More True Detective? Looking back on one of the finest series to hit TV, fans of True Detective will be hoping the fourth season can match the first for sheer spectacle.





Nearly ten years have passed since Rusty Cohle (Matthew McConaughey), Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) and this fascinating chapter of True Detective tied up their story arcs (or have they?). 

Yet, the characters, scenes, and scenarios have replayed over and over again in our memories like flat circles. 2014 was a great year for crime TV. With shows like FX's Fargo and AMC's Breaking Bad in the year's lineup, True Detective was in elite company and the anthology crime drama series had an [almost] instant cultural impact. 

Written by Nic Pizolatto, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, and shot on 35mm film by the director of photography; Adam Arkapaw, the series featured story structure, cinematography and acting performances unlike any we'd ever seen before. Not to mention T Bone Burnett's theme score which goes straight into the Hall Of Fame of TV soundtracks (Far From Any Road by The Handsome Family) and we're even treated to cameos on the aesthetics of beercan-art. True Detective may yet return with another whole new cast and story for its fourth season in keeping with its consistent inconsistency, but right now let's dig into the not-too-recent past and recall the best moments we remember with some nostalgia.




An Intro Into... 



Soundtracking genius. The intro and the rest of the soundtrack selected by T Bone Burnett are full of understanding. Understanding the context of pivotal scenes and understanding our inner feelings and reactions to unfolding events.  The New Mexico band, The Handsome Family's 2003 track "Far From Any Road" was unearthed for the intro, and to the end of  the show we hear memorable sounds from artists like Vashti Bunyan, Grinderman, The Black Angels and various other performances, all cued in at the right moments to evoke the right emotions.

Perhaps, the best example of True Detective's scoring genius, is when "Are You Alright" by Lucinda Williams backs a montage that features a syringe full of cayenne pepper injected into the skin to simulate track marks on a drug addict and stealing coke from the police department's evidence locker. Kudos to T Bone.

The Long Bright Dark.


The opening shot has become one of the most iconic of all time. In the middle of the night, a silhouetted figure creeps through the bushes dragging an inconspicuous object in tow.  The next morning, the bushes are burned and in a clearing under a large tree, a dead body is found. This sets the stage for a sequence of events that spans decades and transports viewers from the jaws of the Atlantic Ocean, to Carcosa. Intrigues unfold from locker rooms to the Governor's house and across the U.S. south coast; all through the eyes of different characters. One shot that sticks is when "The Taxman" arrives at the crime scene and begins to draw a sketch of the victim. No one else sees what he's doing except us and we get the ominous hint.


The Shotgun Monologues. 


The thinking man in Marty struggles to come to terms with the beliefs of his religious side. His conviction in the existence of an almighty and just God wobbles dangerously in light of the inexplicable cruelty and evil in the world, even in his backwater beat of Erath, Louisiana where nothing supposedly happens. This internal battle eventually spills out in a question to his partner: "You're a Christian yeah?" 



How could anyone dare not be Christian, out there in the desolation of the Louisiana country, swampy and eaten up by the Atlantic? 

Rust's tendency to go on deadpan monologues denouncing existence vis-à-vis religion is unparalleled in contemporary TV.  As though he were talking about the weather, he would declare: "I think human existence was a mistake in evolution." or "no one here is going to split the atom,". As serious as the show is, one of the most hilarious exchanges takes place in “The Locked Room” when Marty and Rust visit a travelling church. As the pastor huffs and puffs, Rust’s dislike of religion and impatience for the “stupidity” of people who believe in God is assertively expressed (and he makes unimpeachable points). Marty tosses the final zinger though: “For a guy who sees no point in existence, you sure fret about it a lot,”. 

Ultimately, despite Marty's desire to make the car "a place of silent reflection", their continuous banter on nihilism became one of the show's more infectious and eye-catching moments. 

The Monster At The End; "Time is a flat circle".


The first scene that gripped me –I mean really hooked me– appeared simple. It began with a classic Cohle monologue:

“To realize that all your life –you know, all your love, all your hate, all your memory, 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. And like a lot of dreams there’s a monster at the end of it.”

And then the camera cuts to a tracking shot of a tattooed man walking through the bush, wearing a gas mask, a baby diaper, and wielding a machete. Fucking hell. The Yellow King?

Carcosa.


The journey into Carcosa (a place so infamous those who knew of it could only whisper the name) was a dark, nerve-wracking, and twisting plunge into the depths of darkness. Though not the “twist” some viewers expected (perhaps something supernatural or completely explosive), True Detective‘s relatively straightforward ending where Marty and Rust finally track the serial child killer, hunt him into his labyrinth, and kill him, while barely escaping with their lives, is undeniably excellent. The pursuit of “The Spaghetti Monster” is as suspenseful as possible and for the first time, we faced the frightening possibility that neither Cohle nor Hart’s survival was guaranteed.


Form and Void.



The Yellow King is dead. Rust is in a coma and Marty has been impaled as expertly as if Vlad himself had done it. He wakes up after a long rest and sees his entire family, including his ex-wife, at his bedside. He had given up on ever seeing them again. Then his daughter asks if he’s OK, and Marty replies, “yes,” but as the camera fades to black, the hardened policeman begins to cry, the cumulative experiences of his life finally taking their toll on the emotions he had suppressed for too long. For all the praise Matthew McConaughey received for his performance on the show, this is probably the best acted single moment on True Detective.


Rusty Cohle's Backstory




"We called him "the taxman" because no one knew where he was from 'cept that he'd come out from Texas and he always walked around with his notepad, going from door to door, like the taxman..."

Eight hours spent writing the development of this character created one of the most mysterious personalities on screen. The mystery to Rusty Cohle's character was expertly peeled back and led to what is easily the most memorable and talked about sequence of the whole show. "Who Goes There" packs a stupendous six-minute-long take of a gang heist. A series of sequences so intense and captivating that they're at once a masterpiece of technical camera coordination and a classic expose on undercover police work.  Extremely complicated and beautifully shot, the sequence has enough cinematic qualities to rival the best pictures.

The Light is Winning.


Rust comes out of his coma and we also realize he hasn’t come out of the climactic events emotionally unscathed. He decides to flee the hospital (good ol' Rust) but as Marty wheels him away he betrays a new perspective for the first time in his closing remarks: “once there was only dark...”.