True Detective: Season One Review

True Detective: Season One

Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga

Written by Nic Pizzolatto

True Detective is a series that debuted on HBO in January of 2014 with eight episodes in both of it's two, soon to be three, seasons. Season one stars Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson Michelle Monaghan, Michael Potts and Tory Kittles. Two Louisiana detectives, Marty Hart (Harrelson) and Rustin Cohle (McConaughey), are called from retirement by detectives Gilbough (Potts) and Papania (Kittles) in 2012 to talk about a case they investigated back in 1995 when the two were partners. The show constantly switches between 1995 and 2012 with both Hart and Cohle narrating their investigation of the ritualistic murder of a young woman named Dora Lange. As the investigation delves deeper into the seedy criminal underworld the tensions between the two detectives rise as do the tensions between Marty and his wife Maggie (Monaghan).

The thing that really grabbed me and kept me coming back were the characters. Just about every character in the show is interesting, complex and seems like a real human being. What I mean by that is nothing feels contrived. For example: the two main characters, Marty and Rust, don't really like each other, contrived right? But instead of the usual buddy cop setup, the devil-may-care hotshot and the older, wiser veteran you have two men who are excellent at what they do; Marty is a veteran CID detective who has a steady job and a stable family life but has some serious character flaws that he tries to hide from everyone whereas Rust has worked years undercover in the seedier parts of the American criminal underworld, his family was broken apart because of a tragic death and he wears his world weariness and pessimism on his sleeve. A great conversation that I think encapsulates their relationship with each other comes in the first episode as Rust and Marty leave the Coroner's office, heading back to Marty's car.

RUST: This place is like someone's memory of a town and the memory's fading. It's like there was never anything here but jungle.

MARTY: Stop saying shit like that, it's unprofessional.

RUST: Is that what I'm going for here?

MARTY: I just want you to stop saying odd shit, like you 'smell the psycho-sphere' or you're in someone's faded memory of a town. Just stop.

RUST: Given how long it's taken for me to reconcile my nature I figure I won't forgo it on your account Marty.

One thing that might take awhile to get used to for a lot of people watching the show for the first time is the way Rust speaks. I admit the first time I heard him say he could smell the psycho-sphere I chuckled a bit but as the show goes on it ceases to be funny and you start to take it much more seriously. I believe this is do to McConaughey's performance; he straddles the line between melodramatic and becoming a parody of himself and doesn't once fall to either side, a great feat considering some of the things he has to say. He sells his role as this jaded detective really well and every scene with him was great. There's a scene in the middle of the season that is not only one of my favorite action scenes in all of TV but also a great testament to Fukunaga's directorial ability and to McConughey's performance and dedication to the role. That isn't to say that the other performances aren't great also, they are. Marty is essentially the straight man to Rust's antics and Harrelson nails his performance. He is equal parts relatable and detestable and he also has some moments where he gets a decent laugh out of the audience. Michelle Monaghan is also really good in her supporting role as Marty's wife Maggie. Her character arc, without spoiling anything, is really well handled and even when she does something that you may find to be awful you still can see where she is coming from and Monaghan completely sells it.

A lot has been said about the show's eight episodes per season structure and I have to say I like it a lot. I've heard people say that the show is more of an eight hour long movie than an eight episode season and I'd have to agree. The show doesn't focus on unnecessary side characters or useless subplots. Everything it shows either advances the story or the theme and often advances both, like the subplot with one of Marty's daughters, Audrey. Even the intro isn't just for show but hints at some of the themes behind the season. Vice, corruption, the decay of the world seeping into and affecting the characters set against the backdrop of The Handsome Family's "Far From Any Road". It's great stuff, go check it out. No spoilers I promise.

I'm not going to pretend that I am qualified to discuss the themes of the season in depth but many have discussed the show's view of religion, pessimism and even it's depiction of masculinity and a masculine world, all of which I can see a lot of evidence for and I think are worth exploring. Myself, I was grabbed by the idea of the societal decay of the area and how that affected the characters. The show primarily takes place in the backwoods of Louisiana, the places that the world either forgot about or intentionally pushed from it's mind. There's a meth lab in the woods lorded over by two crazed convicts who spend their day making drugs and doping people they've kidnapped for some nefarious purpose. There's a bunny ranch in the bayou where girls go when they don't have anywhere else to go and the Sheriff ignores this so long as he gets a kickback from them. A young girl, Marie Fontenot, disappears from her home in a poor neighborhood in the country and the police stop investigating because of a rumor. The idea that that a place so down on it's luck affects, at least in some small way, the people who live and work in it is fascinating to me and I really liked thinking about it and exploring it.

At the outset of this I didn't want to sound like there aren't any problems with the show but the problem is that there is so much that is excellent that really I can't find anything objectively wrong with it. A lot of people say the ending is disappointing because it wasn't what they thought it would be and I can see where they are coming from but I found the ending very satisfying and there are a few different ways to interpret it I think. I've seen every episode at least twice and a few of them thrice so unless I'm still wrapped up in my excitement for the season a month and a half removed from seeing it for the first time I don't think there's a lot I can get angry over. If I had to really stretch I would say that I would like to have seen more of Audrey's story but even then I think that it was handled really well.

I can easily recommend this season to anyone who likes detective stories, whodunit mysteries, buddy cop dramas and anyone who just likes good television and filmmaking. The show goes to some really dark places so if you're uncomfortable with dark themes and some dark and imposing imagery then you might want to find out what specifically is shown if you're interested. But for everyone else this is an easy recommendation, go watch it.

Without spoiling too much, I won't be saying the same of season two but I'll get to that when I get to it.

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