I review the first
season of the eight hour True Detective, HBO’s
serialized crime drama starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.
Chances are, you’ll
have probably heard of True Detective by
now. It’s one of this year’s most hyped series, and the start of a new anthology,
American Horror Story-style series
following different characters each season. For the first season, released in
eight individual episodes towards the beginning of the year, True Detective reopens a case started in
1995, fifteen years later, calling into question the fact that the crime really
was solved back then. The split narrative between the past and the present
allows us to get insight as to just how much the case has changed the two
leading characters, Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Martin Hart (Woody
Harrelson) as it basically shapes their lives. We don’t know why Cohle left the
department and we don’t know what events that forced them on their separate ways.
The mystery itself is tantalising and unpredictable, and as the series pulls
back the layers, it remains one of the great mysteries of 2014.
Oscar award winning
actor Matthew McConaughey puts in a fantastic performance as lead Rust Cohle,
the eccentric with plenty of problems. Both characters in fact are incredibly
unique and extremely well developed, with their own flaws making them far from
perfect lead characters. For example, a quote in The Locked Room is great at describing the characters. Martin asks Rust
“You Ever Wonder if You’re A Bad Man?” and
Rust replies, “No I don’t wonder Marty.
The world needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from knocking at the door.” The
show itself is full of great dialogue not just limited to the one that I’ve presented
as an example here, expertly delivered by the various characters. Harrelson’s Martin
is just as developed as his partner Rust Cohle, and it’s great to see how these
characters interactions continue to change over the course of the series, ever
changing and ever shaping, rather than in the case of some shows, where the
connection between the characters hardly ever change over the whole series, let
alone in a whole season.
The cinematography of
True Detective is excellent and the
show itself looks amazing. There’s a really long tracking shot towards the end
of the fourth episode that is one of the highlights of the series and probably
one of the best moments of television that you’ll see this year. It’s just
exceptional. Like True Blood, True
Detective is also set in Louisiana and it’s incredibly distinctive. The
landscape looks great and it really helps give True Detective that iconic landscape feel that really helps it
appeal to fans of the likes of Justified,
Banshee and Longmire. It’s
amazing just how much work is put into the detail of the series (the soundtrack
is also amazing as well, and the opening theme, Far From Any Road, is just perfect) to make this series look
spectacular.
However, as good as
True Detective is, and don’t get me
wrong, it’s good – one of my Top 5 favourite series from 2014, in fact, it
doesn’t quite hit the mark in all the places. For example, the ending itself is
rather underwhelming after some great build up, and it’s safe to say that the series
isn’t exactly the fastest moving series of all time either, with a couple of
filler episodes that really shouldn’t be there in a series that’s only eight
episodes long.
However, despite
that though, True Detective still
manages to stand out as one of the best television series of 2014 thanks to a
blend of good acting, great development and good plotting for the most part.
The split narrative between the past and present, currently being deployed in Showtime’s
The Affair, is excellent to see and
the amount of work put into this season is excellent. Its well worth you time
to catch up on especially as it’s only eight episodes long. Highly Recommended.
VERDICT: 9/10
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