The Inevitable Downfall Of True Detective

someone once told me time is a flat circle everything we've ever done or will do we're going to do over and over and over again forever if what Cole is saying is true then we're all going to get to watch season 1 of True Detective over and over and over again and that's just fine by us because it was nothing short of lightning in a bottle the same however cannot be said of the show's second or even third Seasons which were to put it kindly not as good it's a track record that's caused more than a few fans and critics to quite reasonably wonder why is it impossible to make another good season of True Detective it's my bad boys maybe we got started on the wrong foot there well we're going to crack the case but first why not take a moment to subscribe to the nerdstalgic channel True Detective was a crime Anthology series that debuted on HBO in January of 2014 but interest was Skyhigh before the first episode even aired that's because at a time when it was still pretty rare for major film actors to appear on TV producers had managed to assemble a cast worthy of a major theatrical release including Matthew MCC Woody harelson and Michelle Monahan said in 2012 the first season follows the story of mcc's detective Rustin rust Cole and Harrelson's Martin Marty Hart the two are Louisiana State Police homicide detectives who are reinvestigating the murder of a prostitute which they had failed to solve 17 years earlier along the way Hart struggles with his marital infidelity and Cole with his dark past the series was subversive compelling and full of zeitgeist worthy twists making it an instant hit with both critics and audiences despite having an equally impressive cast that included cinematic stars like Vince vaugh Rachel McAdams and Colin frell True Detective season 2 bombed hard with critics and fans season 3 which starred mahera Ali was better received but still only captured a fraction of the first season's Acclaim in all fairness though living up to the original is far from an easy task because True Detective season 1 was that rare example of a show that f fired on all cylinders for starters the writing was absolutely incredible created and pinned entirely by author and rookie television scribe Nick pisal the show grew out of material he had originally developed to be a novel it was only after working the story out that the writer cited it had visual elements that made it a better fit for television the scripts were also full of memorable quotable dialogue especially for Cole who got to spit out gems like so death created time to grow the things that it would kill cynical and pessimistic the character served as a vehicle for the show's religious and existential themes and mcc's performance is also cited as a highlight of the entire series the actor at the time was mostly famous for appearing in romantic comedies like The Wedding Planner How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Failure to Launch and was only really beginning to break through as a dramatic star in films like Dallas buers club and Interstellar offscreen he was known for his quirky personality weird catchphrases all right all right all right that's amazing and odd metaphysical beliefs so the part of Cole seemed tailor made for him longtime best friends and possibly even half Brothers but conah and haralson's real life relationship brought a naturalness to their onscreen interactions that likely couldn't have been achieved with just any two actors they knew exactly how to elevate each other's performances and everything about their Dynamic felt real you know you can't just slide into my life creating tension or I make you tap some bimbo looks like a young Maggie I make you flaunt that sh obviously a great deal of credit for that and for the success of the first season in general has to go to director Carrie joji fukunaga who helmed every episode fukan Naga not only knew how to get the best out of his actors but was careful to make sure the show's visual style was always as interesting as its story in the director's own words in every episode I wanted to at least try to find specific moments in which you could treat the visual side of the medium with the same importance as we were treating the dialogue the most famous example of the director's efforts has to be a now iconic six-minute tracking shot in episode 4 who goes there the scene finds rust in a particularly brutal shootout The Unbroken shot which weaves about the scene following different parts of the action traps the audience in the moment with him maximizing the intensity of the fight fukan naga's visual style was as much a part of true detective's identity and success as pilato's writing and MCC and Harrelson's performances so it's not completely surprising that the second season which lacked all of those things was a disappointment one of the reasons Anthology showed like True Detective are relatively rare is because once a series finds a set of characters and situations an audience likes starting from scratch is always a risk but the problems with True Detective season 2 actually went much deeper while season 1 was allowed as long as it needed to be developed production on the second season was rushed to meet a predetermined release date that meant pizolato had far less time to work out a story HBO president of programming at the Time Michael Lombardo would later take the blame saying when we tell somebody to hit an air date as opposed to to allowing the writing to find its own natural resting place when it's ready we failed not helping was that despite an executive producer title fukan Naga apparently had little to nothing to do with the production of season 2 after creatively clashing with pizolato on the first season fukan Naga who was never slated to return as director due to the Anthology nature of the show was essentially shut out of the creative process the director would later explain my involvement in the second season was as much or as little as they needed me and turns out they didn't need me instead of being replaced by another aour feature director in season 2 as was originally planned fukan Naga was replaced by several directors that left pisal as the sole driving creative force of True Detective but while pisal is no doubt talented more than a few insiders and critics have suggested that his partnership with fukan Naga tempered some of the writer less useful creative instincts and the success of season 1 was the result of the unique push and pull of their clashing sensibilities after the failure of season 2 HBO would insist that pisot work with a counterpart who coulding bring some creative balance back to the show and that person turned out to be Deadwood Creator and showrunner David milch they also allowed it more development time and the third season wouldn't drop for almost 4 years after the second while some critics complain season 3 lacked some of the original season's intriguing strangeness it was generally considered a return to form for the show audiences however weren't tuning in and the season averaged just over 1.2 million viewers per episode which was less than half as many as either of the previous Seasons it's possible that a great deal of the first season's appeal was how new and surprising it all was it's also possible that fans just fell in love with rust and Marty the vibe of the first case and we're just never going to be as excited about anything else short of possibly a direct sequel with the same characters and creative team I keep things even separate like the way I can have just one beer without needing pointing or as some commentators have suggested it's possible that a lot of what was so memorable about season 1 was actually plagiarized from other writers for examp example pisal has been accused of stealing some of Cole's best lines from the work of horror writer Thomas latti whose influence on Cole's worldview pisal has explicitly acknowledged others have pointed out that the first season's story structure and themes seem to borrow elements from Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's seminal comic book series from hell pisal is on the record as being a fan of more and the final conversation between Cole and Hart seems to be a direct reference to a scene from an issue of yet another more pinned comic series called top 10 it's just one story the oldest light versus dark in all fairness to pisot many of the claimed similarities are easily dismissed as influence whether he's capable of delivering another season one quality installment of True Detective without standing on the shoulders of giants like latti and more remains an open question whatever the answer is it is unlikely to affect the future of the franchise that's because the show's fourth season True Detective night country is not the creative brain child of pisal the season will instead be headed by producers Issa Lopez and Barry Jenkins pisal remains credited as an executive producer on the series but right now it's unclear how much creative involvement if any he had maybe the new team will get it right or maybe rust was right time is a flat circle and we're just doomed to get disappointing season after disappointing season of True Detective for the rest of Eternity either way we'll always have the haunting and beautiful story of rust and Marty what do you think are you fan of True Detective and if so do you think the show will ever be able to top that first season let us know down in the comments below and if you enjoyed this video you'll definitely find others you like if you check out the rest of the channel as always thank you for subscribing to nerdstalgic

Channel: Nerdstalgic

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Keywords: True Detective, True Detective Season 1, True Detective Night Country, True Detective Matthew McConaughey, True Detective Woody Harrelson, Nerdstalgic, True Detective Season 2, True Detective Vince Vaughn, True Detective Season 3, True Detective Mahershala Ali, True Detective Yellow King, True Detective Adaptation, True Detective HBO, True Detective MAX, True Detective Season 4, True Detective Timeline, True Detective Book, HBO, HBOMax, New Rockstars, Screen Crush, IGN, Nerdist

Id: DFu2CLSKwus

Length: 8min 47sec (527 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 12 2024