, but he is also a more "normal" character. As such, it is inevitable that Rust will wind up being the more interesting character, no matter how great a job Harrelson does portraying Hart. This is such a two-man show, however, that there is really only one other performance of note to speak about, at least without spoiling the whole thing. Michelle Monaghan, playing Marty's wife, Maggie, does a good job with a somewhat underwritten role. This is simply a result of the series being almost exclusively about Hart and Cohle, and in the end her character only truly exists in reference to those two.
The other primary strength of the series is its tone. The entire proceedings secrete darkness at every possible opportunity. The one exception to this is in the more sexual scenes of the show. Some of them feel much lighter, as if they belong in an entirely different program. While this does sometimes feel more like HBO's influence than the writer's, it still functions as a subjective realism, with these moments being the one respite from darkness for the characters. As such, I cannot truly call it a complaint (and depending on one's viewpoint it could very easily be seen as a benefit. HBO has certainly used it to bring people into the show.)
In the end, True Detective is an absolutely impressive new show. Its consistency and gutsiness are nearly unrivaled, and it makes the best use of actors at the top of their game. While it's sad that the story of these characters is over (That is not a spoiler of any kind, it is well known that True Detective functions more as a miniseries than a series) the makers of this program have earned the trust that the next True Detective will feature an equally great set of characters in another engrossing story
Season Grade: A
Best Episode: Who Goes There? (Episode 4)
This was a hard decision to make. Episodes 5 and 8 could just as easily have been here. In the end, though, the show has such a consistent quality that one sequence could put an episode ahead, which is what happened here. "Who Goes There?" is already a fascinating episode, possibly the darkest point of the series, this is the episode where things truly start falling apart for the characters. Harrelson is given a lot to do here, and this is probably his best hour of the series. In the end, though, what puts this episode at the top is the truly exciting final sequence, which earns every bit of buzz it has received.
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