My (Long Delayed) Thoughts on True Detective

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Yes this is a True Detective post eons after the show was in the main cultural conversation but this is my blog and I can do what I want! (Also, May 31st marked the official end of the 2013-2014 TV season) Now you maybe be wondering why exactly I decided to note down my thoughts now so I’ll tell you. This past Friday I found myself watching the final two episodes of the show. Yes, I had indeed been putting off the penultimate and ultimate installments of the HBO Miniseries (idgaf what HBO says this is a miniseries!) and Friday finally allowed me to take the two episodes in. Shockingly I arrived at this point unspoiled, having only the knowledge that McConaughey had some big acting moment at the end of the finale. So now that everything is finished what did I think?

Well by the time I had finished the finale, it was increasingly clear why I hadn’t felt the need to rush to finish the series. True Detective, for all the things it does right, is one of the first shows I’ve ever sat through where I liked it but something didn’t really connect. By this I mean that I was watching it and my eyes were stimulated because the direction, lensing by Adam Arkapaw, and PD where phenomenal, the great acting and backwoods setting plenty great, but my brain? Conspicuously absent from the proceedings. And not in the “I don’t get what’s happening” way and more like “this isn’t holding my interest and the character beats are way more interesting.” When I tell y’all I can’t even recall to you anything about the case the two detectives were solving other than some wood sculptures and a lame ending with the villain telegraphed. True Detective might have wonderful trappings that kept me from losing all interest in the show, but I do find fault with things that don’t execute their core purpose well enough to hold my interest.

That’s not to say the show was bad, it’s quite good and its strengths are irrefutable. I have long loved Cary Fukanaga and True Detective will stand as a feat of television directing for years to come. I mean he helmed the whole thing, got those great performances, and that single take in episode 4 is one of the best shots I’ve ever seen. Alex DiGerlando and Tim Beach provided him with exquisite production design to capture; the detail in every scene was wonderful.

But more than just these visual elements, the biggest boost to the show is the acting. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey delivered some high quality work that will rank among their best ever. It’s not hard to see why each man chose the roles they did. McConaughey, long a matinee idol, uses his physicality only as a case for his character’s cerebral machinations and by the end of the series everything physical is no longer at his disposal, just a husk with a broken soul. Harrelson gives a true star performance in that his character doesn’t feel too far off him personally, but he twists himself just enough that it always works.

However, when I think of True Detective’s acting, I’ll never forget the impact Michelle Monaghan and Alexandria Daddario had on this series. These two women take what could easily be (and if we’re being honest, still are) stock roles and imbue them with such immediacy and flair they pop off the screen. It’s part of the reason I liked the stuff relating to these character personal lives, Harrelson and McConaughey are never as good as when they are acting opposite these two women. Yet no matter how wonderful Daddario and Monaghan are, I still feel like the narrative short changed them and the final three episodes in particular so cast them aside (Daddario) or render them as window dressing (Monaghan) in efforts to solve the case. I’m not saying they had to remain in the forefront the entire time but man did they deserve a little better.

To end, I am glad True Detective is on the air and I look forward to the next installment.

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Terence Johnson

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