Rewind: ‘True Detective: Season 1’ Review
I am 11 years late to this one, but watching True Detective: Season 1 has compelled me to try and squeeze some of these thoughts out of my brain. It is like trying to squeeze Pate through a plastic ketchup bottle hole. My thoughts are too meaty and chunky, and this is going to cause a huge mess.
Mild Spoilers.
True Detective aired on HBO, the historical home of quality US television. I always thought of their Show Oz as changing the game for quality long-format shows on TV, but likely the far more popular The Sopranos drowns that out. Reading on the internet, it seems that many people credit True Detective with being one of the first shows to bring Hollywood star power into a tight, 8 show format.
Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey star as our Detective duo who are tasked with investigating a ritualistic, folk murder in the deep South. They have 2 days to crack the case! The case is about to be taken away from them by political pressure and a new task force.
Time jumps around a little bit, from the initial investigation in 1995, to 2001 and then to what was “present day”.
Firstly, the setting is incredible. Whether it is the dark secrets of the Louisiana Landscape, or the secrets that are in men’s hearts. We get a real sense of history. The Police precinct alone is a nest of vipers, of smouldering resentment and male egos.
Our two leads are entirely broken characters. One is utterly nihilistic and borderline suicidal, which initially shocks his partner, who is perhaps looking for some kind of reassurance and gets nothing of the sort. Our duo have been together for a number of Months, but it is clear they only really get to know each other once the investigation begins. Rustin is clearly a man on the edge. He has suffered an utterly unhealed tragedy and suffers from substance abuse issues in such a way that his complete breakdown from society is in the post. His partner Marty is superficially well-adjusted. He has a beautiful wife (who also has a good job) , he has a nice house and lovely kids. They invite people for dinner. But he also has substance abuse issues and is well into the process of blowing up his happy marriage. He is casually corrupt, happy to use bullying and terrible threats to get what he wants (whether that is sex, alcohol or to silence someone). He is not, despite appearances, a good man, and he carries that self-hatred with him, with his rage on a hair trigger. Perhaps he is a good man, there is good in him. But he is complicated for sure, and the people closest to him see that in him. It is rare to have a narrative wife give such interesting and nuanced feedback on a husband’s character. There is so much good and so much bad in him, where does she even begin? Was he always like this? We get the sense he has been slowly but surely getting worse as middle age has set in.
Despite all this, and far more besides, our duo remain likeable, due to the quality of the acting of our two leads. The quality of acting of the wider cast is deeply impressive.
The feel of the show is dark. There is very little good here, and what is there is largely preyed upon by evil, not just in terms of our horrific murder investigation, but also in terms of how the characters in society interact. This is perhaps a little Silence of the Lambs, a little Wickerman, a little Stephen King, but honestly, it stands out as its own thing.
I suspect this is a case of art taking on the properties of the observer. But all the talk of time being flat and not linear. The symbolism, the occasional but poorly timed hallucinations of the lead, make a clear case for a Lovecraftian undertone, but all of this is left open to interpretation. Having said that, if you know your Lovecraft, calling a place “Carcosa” and referring to the “Yellow King” is pretty knowing. There remains a killer, in the conventional sense, and thus the viewer can largely make up their own mind as to exactly what has been going on.
Highly recommended, if you like your stories black, with just a chink of light from the stars in the Lousiana sky.
