true detective essay

One Last Midnight: The Philosophy of ‘True Detective’

True Detective is back on HBO for a third season and, much like the anthology series’ grizzled characters, who fade into darkness for a decade only to return to the fold older but wiser, Nic Pizzolatto ‘s roman noir is back on the horse and ready to kick ass again.

After the much-derided second season seemed to bring all of the look but none of the feeling of the first, the new riff starring Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff has been a back-to-basics move, bringing the stoic philosophizing and grander cosmic narrative of Season 1 to bear on another set of morally ambiguous cops.

The first season struck a chord when it premiered in 2014, and there was a lot of early buzz for the stellar star turns of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as Detectives Rustin Cohle and Martin Hart, respectively. But it was True Detective ‘s wide-ranging literary and scholarly influences that set it apart and assured its place in the pantheon of hard-boiled entertainment .

The video essay below from Wisecrack, written by Leo Cookman and hosted by Jared Bauer, shares our enthusiasm for Season 3’s return to form and lays out True Detective ‘s deeper influences.

What immediately hooked viewers on True Detective was the feeling of a larger narrative. The Idea was that something dark and foreboding lurked beneath the surface of the show’s more conventional cops & criminals plot. That was in large part due to the influences of writers in the realm of weird fiction and cosmic horror that Pizzolatto mined for his story.

Among more familiar writers like H.P Lovecraft and James Ellroy , True Detective  has also referenced the works of more obscure weird fiction writers such as Ambrose Bierce , Robert W. Chambers , and Thomas Ligotti. These references enhance the feeling that something bigger is moving behind the scenes and off camera. McConaughey’s Cohle suspects a greater conspiracy of child abductions and ritual murders, involving the powerful Tuttle family and their religious schools. Coupled with mysterious references to The Yellow King and Carcossa , these elements propelled the season forward.  So it was frustrating to many viewers when the season ended on an ambiguous note. When Season 2 returned with a totally new set of characters in a new location, the feeling of being short-changed was palpable to a lot of fans.

While HBO viewers were understandably taken aback, ambiguity is a familiar trait in both weird fiction and cosmic horror. Coupled with Cohle’s penchant for pessimist philosophizing, it was all but guaranteed that the end would come to naught for these characters. Pizzolatto treated story elements from his favorite authors as canon rather than simply influences, much like comic book writers might approach writing a story in a particular universe. By allowing the darker pieces of his character’s world to drift in and out of focus, he created texture and mood, before ultimately letting the pieces fade back into the swamps of the Louisiana bayou like the greater evil at the center of Cohle and Hart’s investigation.

Television viewers are not generally known for their love of ambiguity (see the Sopranos ‘ ending ) but in novels and short stories, it’s a much more accepted quirk, especially in noir fiction, Pizzolatto’s home away from television. In this case, as in The Sopranos , it does create a lively debate over the importance of resolution. Is it better to have everything wrapped up in the end, or to have unresolved questions? For the philosophers and horror writers on Pizzolatto’s bookshelf, the answer is simple: the worst is all but certain, and the end doesn’t always matter.

The deeper roots planted by these literary and philosophical references gave the first season layers that may not have been there otherwise, and the hints are there for a return in Season 3; maybe even a connecting thread to the mysteries of Carcossa. As for the lack of resolution to the search for what The Yellow King really was in the end, as Rust says, time is a flat circle. In other words, not everything has a satisfying ending. And that’s ok.

Related Topics: HBO , True Detective , Video

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No Exit From Darkness: The Philosophy Of True Detective

No exit from darkness, the philosophy of true detective, by guillaume a.w attia (editor-in-chief), july 15, 2015         picture: steve chan/ behance.

I. INTRODUCTION

O n the surface, HBO’s critically acclaimed  2014 mini-crime drama series, True Detective , has all the familiar features of a successful murder investigation story: a macabre killing pointing to a defiant and intriguingly psychologically complex killer, an experimental partnership between two charismatic but apprehensive detectives at the peak of their professional careers, authorities under extreme public pressure to ensure the safety of the community, and the increasingly disturbing suspicion that a single act of artistic madness may unravel a series of sinister slaughters with much more far-reaching and nefarious consequences than initially anticipated by our courageous protagonists. It is doubtful however, that this sole recipe (albeit laced with gratuitous violence, nudity and sex), not to mention the award winning cinematography of the lead director Cari Foji Fukanaga , fully accounts for the impressive popularity of True Detective’s Season 1.

HBO: True Detective Season 1

As a number of commentators have judiciously observed, what makes this show exceptional – what separates its narrative from other popular crime shows that repackage this recognizable formula- is that it “features so prominently a dark philosophy which suggests that humanity is an error of evolution and ultimately meaningless, and that we should stop reproducing”. All three of these ideas— error theory, nihilism, and anti-natalism—have their roots in the traditional canon of Western philosophy, as well as the work of contemporary academic philosophers. They are amongst the many seemingly queer ideas that are strategically introduced at various points in the story for both cinematic and contemplative purposes. The successful marriage of horror fiction, detective crime drama and philosophy, is the product of an original design by its executive producer & writer, Nic Pizzolatto : “before I came out to Hollywood, (…) I knew that in my next work I would have a detective who was (or thought he was) a nihilist”. And thus the show’s main character and fan favourite— Rustin Cohle—was born.

HBO: Introducing Cohle

Pizzolatto reveals that the philosophy Cohle espouses in the earliest episodes of the show “is a kind of anti-natalist nihilism”. Yet, apart from a reference to nihilist Friedrich Nietzsche in episode 4, Cohle does not actually call himself a ‘nihilist’. During the very first meaningful conversation with his partner, Martin Hart, Cohle asserts that he is, in philosophical terms, “what’s called a pessimist”. As David Cartwright   explains in his opening essay, pessimism as a strict philosophical doctrine is most closely associated with the German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer . Schopenhauer believed that human existence must be a mistake. In his mind, because the inherently meaningless life of sentient creatures predisposes them to intolerable amounts of suffering, this world is the worst of all possible worlds. Consequently, the notion that a human life does not come to experience this miserable life, cannot be considered a harm. One might think for practical reasons that this is an undesirable and unhelpful worldview, but, as Joshua Dienstag wants to argue, there are good reasons to be a pessimist. Good enough at least, to compel the elusive writer Thomas Ligotti to exposit this philosophy in frightfully compelling works of literature. Having been greatly influenced by Ligotti’s ideas, Pizzolatto describes his “nightmare lyricism” as enthralling and visionary; and his most philosophical work “ The Conspiracy Against The Human Race  (Hippocampus Press, 2010)” as “incredibly powerful writing”. In his estimation, nobody has “expressed the idea of humanity as aberration more powerfully than (…) Ligotti”. James Trafford   articulates the ominous influence of Ligotti’s philosophy on the narrative fabric of Pizzolatto’s creative masterpiece. As great a writer as Ligotti is, Pizzolatto nonetheless confesses that from the perspective of a reader, his work was “less impactful as philosophy than one writer’s ultimate confessional”. For a more academically rigorous & systemic exposition of anti-natalism, the view that human beings should not procreate, one would have to read, as Pizzolatto evidently did, David Benatar ’s “ Better Never To Have Been   (Oxford University Press, 2008)”. Benatar contributes to this symposium by clarifying the nature of anti-natalism in light of theoretically inconsistent and potentially misleading behaviours by Rustin Cohle.

Despite the fact that Cohle explicitly states that he is a ‘pessimist’, that does not negate the truth that some of his sayings are consistent with the musings of nihilists such as Friedrich Nietzsche. We find in the movie’s banner, for example, words which, if we are to believe Randolph Mayes ’ interpretation, allude to Nietzsche’s moral psychology. More overtly, Lawrence Hatab draws parallels between Cohle’s episode 5 talk of time as a ‘flat circle’ of interminable repetitions, and Nietzsche’s doctrine of eternal recurrence. It is also during a similarly philosophically charged episode 3 that Cohle points towards what  Evan Thompson identifies as “the illusion of self”: “that you, yourself… all your life… was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person”. Cohle goes on to say just after he utters those words, that “like a lot of dreams, there is a monster at the end of it”. The monster we encounter in True Detective is none other than the towering figure of Errol Childress , a person so morally abhorrent that it inescapably forces a self-proclaimed ‘naturalist’ like Cohle to reflect on the nature of what Peter Brian Barry best describes as “extreme moral vice”.

But lack of virtue is not only found in the depraved activities of the show’s main antagonist, it is also manifested in less horrid form in the lives of the two detectives fighting the outrageous evil on the loose in Louisiana. This disturbing sense that human beings have all fallen short of a moral standard of sort is what, according to Cohle’s suspicions, explains the booming success of psychiatry and religion: “Everybody knows there’s something wrong with them. They just don’t know what it is. Everybody wants confessions. Everybody wants some cathartic narrative for it. The guilty especially oh, but everybody is guilty (…) The ontological fallacy of expecting a light at the end of the tunnel. That’s what the preacher sells. Same as the shrink”. John Depoe responds to this dismissal of theistic moral psychology by offering a plausible Christian account of human guilt, and Stephen Evans & Matthew Wilson defend the theistic vision of morality grounded in the commandments of God.

The last two essays of this issue ask whether Cohle’s narrative arc suggests that he has adopted an ethic of resignation in the face of a world full of gratuitous suffering, and if so, why does he not resolve to suicide? Comparing Cohle’s outlook to the philosophical viewpoint of Arthur Schopenhauer, Sandra Shapshay offers surprising answers to these two questions, and in the process, reveals the complexity of Cohle’s character- a point also emphasized by Pizzolatto:  “I wouldn’t want any viewers (…) to reduce Cohle to an anti-natalist or nihilist. Cole is more complicated than that (…) Cohle may claim to be a nihilist [which he does not] but an observation of him reveals otherwise. Far from “nothing meaning anything” to him, it’s almost as though everything means too much to him (…)”.

In all, the range of philosophical ideas on display, both Eastern and Western, makes True Detective “revolutionary television”. As Wall Street Journal writer Michael Calia recognizes , “Millions of viewers are hearing Cohle’s worldview weekly, and many might just find that it makes some kind of troubling sense”. The objective of this symposium is to demonstrate that it in fact does.

II. CONTRIBUTORS

Article #1: What is Pessimism? The Philosophy at The Heart of True Detective by David Cartwright (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater)

In this brief piece, Cartwright articulates the deep metaphysical grounds of Arthur Schopenhauer’s pessimism, why he thought that it was the most unkind fate to be a human, the despair of sexual love, and Schopenhauer’s redemptive strategies for confronting the wretchedness of life. Friedrich Nietzsche, once enthralled by Schopenhauer’s philosophy, later viewed himself as Schopenhauer’s antipode. Cartwright presents Nietzsche’s diagnosis of the nihilism behind Schopenhauer’s pessimism and contrasts this with Nietzsche’s “pessimism of strength.”

David E. Cartwright is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Director of the North American Division of the Schopenhauer Society. He has published extensively on the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, authoring numerous articles and books on the German philosopher, including the biography Arthur Schopenhauer: A Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2010) . He has served as editor and co-translator of a number of Schopenhauer’s books, including, with Edward E. Erdmann and Christopher Janaway, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and Other Writings (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Article #2: Why Be a Pessimist Like Rustin Cohle? by Joshua Dienstag (University of California Berkeley)

What does Rust Cohle mean when he says that he is a pessimist “in philosophical terms”? In this essay Joshua Dienstag explains what it means to be a pessimist and why it makes Rust a ‘true detective’.

Joshua Foa Dienstag is Professor of Political Science and Law at UCLA. He is the author of Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit (Princeton University Press, 2009) which won the the Book Award for Excellence in Philosophy from the American Association of Publishers in 2006. He is also the author of Dancing in Chains: Narrative and Memory in Political Theory (Stanford University Press, 1997) and many articles on political theory, film and philosophy.

Article #3: The Philosophy of Thomas Ligotti by James Trafford (University for The Creative Arts)

Thomas Ligotti’s slow, patient, and suffocating irreverence for the world lives hardly beneath the surface of the densely coiled tissues of True Detective. As many commentators have pointed out, this is no more apparent than in the script and characterization of Rust Cohle. For Rust, reality is already a nightmare that is constructed inside the dream-space that forms conscious experience (and this is also exacerbated by Rust’s experience of the bleeding of non-sleep and dream-waking). However, this is not a simple-minded exercise in sloughing the scales from our eyes. In brief, the vision of life we purchase through Rust’s eyes is a mesmeric trap in an ongoing dream, a hallucinatory machine spinning through the void. Puppets without puppet masters: “To realize that all your life, all your love, all your hate, all your memories, all your pain, it was all the same thing. It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person” (Rust). This article traces some of the lines of connection between True Detective and Ligotti’s work, with particular attention to the unhinging of “real” from its appearances, and of thought from its grounds in nature.

James Trafford  is Senior Lecturer in Contextual Studies at University for the Creative Arts, Epsom. He has written widely on rationality, logic, and realism.

Article #4: ‘We Are Creatures That Should Not Exist’: The Theory of Antinatalism by David Benatar (The University of Cape Town)

Rustin Cohle, one of the lead characters in Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective is an anti-natalist. That is, he believes that it is wrong to bring children into existence. In this article, David Benatar outlines the basis for anti-natalism and distinguishes it from other features of Rust Cohle’s character.

David Benatar is Professor and Head of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is the author of Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence (Oxford, 2006) and The Second Sexism: Discrimination Against Men and Boys (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).

Article #5: ‘Man is The Cruelest Animal’: Where is The Viciousness in True Detective? by Randy Mayes (Sacramento State University).

Zarathustra’s famous assertion that “Man is the cruelest animal,” seems like an apt enough tagline for a show that entertains us with the fetishized torture, rape and murder of young lost women. Is the quotation any more than that? In this brief essay, Randy Mayes explores the possibility that it is.

Randy Mayes is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Sacramento State University. Professor Mayes’ main teaching and research interests are naturalism, moral psychology and the nature of rational inquiry. He has published work on the the concepts of explanation, privacy and cruelty.

Article #6: ‘Time is a Flat Circle’: The Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence by Lawrence Hatab (Old Dominion University)

In True Detective, Rust Cohle expresses a Schopenhauerian pessimism about the meaninglessness of existence. In one scene he depicts this view in terms of the Nietzschean idea of eternal recurrence, that everything in life repeats itself again and again forever. Lawrence Hatab argues that in Nietzsche’s thought, eternal recurrence was not in the end an expression of pessimism but a challenge to affirm existence in all its aspects.

Lawrence J. Hatab is Louis I. Jaffe Professor of Philosophy and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University. His research interests include Nietzsche, Heidegger, and ancient philosophy. He is the author of Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2008), Nietzsche’s Life Sentence: Coming to Terms with Eternal Recurrence (Routledge, 2005), Ethics and Finitude: Heideggerian Contributions to Moral Philosophy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), A Nietzschean Defense of Democracy: An Experiment in Postmodern Politics (Open Court, 1995), and Myth and Philosophy: A Contest of Truths (Open Court, 1990). He is currently writing a book on language.

Article #7: ‘A Dream Inside a Locked Room’: The Illusion of Self by Evan Thompson (University of British Columbia)

In episode 3, “The Locked Room,” Rust Cohle (Protagonist) explains that your life, all your subjective experiences, are “a dream… inside a locked room, a dream about being a person.” In his view, we are creatures who “labor under the illusion of having a self.” These ideas—that all of life is a dream, that we might think we’re awake when we’re really dreaming, and that the self is an illusion—are some of humanity’s oldest and most enduring philosophical thoughts, in both Eastern and Western traditions. So too is the question of whether transcendence—deliverance or awakening from the dream—is possible, especially at the moment of death. This question consumes Cohle, and is a driving question of the whole first season of True Detective.

Evan Thompson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He specializes in cognitive science and the philosophy of mind, as well as Indian and Buddhist philosophy. His books include Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy (Columbia University Press, 2014), and Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind (Belknap Press, 2010).

Article #8: ‘Like a Lot of Dreams, There is a Monster at The End of It’: Naturalism, Evil and The Moral Monster by Peter Brian Barry (Saginaw Valley State University)

Rustin Cohle appears to adopt a philosophical position shared by at least very many philosophers and fans of True Detective. On the one hand, Cohle seems be a thoroughgoing naturalist, as evidenced by his rejection of various supernatural beings and entities. But Cohle also speaks freely about the existence of “monsters”, a term often used to refer to putative evil characters like Errol William Childress and Reggie Ledoux. Is this position tenable? It would seem not, but only if a particular conception of moral monstrosity–of evil personhood–is taken for granted. There is a perfectly coherent conception of the evil person that is consistent with naturalism that allows us to understand what makes someone not just bad, but evil, and allows for the existence of moral monsters.

Peter Brian Barry is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Saginaw Valley State University. After earning a Master’s Degree at both the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Bowling Green State University, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Florida. His recent work is in social and political philosophy and moral psychology, especially the philosophy of evil. He is the author of Evil and Moral Psychology (Routledge, 2012) and the forthcoming The Fiction of Evil (Routledge, 2016). More information can be found at peterbrianbarry.com.

Article #9: ‘Everybody Knows There is Something Wrong With Them’: Guilt, Christian Metaphysics and The Doctrine of Sin by John DePoe (Marywood University)

True Detective portrays a dark side to human nature. These characterizations work as a prompt to ponder a number of philosophical issues related to the metaphysical nature of sin as traditionally understood in the Christian tradition. Not only is the act of sin discussed, but the doctrine of original sin or a human sinful nature is considered. Finally, Cohle’s criticism that religion commits the “existential fallacy” is examined in light of human nature.

John DePoe is an assistant professor of philosophy at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He teaches and writes about epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion. Some of his most recent work explores philosophical topics related to the mind-body problem, the teleological argument for the existence of God, and whether naturalism is self-refuting.

Article #10: ‘Can You Imagine If People Didn’t Believe, The Things They’d Get Up To?’ Ethics & Divine Command Theory by Stephen Evans & Matthew Wilson (Baylor University)

In the 3rd episode of True Detective Martin Hart suggests that, without belief in God, people would have less or perhaps no motivation to be good.  This essay takes an in-depth look at an ethical view known as “Divine Command Theory,” which would explain moral obligations as grounded in God and thus support Detective Hart’s remark.  Evans & Wilson explain the theory, offer a number of clarifying remarks, and identify some common misconceptions about it. For example, they argue that a divine command theory does not imply that God could command what is terrible or that it makes morality arbitrary.  They conclude with some remarks on how a Divine Command theorist might respond to the philosophical pessimism of Rustin Cohle.

C. Stephen Evans (Ph.D., Yale University) is University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Baylor University in Waco, TX. His published works have focused on Kierkegaard, philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of psychology. He has written fifteen single authored books, the most recent being God and Moral Obligation (Oxford University Press, 2013). Evans’ Natural Signs and Knowledge of God (also published by Oxford) in 2012 won the C. S. Lewis Prize for best book in philosophy of religion since 2007. Besides his work in philosophy of religion, Evans is known for his work on Søren Kierkegaard and on the relation between psychology and Christianity. He has published many professional articles and has received two Fellowships from NEH and a major grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Prior to coming to Baylor Evans taught at Wheaton College, where he held a joint appointment in philosophy and psychology; St. Olaf College, where he served as Curator of the Howard and Edna Hong Kierkegaard Library as well as a member of the Philosophy Department; and at Calvin College, where, besides teaching philosophy, he served as Dean for Research and Scholarship and was the inaugural holder of the William Spoelhof Teacher-Scholar Chair. He is a past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers. Evans is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, is married to Jan Evans and has three grown children. He is a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.

Matthew Wilson is a PhD student at Baylor University with interests in ethics, business ethics, and the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard. He holds a Master’s degree in the philosophy of religion from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and an MBA from Indiana University.

Article #11: The Ethics of True Detective: Resignation or Compassion? by Sandra Shapshay (Indiana University Bloomington)

Television critic Emily Nussbaum is right that “True Detective” Season One contains several plot twists that offer no payoff, and that the first season at least has a big gender problem–decrying the victimization of girls and women while treating all female characters as one-dimensional plot devices and eye-candy–but she is mistaken in her view that the philosophical reflections enunciated by Rust Cohle amount in the end to little more than “hot air.” In this essay, Sandra Shapshay suggest that Cohle’s philosophical ruminations do go somewhere: The profundity of the series lies in its handling of the theme of pessimism, pessimism in light of the great amount of evil in the world, and the variety of reasonable, practical responses to this doctrine.

Sandra Shapshay ‘s areas of specialization include Schopenhauer, Kant, the history of aesthetics and ethics in 19th century Continental philosophy, and bioethics. She is currently working on a book on Schopenhauer’s ethics titled provisionally, “Degrees of Dignity: Schopenhauer’s Ethical Thought.” With Aaron Meskin and Steven Cahn she is also editing the second edition of Blackwell’s “Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology.” Recent publications include “Schopenhauer’s reception of Kant” (Bloomsbury Companion to Kant, 2nd edition. Ed. Dennis Schulting), “Schopenhauer on the Symbiotic Relationship between the Expressive Arts and Philosophy” Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch, “Contemporary Environmental Aesthetics and the Neglect of the Sublime” British Journal of Aesthetics, “The Problem and the Promise of the Sublime” in Suffering Art Gladly ed. Jerrold Levinson (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013), and “Moral and Aesthetic Freedom in Schopenhauer’s Metaphysics” co-authored with Alex Neill, International Yearbook of German Idealism/Internationales Jahrbuch des Deutschen Idealismus, ed. Jürgen Stolzenberg & Fred Rush. She is also the author of the Stanford Encyclopedia Article on  Schopenhauer’s aesthetics .

Article #12: ‘Form & Void’: Why Life Rather Than Death? by Sandra Shapshay (Indiana University Bloomington)

The protagonist of the first season of “True Detective,” Rustin Cohle, calls himself a ‘pessimist’ and embraces suicide in principle. By his own account, he does not kill himself only because he ‘lacks the constitution’ for it. In his pro-attitude toward suicide, Cohle parts ways with one of the most famous pessimists in the history of philosophy, Arthur Schopenhauer, who regarded suicide as a ‘futile and foolish act’. This essay explores the variety of views a pessimist might reasonably take on suicide and how these ultimately hinge on the rationality of hope.

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Cool Story, Bro

By Emily Nussbaum

Judged purely on style, HBO’s “True Detective” is a great show. Every week, it offers up shiver-inducing cable intoxicants, from an over-the-top action sequence so liquid it rivals a Scorsese flick to piquant scenes of rural degradation, filmed on location in Louisiana, a setting that has become a bit of an HBO specialty. (“Treme” and “True Blood” are also set there.)

Like many critics, I was initially charmed by the show’s anthology structure (eight episodes and out; next season a fresh story) and its witty chronology, which chops and dices a serial-killer investigation, using two time lines. In the nineteen-nineties, two detectives, Marty Hart and Rust Cohle (Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey), hunt down a fetishistic murderer, the sort of artsy bastard who tattoos his female victims, then accessorizes them with antlers and scatters cultish tchotchkes at the crime scene. In the contemporary time line, these ex-partners are questioned by two other cops, who suspect that the murders have begun again. If you share my weakness for shows that shuffle time or have tense interrogations—like the late, great “Homicide” or the better seasons of “Damages”—you might be interested to see these methods combined. The modern interviews become a voice-over, which is layered over flashbacks, and the contrast between words and images reveals that our narrators have been cherry-picking details and, at crucial junctures, flat-out lying. So far, so complex.

On the other hand, you might take a close look at the show’s opening credits, which suggest a simpler tale: one about heroic male outlines and closeups of female asses. The more episodes that go by, the more I’m starting to suspect that those asses tell the real story.

This aspect of “True Detective” (which is written by Nic Pizzolatto and directed by Cary Fukunaga) will be gratingly familiar to anyone who has ever watched a new cable drama get acclaimed as “a dark masterpiece”: the slack-jawed teen prostitutes; the strippers gyrating in the background of police work; the flashes of nudity from the designated put-upon wifey character; and much more nudity from the occasional cameo hussy, like Marty’s mistress, whose rack bounces merrily through Episode 2. Don’t get me wrong: I love a nice bouncy rack. And if a show has something smart to say about sex, bring it on. But, after years of watching “Boardwalk Empire,” “Ray Donovan,” “House of Lies,” and so on, I’ve turned prickly, and tired of trying to be, in the novelist Gillian Flynn’s useful phrase, the Cool Girl: a good sport when something smells like macho nonsense. And, frankly, “True Detective” reeks of the stuff. The series, for all its good looks and its movie-star charisma, isn’t just using dorm-room deep talk as a come-on: it has fallen for its own sales pitch.

To state the obvious: while the male detectives of “True Detective” are avenging women and children, and bro-bonding over “crazy pussy,” every live woman they meet is paper-thin. Wives and sluts and daughters—none with any interior life. Instead of an ensemble, “True Detective” has just two characters, the family-man adulterer Marty, who seems like a real and flawed person (and a reasonably interesting asshole, in Harrelson’s strong performance), and Rust, who is a macho fantasy straight out of Carlos Castaneda. A sinewy weirdo with a tragic past, Rust delivers arias of philosophy, a mash-up of Nietzsche, Lovecraft, and the nihilist horror writer Thomas Ligotti. At first, this buddy pairing seems like a funky dialectic: when Rust rants, Marty rolls his eyes. But, six episodes in, I’ve come to suspect that the show is dead serious about this dude. Rust is a heretic with a heart of gold. He’s our fetish object—the cop who keeps digging when everyone ignores the truth, the action hero who rescues children in the midst of violent chaos, the outsider with painful secrets and harsh truths and nice arms. McConaughey gives an exciting performance (in Grantland, Andy Greenwald aptly called him “a rubber band wrapped tight around a razor blade”), but his rap is premium baloney. And everyone around these cops, male or female, is a dark-drama cliché, from the coked-up dealers and the sinister preachers to that curvy corpse in her antlers. “True Detective” has some tangy dialogue (“You are the Michael Jordan of being a son of a bitch”) and it can whip up an ominous atmosphere, rippling with hints of psychedelia, but these strengths finally dissipate, because it’s so solipsistically focussed on the phony duet.

Meanwhile, Marty’s wife, Maggie—played by Michelle Monaghan, she is the only prominent female character on the show—is an utter nothing-burger, all fuming prettiness with zero insides. Stand her next to any other betrayed wife on television—Mellie, on “Scandal”; or Alicia, on “The Good Wife”; or Cersei, on “Game of Thrones”; or even Claire, on “House of Cards”—and Maggie’s an outline, too. Last week, Maggie finally got her own episode, in which she is interrogated by the cops. She lies to them, with noir composure, as the visuals reveal a predictable twist: Maggie had revenge sex with Rust. That sex is filmed as gasp-worthy, though it lasts thirty seconds. We see Monaghan’s butt, plus the thrusting cheeks of McConaughey. Yet the betrayal has no weight, since the love triangle is missing a side. An earlier sex scene is even more absurd, and features still another slice of strange: a lusty, anal-sex-offering, sext-happy ex-hooker. She seduces Marty with her own philosophical sweet nothings (“There is nothing wrong with the way he made us”), and, since she’s a gorgeous unknown, we get to see her ride Harrelson like a bronco, as ceramic angels and devil dolls look on from the dresser.

I’m certain that, if you’re a fan of the series, this analysis irritates you. It’s no fun to be a killjoy, particularly when people are yelling “Best show ever”; it’s the kind of debate that tends to turn both sides into scolds, each accusing the other of being prudes or suckers. A few months ago, a similar debate erupted about Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a film that inspired its advocates to rage that those who didn’t “get it” just needed to get laid. There were more nuanced arguments out there, though: in the Times , A. O. Scott argued that, while the film did a fine job sending up the corruption of the grifter Jordan Belfort, there was little distinction, visually, between Belfort’s misogyny and the film’s own display. Cool girl that I am, I didn’t entirely agree: like “True Detective,” “Wolf” unfolds in flashback, through voice-over, but its outrageous images bend and ripple with Belfort’s mania. With the exception of a few shots—like one of a stewardess, whose assault is treated as a joke in a way that made me twitch—the nudity, however nasty, makes sense.

On “True Detective,” however, we’re not watching the distorted testimony of an addict, punctured by flashes of accidental self-revelation. The scenes we see are supposed to be what really happened. And when a mystery show is about disposable female bodies, and the women in it are eye candy, it’s a drag. Whatever the length of the show’s much admired tracking shot (six minutes, uncut!), it feels less hardboiled than softheaded. Which might be O.K. if “True Detective” were dumb fun, but, good God, it’s not: it’s got so much gravitas it could run for President.

It’s possible that my crankiness derives from having watched so many recent, better crime series, telling similar stories, in far more original ways. Most notable were Jane Campion’s soaring “Top of the Lake,” on Sundance, and Allan Cubitt’s nightmare-inducing BBC series “The Fall.” In “Top of the Lake,” Campion jolts the viewer with actual taboo nudity: she films the saggy bodies of middle-aged women, members of a feminist encampment. Then she stitches this subplot, in which she satirizes the cult of self-help victimhood, onto a small-town mystery about sex crimes against teen-age girls, who are filmed with comparative discretion. A moody, pastoral twist on the rape-and-murder genre, Campion’s mini-series torqued viewer expectations, exploring provocative themes about the way that communities agree to treat these crimes as if they were bad dreams. “True Detective”’s hinted-at mystery seems strikingly similar. The difference is that, while “Top of the Lake” is about survivors, “True Detective” is about witnesses. The acts themselves are mere symbols of the universe’s unspeakable horror.

“The Fall” (which is available on Netflix) has even more conventional nudity than “True Detective.” It, too, tells a story about a team of detectives hunting for a rapist-murderer obsessed with symbolism. It features pervy stalker shots, along with sick-making imagery of female corpses, in bondage, photographed as keepsakes. Some critics called the show “misogynistic torture porn”: by turning viewers on, they point out, it takes a rapist’s-eye view. But this imagery has a sharp purpose. The show reveals the murderer immediately, forcing us to see the world through his eyes. Then, episode by episode, it tears that identification apart. Just like Rust Cohle, “The Fall”’s rapist has an elaborate pseudo-intellectual lingo, full of Nietzsche quotes and talk of primal impulses. But an icy female cop, played by Gillian Anderson, sees through him—and, in the finale, she shreds his pretensions with one smart speech. Anderson aside, “The Fall” overflows with complex female characters, and not merely the killer’s victims but their families, the murderer’s wife, his daughter, and his mistress. Beautiful as “The Fall” looks, it’s harder to watch than “True Detective,” because there is a soul inside each body we ogle. When women suffer, their pain isn’t purely decorative.

“True Detective” isn’t over, of course: like any mystery, it can’t be fully judged before the finale—it might yet complete that mystical time loop Rust keeps ranting about. There are hints of the supernatural, with endless references to the “Yellow King” and the “Lost City of Carcosa”: maybe the show will reveal that it was Cthulhu all along, in the library, with the candlestick. But for now I’m an unbeliever. Bring me some unpretentious pulp, like Cinemax’s “Banshee,” or an intelligent thriller, like FX’s “The Americans,” which is beginning its second season later this month, and actually does have fresh things to say about sex, sin, and the existential slipperiness of human identity. Or, to quote Nietzsche: “Is life not a hundred times too short for us—to bore ourselves?” ♦

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Dante, Redemption, and the Last "True Detective" Essay You Need to Read

Closing the book on the most talked about show of 2014.

Image via Complex Original

Revisit True Detective one last time, armed with Dante and prepared to find heaven and hell.

In the middle of the journey of their lives, two men find themselves in a cane field, where the straight way is lost. One is prone to oracular statements ; the other is dealing with the ramifications of his attraction to younger women . They travel to unexpected places, some spiraling deep underground, and learn just how much evil humanity can create and allow to fester. By the end, they come to a greater understanding of each other and the power of redemption.

This is not to say that Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy holds all the keys to understanding True Detective ; for one, it wasn’t all that hard to understand in the end, and for another, the time for that sort of wild-eyed pronouncement was three long weeks ago. Rather, both the epic poem and the television show are ultimately about how we sin and how we get saved. Dante organized both his Inferno and Purgatorio by categories of sin, which seems redundant until you realize that it’s one of the most important aspects of the whole epic poem. Hell is for the unrepentant; Purgatory is for sinners who are willing to be redeemed by suffering. Within each, souls exist in circles and terraces specific to their most important crimes against humanity and God.

Initially, Rust and Marty’s primary sins are pride and lust, respectively, which are also Dante’s big two. (Wrath is up there as well.) While Rust doesn’t much acknowledge his shortcomings, Marty categorizes himself in 2012 as a sinner of inattention. It isn’t one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but it underlies several of them; more important, his admission is the first step towards redemption.

For the unredeemable in both the poem and the show, the worst sins are those of treachery and betrayal:

Treachery Against Family

Treachery Against the State

Treachery Against God

While Dante’s entire medieval Catholic concept of sin hinges on individual free will, True Detective ’s is a murkier, more complicated notion that “sort of pump[s] into a much larger system,” as director Cary Fukunaga put it in a recent interview . People may “always have a choice,” as Rust says in the final episode, but those choices are shaped by structures that may be invisible to them. The bad men who keep other bad men from the door are part of those structures as well, and it isn’t always as simple as doing what’s right or virtuous. Reggie Ledoux deserved to have his head blown half off, even if it did complicate the case something awful, and Joel Theriot tried to do what was right regarding those pictures but may have just driven the Tuttles into further secrecy. While Dante has faith that the problem with human structures—the Church, Florentine politics, and families—can be addressed by purging them of their sinful elements, Rust and Marty are some of those sinful elements.

Unlike most other detectives in crime fiction, they redeem themselves not by solving the crime and making up for their previous shortcomings with loved ones by proxy (hi, Mikael Blomkvist!) but by their actions along the way. Both Marty and Rust have learned by increasingly painful experience that they cannot go it alone. In life and in detective work, they need one another, as partners and friends. Granted, it took them seventeen years to figure it out, but given that a medieval Spanish theologian once calculated the average stay in Purgatory to be a thousand to two thousand years, they aren’t doing so badly overall.

“…the one supported the other with his shoulder,” Purgatorio, Canto XIII, line 59

But as with Dante’s repentant sinners in Purgatory, there are sacrifices that must be made. Marty may be reconciled with his family, but Mr. Sawyer still dropped them off at his hospital door, and goddamn but that’s a big rock Maggie’s sporting there. ( One last wedding ring shot!  Dreadful shortage of dick references, though.) Rust has poured fifteen years of his life, what little sobriety he may have ever had, and nearly all of the blood in his body into this case, but his father and daughter are still dead. Despite all my snarking at the midpoint of the show, he has indeed reintegrated into domesticity, but only through a near-death experience. He hasn’t found God—this is a determinedly realistic show, despite all the occult hints that got the Internet going like Beth on bourbon at the Fox and Hound—but he has done something almost as unbelievable: remembered what it was to love. The potential for sappiness was vast, as even this unsentimental empiricist would ordinarily be more likely to interpret Rust’s epiphany as boring ol’ hypoxia. Nevertheless, I bought it because Rust did (and because McConaughey sold it so perfectly)

“As a cross-bow shot with too great a strain breaks the cord and bow and the shaft touches the mark with less force, so I broke down under that heavy charge, pouring forth tears and sighs, and my voice failed in its passage,” Purgatorio, Canto XXXI, lines 16-21

An essential part of Dante’s concept of salvation is that it can come through earthly love and passion, which has the unfortunate side effect of turning his muse Beatrice into a woman who exists solely to improve the life of a man, either as an artistic inspiration or as a heavenly travel guide. Plenty of critics complained about True Detective doing something similar with wives, daughters, and murder victims, but the finale provided an unexpected angle. Rust found not only his daughter Sophia in that warm place, but his father as well. Given all the show’s pointed criticisms of failed fatherhood and Rust’s own earlier comments about the two of them “not really liking each other,” the notion that his pop would be a source of reassurance and comfort was at least as much of a twist as, say, Audrey being the Yellow King.

In the end, both the Divine Comedy and True Detective are getting at the same basic truth, which is that the only way to combat the darkness within ourselves is to form connections with one another. It may not be as exciting as analyzing the depravity that human beings are capable of, which is why everyone reads the Inferno and hardly anyone gets through the Paradiso (well, that and medieval religious philosophy about virtue doesn’t age very well). It may not be the real reason why people pay for premium cable, either. But it’s true, and it’s been true for seven hundred years and more, and it’s at the core of some of humanity’s greatest art.

Oh, yeah, and the last word in each of the three parts of the Divine Comedy ? “Stelle,” or “stars.”

[ Ed. Note—All Dante quotes are from the John D. Sinclair translation. ]

La Donna Pietra ( @ladonnapietra ) is a Duke City denizen with opinions about pop culture, gender, and ice cream.

RELATED:  Pictures of You:  True Detective  and the Dilemma of the Dead Woman's Photo RELATED:   Doing the Job: How  True Detective  Is Screwing With Buddy Cop Cliches RELATED : Dick Measuring Contest: Talking About the Season Finale of True Detective 

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Watch: Lessons from 'True Detective' on How to Write a Character-Driven Plot

Focusing on a character's struggle to obtain their desire will give you a more organic story..

On its face, the first season of True Detective didn’t have many elements that really separated it from the typical buddy cop story. Two cops, riding around in a car, sometimes disagreeing and hunting down a mysterious serial killer certainly doesn’t qualify as re-inventing the game. So why exactly is the series so memorable?

In Daniel Netzel’s latest video essay for Film Radar , he argues that it's the excellent character development which makes the season feel so fresh. It serves as a masterclass on how to write complex characters.

One question Nic Pizzolatto  would ask himself when writing the season was, “Wait a minute, is this just people walking around trading information? Or is it people living with each other or against each other?” A writer should be focused on character motivation and not aesthetic qualities. The reverse often leads to mind-numbing exposition.

Screenwriting teacher John Truby says, “The mark of a really good storyteller is that plot comes from character. You create a goal for your hero which will eventually force that person to deal with their deep weakness. If you do that, the plot comes from the deep source of the character and you’ve told a great story.”

So how do you write a plot that comes from the character? Aaron Sorkin is famous for his advocacy of “Intention & Obstacle,” or in other words, somebody wants something but something is standing in their way of getting it. In True Detective , this shows up in a number of different ways:

• Assumed Intention: Characters can misunderstand each other’s intentions, which presents an obstacle.
• Intentions Become Obstacle: One character’s intentions become the obstacles of another.
• Fundamental Character Flaws: A character’s personality just won’t let them resist an obstacle that will undoubtedly throw off their intention.

Every character has an intention in every scene of True Detective , which is what makes them so compelling. In the same sense, all plot progression should come from motivation and action.

This way, you’ll keep the audience on their toes, wondering if these characters will ever overcome their flaws to reach their intention. You certainly don’t want the outcome of their journey to be obvious from the get-go. By putting them in situations where they have to make a choice between their obstacle and their intention, the plot will just progress organically from the point of their decision.

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McConaughey Reveals the Four Stages of ‘True Detective’ Rustin Cohle

By Jonathan Ringen

Jonathan Ringen

When Matthew McConaughey was preparing for the psychedelically complex character he plays in HBO’s twisted, acclaimed True Detective  (the final episode airs on Sunday), he made a monster document to help him find his way. The show spans 17 years, during which time Rustin “Rust” Cohle variously exists as a sober, hyperanalytical homicide detective, a coke-and-meth-fueled undercover agent he calls “Crash” and a troubled, alcoholic ex-cop. “I just basically broke it down and made a 450-page graph of where Cohle was and where he was coming from,” McConaughey says, flipping through the document until he gets to part he’s looking for.

The Dark Thrills of ‘True Detective’

Here, in McConaughey’s own words, are the “Four Stages of Rustin Cohle”:

1995 Cohle “Back to being a part of the body. He’s coming off of years being Crash. He’s trying to walk the line. Monk-like. Trying to hold it together. And that’s a lot easier with less interaction with others. There’s a mechanical side to him. He needs the regimen of the homicide detective. He needs the case to actually survive. One, because he’s great at it. And two, because it’s going to keep him from killing himself.” 

Crash “He’s our deep, narco wild-ass. A guy who goes all the way. This is where Cohle has all the freedom. He can go over the edge as this guy. And inside, he loves the life of Crash even more, because the shackles are off of him. He knows he may die sooner living this life, but there’s a freedom and peace in that knowledge for him.”

2002 Cohle “A little looser mix of Crash and the ’95 Cohle. A guy who’s made his boundaries clear and has to mark less territory, so he’s relaxed into his way in the world. But the case is still his lifeline. He has some small hope that there’s going to be a way out of his being and pain and criticism, so he makes an effort into domesticity, a la the girlfriend. Only to prove that he was not made for it, and there is no way out. So what does he do? He resigns to his nature, once again.”

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  2012 Cohle. “This guy lived longer than he hoped. Fallen prey to his own beliefs. More cynical, angrier, he’s had to endure the existence of this shitstorm called life. A little ragged, more rough edges, living in a place where he can manage himself. Not too close. He’s not in the CID. But he’s not in Alaska. He’s a guy who’s resigned to his indentured servitude of being alive. But he despises the sentence and the penance. He will not accept defeat. He’s not going become a madman, he’s not going to kill himself. He wrestles the devil every day, and he realizes that this may last a lot longer than he ever hoped for.”

Read Our Full Q&A With True Detective’s Matthew McConaughey

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How ‘True Detective’ and ‘Se7en’ Find Optimism in the Gruesome World of Serial Killers — Watch

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Ask anyone what the best serial killer movies or television shows are and you’re bound to hear both “ Se7en ” and “ True Detective ” named several times. The reason why is the subject of the latest video essay from “Lessons From the Screenplay,” which brings together David Fincher ‘s classic movie and season one of Nic Pizzolato’s “True Detective” for a deep dive into the battle between light and darkness.

READ MORE: ‘True Detective’ Season 3 Might Happen After All — and David Milch Is Helping

“‘True Detective’ and ‘Se7en’ share a number of similarities,” the essay begins. “They both feature an investigation into a disturbing series of murders. They both bring their characters and the audience face to face with the worst horror imaginable. And they both have themes that are ultimately optimistic in nature.”

You may not think “optimism” when you hear “True Detective” or “Se7en,” but it’s an integral theme that bounds these serial killer tales together, most evident in the way Pizzolato and “Se7en” writer Andrew Kevin Walker develop their characters. As the protagonists are forced to confront the darkest depths of the human condition, their own journeys back to the light become the driving forces of the narrative. Watch the 17-minute video essay in its entirety below.

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True Detective's Matthew McConaughey Wrote A 450-Page Character Analysis

Most fans of "True Detective" will agree that season 1 was a high point for Nic Pizzolatto's crime drama. The fastidious show creator and writer maintained tight control over the series for its first three seasons, which often caused problems for the directors — especially Cary Fukunaga . For "True Detective" season 4 , Pizzolatto handed the reins to "Tigers Are Not Afraid" director Issa López, who can hopefully return the series to the standard established by its brilliant inaugural season.

That's going to be a tough feat. Season 1 of "True Detective" had so much going for it, it's hard to see how it could be matched, let alone bested. The eight episodes were helped tremendously by two career-best performances from leading men Woody Harrelson as Detective Marty Hart, and Matthew McConaughey as Detective Rust Cohle. Alongside some of the most layered yet consistently compelling storytelling seen in the age of the prestige drama, these performances helped elevate the show beyond your typical crime procedural, culminating in a thoughtful exploration of weighty philosophical topics and deep moral questions.

When it came to the brilliant-yet-troubled Rust, McConaughey faced a big challenge, not only in the sense that the man was a complex character but due to the almost two-decade-spanning scope of the show itself. The first season of "True Detective" takes place over the course of 17 years, with Rust transforming dramatically during that time span from a devoted detective to a burnout alcoholic seemingly chasing conspiracy theories. Plagued by alcoholism in the wake of his daughter's death and his resulting divorce, and burdened with a curious and brilliant mind, Rust presented an enticing challenge for McConaughey, who took some unorthodox steps to prepare.

Breaking down Rust

"True Detective" season 1 had so much working in its favor, and the lead performances were a big part of its success. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, who'll soon be reuniting for an Apple TV+ comedy series in which they play themselves , had an undeniable chemistry despite their characters' seemingly opposed personalities. Marty Hart was an everyman cop and family man, with an unfortunate penchant for cheating on his wife. Rust Cohle on the other hand, was a much more complex character, as McConaughey discovered during his prep for the show.

In a 2016 interview  on "The Rich Eisen Show," the actor revealed how he'd actually been approached to play Marty, but asked to play Rust after reading the script, claiming the character was "arresting [him] every time [he] read something that comes out of his mouth." Once he'd secured the role, McConaughey took a meticulous approach to his preparation, particularly in relation to the scenes in the interrogation room, which within the "True Detective" timeline, occur much later on. According to the actor, he broke down the 28 pages of script for those scenes into "seven different bubbles," which helped him "understand the dialogue" before further reducing the writing into smaller "pods." According to the Oscar-winner, this helped him comprehend the long monologues Nic Pizzolatto had written for his character. And his meticulous approach didn't stop there.

The actor told Rolling Stone  in 2014 that he made a "450-page graph of where Cohle was and where he was coming from." Unlike the diary Heath Ledger kept while preparing for his role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," McConaughey's document was surprisingly organized, with the actor breaking down Rust's character development into four eras.

The stages of Rust Cohle

Matthew McConaughey explained to Rolling Stone  how the "four stages of Rust Cohle" began with "1995 Cohle" — the earliest version of the character in the show. This era comes after Rust has spent years as an undercover agent known as "Crash," and sees the homicide detective team up with Woody Harrelson's Marty as they both work the case that eventually bonds them for life. As McConaughey saw it, at this point his character is "trying to walk the line," and needs the regimen of a homicide detective career. "He needs the case to actually survive," he explained. "One, because he's great at it. And two, because it's going to keep him from killing himself."

But, as anyone who remembers that incredible six-minute oner from episode 4 will remember, "1995 Rust" is soon forced to return to his Crash persona to infiltrate a biker gang tied to the central mystery. For McConaughey, this Rust was a "deep, narco wild-ass," who provides an excuse to "go over the edge" — something he's clearly holding himself back from prior to resuming his undercover persona. McConaughey described this version of Rust as someone who "knows he may die sooner living this life, but there's a freedom and peace in that knowledge for him."

Then, there's a less memorable but just as important iteration of Rust that comes in the form of "2002 Cohle." This Rust had found a girlfriend and, according to McConaughey, "relaxed into his way in the world," even while he still maintains a drive to solve the ongoing case he and Marty seemingly closed years before. But as the actor himself shrewdly noted, this version of Rust is only important insofar as it proves he's not cut out for the comfort of domestic life.

The final stage

That left one more stage of Rust Cohle to map out. This version is easily the most memed, thanks to his, "Time is a flat circle," line. "This guy lived longer than he hoped," the actor explained. "Fallen prey to his own beliefs. More cynical, angrier, he's had to endure the existence of this s***storm called life."

What's interesting about this Rust is that while he may appear to be the most cynical, he actually delivers one of the most uplifting lines of the whole season. Towards the end as he and Marty discuss "light versus dark" while pondering the star-filled night sky, Rust remarks, "Well, once there was only dark. You ask me, the light's winning." Matthew McConaughey seemingly recognized this vestige of optimism within Rust. As he told Rolling Stone , the "2012 Rust" is someone who "will not accept defeat," and who's "not going become a madman, he's not going to kill himself" — a genuine example of his character development considering he started as a cop who needed the structure of detective work to keep him from doing just that.

That final line delivery, where Rust uses the night sky as a metaphor for the light winning over darkness, not only tops off one of the best episodes of "True Detective," it's a tastefully positive way to end a run of eight episodes that, up until that point, had been concerned with some decidedly grim subject matter. McConaughey seemingly recognized the fight left in his character, even after enduring all that darkness and making it out to the other side, and the performance was all the better for it. While it may seem a little over the top to create a 450-page journal and get as analytical as McConaughey did, you can't argue with the results.

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True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series Hardcover – December 6, 2017

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• Print length 214 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Lexington Books
• Publication date December 6, 2017
• Dimensions 6.31 x 0.79 x 9.35 inches
• ISBN-10 1498566944
• ISBN-13 978-1498566940
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lexington Books (December 6, 2017)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 214 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1498566944
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1498566940
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.31 x 0.79 x 9.35 inches
• #510 in TV Shows
• #1,132 in Genre Films
• #2,482 in Communication & Media Studies

About the author

Michael samuel.

Michael Samuel is a writer and Lecturer at the University of Bristol. He is the writer of Popular Factual Heritage Television and co-editor of Streaming and Screen Cultures in the Asia-Pacific and True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series.

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12 Great Shows Like HBO’s True Detective And How To Watch Them

W hile one’s mileage may vary when it does to each season as a whole, HBO’s True Detective is undoubtedly one of TV’s most talked about shows when it’s airing, and that first season with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson will likely forever be viewed as a Peak TV gem. With the fourth season, subtitled Night Country , having resolved its Alaska-set murders early in 2024 ahead of the Season 5 renewal , the wait is on to see where showrunner Issa López takes the dark and occult-ish series next. 

But that doesn’t mean TV audiences have to completely miss out on intense murder mysteries, attention-grabbing investigators, and all the string-covered suspect boards one can handle. Here are more than a dozen TV shows that are like True Detective enough to warrant watching an episode or two to test the waters.

When it comes to brainy and quirky anthology series that keep audiences on their toes, True Detective shares common ground with the film-to-TV transition of Noah Hawley’s Fargo . And I don’t mean the snowy ground seen in the FX drama’s midwestern settings. Of course, Fargo works on a slightly different wavelength than the hyper-serious HBO series, incorporating far more dark and offbeat comedy into its crime-filled plots, while also utilizing star-studded ensemble casts, as opposed to focusing so squarely on a central pair of detectives. Not to mention featuring flashbacks that go back further into the past than the timeline shifts in T.D.

Stream Fargo Seasons 1-5 on Hulu.

The Missing

The two-season series The Missing , as well as the Tchéky Karyo-starring spinoff Baptiste , take a step back from murder investigations to focus on cases involving missing children, and are thus that much more emotionally charged in such ways. With James Nesbitt and Frances O’Connor leading the first, and David Morrissey and Keeley Hawes taking over for Season 2, The Missing is as gripping and shocking as it is disturbing, and tells slightly more personal stories than the HBO Emmy winner. That said, it would be amazing if Tchéky Karyo’s crime solver Baptiste was somehow able to crossover into the True Detective -verse. 

Stream The Missing Seasons 1-2 on Starz.

The Outsider

Stephen King miniseries used to be a TV mainstay, but recent years have given way to longer limited series that better suit the loquacious author’s storytelling. HBO delivered a doozy with The Outsider , based on King’s 2018 novel. Starring Ben Mendehlson, Mare Winningham and Paddy Considine, among others, The Outsider runs largely parallel to True Detective ’s more occult-embracing nature, in that this horror tale actually does go full-on into supernatural territory, rather than keeping its most bonkers moments steeped in mystery. It only helps that it was created by novelist Richard Price, with the also esteemed author Dennis Lehane as part of the writing staff. 

Stream The Outsider’s lone season on Max.

Only Murders In The Building

Not everything about figuring out homicides has to be 100% dour and depraved, and Only Murders in the Building is easily one of the breeziest whodunnits imaginable, led by the comedic talents of stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, with a slew of other actors making their way through the Arconia apartment building that seems to attract corpses like a magnet. (What other shows here can boast guest stars like Sting, Shirley MacLaine and Mel Brooks?) The resolutions to Only Murders ’ investigations aren’t quite as vital for the narrative’s sense of worth in the way it goes with True Detective , given all the comedy. But the plethora of clues, red herrings and gotcha moments definitely spice things up.

Stream Only Murders in the Building Seasons 1-3 on Hulu.

One of TV”s marquee serial killer TV shows, at least for most of its TV run, Showtime’s Dexter takes a different approach to corpse-filled investigations in the sense that its main character, as portrayed with self-narrating stoicism by Michael C. Hall, is both a respected Miami police officer (with an expertise in blood spatter) and a vigilante of sorts. Dexter Morgan is no angel in any respect as he attempts to rid the city of evil murderers and villains the only way he knows how: by murdering them himself. Though the show initially wrapped with one of the worst final seasons and series finales of all time, Hall’s Dark Passenger was redeemed in part by the one-and-done revival season Dexter: New Blood . 

Stream Dexter Seasons 1-8 and the New Blood revival on Paramount+.

Based on the 1995 book of the same name written by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Mindhunter shares a similarly studious approach to investigations with True Detective , albeit while focusing on cases that actually happened in real life. With acclaimed filmmaker David Fincher as one of its creative forces, Mindhunter centers on a trio of brainiacs in FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Trench (Holt McCallany) and psychology professor Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), with such killers as Cameron Britton’s Ed Kemper, Jack Erdie’s Richard Speck and Oliver Cooper’s David Berkowitz among the many killers whose infamous crimes were showcased. Unfortunately, while HBO has kept the door open for more of its mystery thriller after each season, Netflix won’t foot the bill for Mindhunter Season 3.

Stream Mindhunter Seasons 1-2 on Netflix.

Anyone aiming to watch a gripping mystery would be remiss to skip over the most famous detective who’s ever existed (at least in a fictional sense): Sherlock Holmes. While a countless number of series, specials and films have been crafted over the years, arguably the crown jewel belongs to Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ Sherlock , with Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular brainiac and Martin Freeman as his equally adept sidekick Watson. To date, four three-part (three-case) seasons have aired, and though hopes for a fifth season have gone unheeded so far, fans will no doubt continue hoping for a return to 221B Baker Street. 

Stream Sherlock Seasons 1-4 on BritBox.

Mare Of Easttown

Obviously not all of HBO’s prestige mystery dramas are the exact same, but viewers can take assured comfort in knowing that most are of an equal level of quality. Such as it goes with the single season of Mare of Easttown , with Kate Winslet earning an Emmy as the titular Pennsylvania detective who tries to keep her personal and professional life afloat after the death of her son, while investigating the questionable murder of a young local woman. With excellent performances from co-stars like Jean Smart, Evan Peters and Julianne Nicholson, Mare of Easttown digs into the mindsets that creep through smaller communities, taking a more localized approach to the murder-mystery genre.

Stream Mare of Easttown’s lone season on Max.

The Woman In The Wall

A flip from the usual investigative narrative, The Woman in the Wall features Ruth Wilson as Lorna Brady, an Irish woman whose life is upended after she finds another woman’s dead body inside her home. In trying to figure out what happened, the show travels back in time to Lorna’s past, where some of her sleepwalking-sparking traumas took place, specifically how it all relates to the country’s notorious Magdalene “laundries,” which were essentially prison-esque workhouses for impoverished females and sex workers. Its dark and brooding nature, mixed with the mysteries and timeline shifts, make it a great watch for True Detective fans.

Stream The Woman in the Wall on Paramount+ with Showtime.

Broadchurch

Those Brits really know how to turn on the emotionally debilitating plot points when putting together its mystery-driven crime dramas, and Broadchurch is no exception. Starring the always excellent duo of David Tennant and Olivia Colman as its core detectives, the series revolves around the death of an 11-year-old boy, and the negative effects it has on the surrounding community, in part due to all the media attention. Though the second season’s court case and third season’s rape investigation are solid enough, it’s that first season’s heavy whodunnit tale that feels the most like a True Detective installment.

Stream Broadchurch on Plex (as well as on Tubi and PBS Passport ).

The Afterparty

One of the most intriguingly crafted murder-mysteries is easily Apple TV+’s genre-hopping comedy The Afterparty , co-created by the superb duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller of LEGO Movie and Clone High royalty. Across its two seasons — led by stars Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson and Zoë Chao — The Afterparty centered on deadly events that took place after a high school reunion (Season 1) and after a billionaire’s wedding (Season 2). Unlike True Detective , this show features wacky comedy, musical moments, animation, themed episodes and more unique details, while also still managing to deliver pulp-style murders and explanations. 

Stream The Afterparty Seasons 1-2 on Apple TV+.

It’s rather impossible to voice the words “kinda weird murder mystery” without immediately thinking about David Lynch and Mark Frost’s seminal and relatively short-lived phenomenon Twin Peaks . Like True Detective , the Kyle McLachlan-starring drama gets a lot of its personality from its setting, the Pacific Northwest, and the details surrounding the main case. For Twin Peaks , the core mystery surrounded the death of Laura Palmer, portrayed by Sheryl Lee, but tied back into deeper and darker characters and events that I’m sure True Detective ’s Tuttle family would voluntarily get mixed up in. Though the network-forced resolution midway through Season 2 doomed its initial network run, this twisted universe returned anew 26 years later for Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return .

Stream Twin Peaks Seasons 1-2 and Twin Peaks: The Return on Paramount+

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Horrifying video shows moment cement truck hits school bus full of pre-k kids as driver allegedly admits he had coke, pot before fatal wreck.

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The cement truck driver who allegedly killed two people when he barreled into a school bus carrying 40 preschoolers back from a field trip in Texas admitted to consuming cocaine and marijuana before getting behind the wheel.

Newly released dashcam footage of the tragedy also apparently caught Jerry Hernandez in a lie — the video showed no broken-down vehicle in front of his cement truck that forced him to swerve into oncoming traffic and collide with the bus.

The terrifying footage, taken from inside the Hays Consolidated Independent School District bus, shows the cement truck suddenly veer over the double yellow lines on a rural highway outside Austin.

The truck hit the bus on its side with enough force that it rolled across the pavement, sending a flurry of papers across the road.

The roof of the bus can be seen crumpling to the ground as bystanders rush to rescue the young victims.

The entire crash happened in less than 10 seconds.

The March 22 collision killed 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, who was on the bus, and Ryan Wallace, 33, a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin, who was driving another vehicle hit by the cement truck.

Hernandez, 42, was arrested Friday and charged with criminally negligent homicide, Sgt. Deon Cockrell of the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

While in the hospital, he told officers he had smoked marijuana the night before the crash, according to court documents obtained by KVUE.

He also allegedly admitted to consuming cocaine at 1 a.m. after sleeping only three hours.

Hernandez claimed he was forced to make the sudden swerve to avoid a vehicle that broke down suddenly in front of him — but the dashcam footage shows only a clear path in front of the cement truck’s lane.

The school bus was filled with 40 pre-schoolers from Tom Green Elementary School in Buda and 11 adults who were returning from a field trip to the zoo.

Four people were airlifted from the crash site in critical condition, and six more with serious injuries were taken by ambulance to hospitals.

The school district said the bus did not have seat belts.

If convicted, Hernandez could be handed a prison sentence of two years and a fine up to $10,000.

With Post wires

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Stream These 12 Movies Before They Leave Netflix in April

A Ryan Gosling detective comedy, a Formula One racing drama and the romantic musical “Mamma Mia!” are among the movies exiting the streaming service.

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By Jason Bailey

Fast cars, jazz drummers, time travelers, bounty hunters — you’ll find everything but the kitchen sink in this month’s roundup of noteworthy titles leaving Netflix in the United States. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)

‘The Nice Guys’ (April 8)

Stream it here .

Ryan Gosling is having a bit of a moment — he may not have won the Oscar for best supporting actor, but he won the Oscars telecast for his performance of “I’m Just Ken” — and those who prefer the intense actor in his loosey-goosey comic mode would be wise to check out this 2016 comedy-mystery. Gosling stars as a bumbling private detective who teams up with a bone-breaker-for-hire (an uproariously gregarious Russell Crowe) to solve a convoluted missing person case. The co-writer and director is Shane Black, who helped popularize the buddy-action comedy with his “Lethal Weapon” screenplay, and subsequently perfected it here and in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” Keep an eye out for the up-and-comers Angourie Rice (“Mean Girls”) and Margaret Qualley (“Drive Away Dolls”) in supporting roles.

‘Rush’ (April 15)

Ron Howard spent a fair amount of his youth appearing in vroom-vroom car movies like “American Graffiti,” “Eat My Dust” and “Grand Theft Auto” — the latter marking his feature directorial debut — so it’s not surprising that he was drawn to this thrilling dramatization of the mid-70s glory days of Formula One racing. He tells the story of a rivalry between two of the sport’s stars: James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl), a study in contrasts, the matinee idol and the ugly duckling, the party boy and the teetotaler. The nuanced screenplay by Peter Morgan (who penned Howard’s earlier “Frost/Nixon,” and would go on to create “The Crown”) mines the complexities of their relationship, while the thrilling race sequences effectively place us in the driver’s seat through the hairiest moments of trading paint.

‘Synchronic’ (April 15)

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead make brainy sci-fi pictures, small-scale indie movies like “The Endless” and “Something in the Dirt” that traffic in ideas over special effects. This 2019 effort was the closest they’ve come to a play for the cinematic mainstream, casting Marvel mainstay Anthony Mackie and “Fifty Shades” star Jamie Dornan in the leading roles. But their signature style and thematic occupations remain thankfully intact in this tale of two New Orleans paramedics who discover the mind-bending effects of a new designer drug. The central conceit is ingenious, but the filmmakers don’t just rely on its cleverness; there are genuine, human stakes, and the payoff is refreshingly poignant.

‘The Hateful Eight’ (April 24)

Quentin Tarantino followed “Django Unchained” by again riffing on the venerable Western genre, this time by crossing it with the Agatha Christie-style “locked room” mystery. He populates his story, of a poisoning in a tucked-away haberdashery during a deadly blizzard in the post-Civil War West, with faces familiar from his previous films, including Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen; they’re joined by an Oscar-nominated Jennifer Jason Leigh, in a particularly foul-mouthed and ill-tempered mood. Tempers flare, blood is shed and vulgarities fly in typical Tarantino fashion, but in its unflinching portraiture of the racial hostilities of a splintered country, the work is by no means exclusive to its period setting. (Also leaving on April 24: the Netflix-exclusive “ The Hateful Eight Extended Version ,” which adds footage and breaks the film up into four one-hour episodes.)

‘Malignant’ (April 26)

James Wan started out directing bone-crunching horror pictures like “Saw,” “Insidious” and “The Conjuring” before going mainstream with “Furious 7,” “Aquaman” and its sequel. Between those two superhero flicks, he directed this gloriously unhinged, go-for-broke horror thriller, in which a young woman (Annabelle Wallis) is haunted by visions of grisly murders — visions that prove to be true, and suggest some sort of a psychic link to the brutal killer. If that sounds slightly peculiar, boy, just you wait . The screenplay by “M3GAN” writer Akela Cooper (with story assists from Wan and Ingrid Bisu) is an admirably unrestrained trip into the genre’s wilder corners, full of inventive kills, bananas story turns and cuckoo supporting characters, all rendered in a baroque, hurdy-gurdy visual style.

‘13 Going on 30’ (April 30)

Just in time for its 20th anniversary on April 23, this likably goofy and endlessly charming romantic comedy is, essentially, a gender-swapped remake of the beloved “Big,” this time with Jennifer Garner as a 13-year-old whose birthday wish to be “30 and flirty and thriving” unexpectedly comes true. Garner is warm and endearing, a loose-limbed wonder at capturing the awkward gawkiness of a teen trapped in an ill-fitting body, while recent Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo finds just the right mixture of confusion and sweetness as her childhood friend who’s become quite the babe.

‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ (April 30)

Fannie Flagg’s best-selling book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe” got the big-screen treatment in 1991, via director Jon Avnet (“Up Close and Personal”). It tells two stories: Kathy Bates is a housewife who finds escape from her unsatisfying life in the stories a nursing home resident (Jessica Tandy) tells her about her hometown; Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson are among the residents whose yarns she spins. Some of the edges of Flagg’s book have been sanded down to make this cozy sweater of an adaptation, which is regrettable — but as it stands, it’s a lovely film, capably crafted and poignantly played.

‘Twins’ / ‘Kindergarten Cop’ (April 30)

Stream ‘Twins’ here and ‘Kindergarten Cop’ here .

Arnold Schwarzenegger may have put on a stone-faced persona for his breakthrough role in “The Terminator,” but there was always a sly sense of humor to his performances in even his most serious action movies. So it wasn’t a huge stretch when he teamed with “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman to make his first starring comedy, 1988’s “Twins,” alongside Danny DeVito — a broad and sometimes obvious high-concept giggle-fest that is carried considerably by the charisma and chemistry of its leads. It was such a big hit that Schwarzenegger and Reitman re-teamed two years later for “Kindergarten Cop,” which found the star pointedly sending up his own tough-guy image as a bruiser of a big-city cop who goes undercover in a suburban grade school.

‘Mamma Mia!’ / ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’ (April 30)

Stream ‘Mamma Mia!’ here and ‘Here We Go Again’ here .

The long-running Broadway jukebox musical , featuring the zippy music of the ’70s pop group Abba, was something of a punchline for New Yorkers, a go-to example of how far the Great White Way had gone in its relentless pursuit of tourist dollars. But the 2008 film adaptation (directed, as the stage production was, by Phyllida Lloyd) is altogether irresistible, offering up the peculiar but undeniable pleasure of heavyweight thespians like Meryl Streep, Stellan Skarsgard and Amanda Seyfried indulging in their inner theater kid. It was such a hit that most of the major players returned a decade later for “Here We Go Again” — and while it doesn’t quite match the frothy pleasures of the original, it does add Cher, and that’s not nothing.

‘Whiplash’ (April 30)

The “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle’s breakthrough feature was this 2014 hybrid of sports movie and musical melodrama, in which a young jazz drummer (Miles Teller) at a Juilliard-inspired music school comes under the tutelage — or, perhaps, the thumb — of a tough-as-nails professor and conductor (J.K. Simmons). It’s a complicated tale, working within an established milieu while simultaneously interrogating it, and grappling with the implications of time-told tales of the sacrifices one must make in pursuit of excellence. Teller is an ideal anchor for such a story, projecting a mixture of both arrogance and uncertainty, and Simmons deservedly won an Oscar for his nightmare-fuel performance as the merciless mentor.

ALSO LEAVING: ‘ Marshall ’ (April 7); ‘ The Zookeeper’s Wife ’ (April 15); ‘ Train to Busan ’ (April 22); ‘ Apollo 13 ,’ ‘ Elvis ,’ ‘ Erin Brockovich ,’ ‘ Joker ,’ ‘ Jurassic Park ,’ ‘ Silver Linings Playbook ,’ ‘ Step Brothers ’ (April 30).

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