True Detective (HBO) Official Thread

My gripe (and it's not the world's biggest gripe, just the one I actually have had with this show so far) is that the writers of an eight-part show used one whole episode in which we get our plot development through conversations almost exclusively. Frankly, after the way the first six episodes were handled, that really stuck out.

You can obviously divulge information this way -- every story does it -- but things like mysteries are usually considered a little bit lax if they resort to using this method of moving the plot forward too much. You know, like when the villain ties up the good guy and then TELLS him all his motivations for everything he's done as the villain. It's cheesy when done poorly (and most of the time, it IS done poorly). And it's like taking a shortcut away from good, strong action scenes. But at least True Detective did it well. I'll definitely give it that.

But, I think putting all of this information into a single episode made it stand out. Just because we needed all this information doesn't mean the writers should cram it all in as a bunch of conversations in one episode.

Having said that, I again say that it was a minor concern over an otherwise stellar series/season. Plus, of course, I'm just trying to find reasons to gripe that it should have been 16 episodes instead of 8.

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I'm not going to read any of this thread; I just wanted to say that I had never heard of this show before today(a co-worker told me about it). I look forward to watching the whole season this weekend.

Came here to post that. Looks like I was beaten to it.

Is it Sunday yet?

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Next two sundays are gonna be sweet. Tomorrow is the True Detective finale, and next sunday is the FBB draft.

Seems like Cohle's going to sacrifice himself.

Just started this-- magnificent opening sequence..

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I have an awful feeling because of the show format that one of the main characters will die too

Ive had a strong suspicion from the beginning to where I think I should put it in spoilers. I havent watched the video Holden posted because sometimes those vids are so spot-on they may as well be spoilers.

Cant figure out Spoiler thing again grrrrr, I usually cheat and quote someone and copy theirs. Ok if you dont want to know my guess dont read further .....STRONG GUESS SPOILERS!!!

(Always felt Cohle was gonna end up dead, and Marty was gonna write a book about him, the case, and all along its what weve been watching. May also explain Rusts girlfriend for a few years get so little attention. It was just another part of the story Marty could never be privy to.)

You, uh, don't have to worry about that video. Enjoy.

Agh! I was being over paranoid. Yeah just watched it, and its funny.

Yeah, I didn't see any of the comments about it beforehand, so I got to have a big laugh at the reveal. It does a great job of seeming like a normal fan theory video at first.

that was really good.

What was the very last thing Rust said? Gawd, the guy MUMBLED the last line of the season! We can't figure it out... You can put it in spoilers if it's too soon after the finale, but ... somebody, please, what was the very last line??

I still haven't read any of this thread; me and wifey watched the first 5 episodes today and should watch the rest soon. Awesome show.

Well, the finale lacked the kind of reveal you tend to expect from a great mystery...but as the resolution to two character studies, it was pretty fantastic. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised at how Cohle's story ends, but when viewed as a whole, it's perfect.

And man, how good was McConaughey in that last scene? Chills.

HBO Go isn't working and I can't watch the finale. I'm getting quite upset with them.

Speechless, and in a great way.

Thought the best of Rustes observations of life were done, and glad they saved some awesome ones for the final. Oh my gosh I never want to see Matthew MacConaughey be in a comedy ever again! He was enthralling all throughout the series. Harrelson commented in an interview MacConaughey was trying to stay in character off camera "with this one". Man it showed.



Oh man this series was beautiful. Ill be suggesting it forever.

Yeh I think the mixed reviews are coming from people trying to hard to figure out any future twists (I admit I did this too ), distracting from what it ultimately is, and that is a beautiful poetic look at two characters and their place in the world. A simple finale, but a fantastic one.

I agree. But at the same time, I think showrunners need to stop using characterization as an escape hatch. Too often we're seeing them use the mysteries to draw us in and then not really pay them off because they think emotional/character-based resolutions are more important. It's a little willfully naive to pretend that people don't get sucked in by the mysteries themselves, and the really great shows don't have to choose one or the other, anyway.

That's more of a meta commentary on television in general, though. True Detective setup a mystery it wasn't terribly interested in, and that's not great, but at least it made the characters the primary focus throughout.