‘True Detective’ is good enough, and that’s OK

The golden age of television is turning its audience into spoiled brats.

The modern audience’s routine has seven steps.

1) Cynically watch the premiere episode after many have poked, prodded and told us to do so.
2) Surprisingly enjoy the show.
3) Become infatuated with the show
4) Binge.
5) Become disappointed at a certain point.
6) Develop contempt for the show.
7) Recommend the show to others, telling them where to stop watching.

Such victims of the seven-step program have been The Walking Dead, Mad Men and Weeds. Considering reviews of True Detective‘s season finale last night, you can add HBO’s latest hit to that list as well.

The very thought that any True Detective episode being panned is beyond me. Not to say the show is without flaws. What show isn’t. However, this is dense television, packed with psychology and metaphor. This isn’t a show concerned with audience’s need for bloodlust.

Yes, you have to think and pay attention while watching. Yes, there are details in the setting. Yes, Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle speaks like a Cormac McCarthy character.

However, when I read a few reviews this morning, I was startled as critics grasped at straws to express disappointment. One article asked, “Is that it?” Willa Paskin of Slate typed “But: I Really Did Not Like That.”

These days, it’s not enough for a show to be good in all facets. No, every minor detail has to be given to the audience on a silver platter. The audience has to be invested in something over an obscene amount of time before making the concession, “That’s pretty good.”

True Detective is a concise package dealing with larger themes than just two cops in Louisiana looking for a psychopathic murderer. It is a show about man’s never-ending battle with the darkness he faces, about how time and circumstance changes man, and the things we do for and to the people we love. The naysayers need to consider the show’s scope is nearly 20 years, boiled down to eight episodes. Each episode could have been a season of television, but it isn’t. Consider the world created in this show, and how honestly this bit of television captures the back-road world of Louisiana. I know this might be difficult for the critic who lives in L.A. or on the East Coast, but this is as real as it gets, and yes, most of those places exist.

And if you’re still down on the show, have you forgotten that seven-minute continuous shot? You realize the list of filmmakers who can do that is infinitesimal at best?

But today, none of those considerations are made. It’s just knee-jerk reactions based on what some critic wanted to see. Usually, these reactions come down to the critic wanting more. True Detective is the rare show that doesn’t give that critic what he or she wants. As creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto said in a recent interview, this is a story that began with its ending in mind. There is no major plot twist or startling reveal. No, it’s another well-written story bolstered by top-notch performances. It’s not that the acting is memorable; it’s also the title sequence, the cinematography and the writing.

For me, those are pretty good reasons to watch a show. I can live comfortably with these eight episodes and will watch the next season, if there is one.

For those on the flip side, go back to your binge-watching parades and airing your complaints for everyone to see. Soon enough, there will be a show made just for you, created by an algorithm full of zeros, ones and other meaningless Internet criteria. One you can watch for 13 hours straight without food or drink. One that will capture your whimsy but be dark and dangerous. The main character will do unbelievable things while talking to you through a screen.

Oh wait, that’s House of Cards.

Another two cents:
It didn’t matter how True Detective ended. The show was another example of high-class entertainment filmed in Louisiana. In the last few years, the state has been home to future classics—everything from Oscar-winners such as 12 Years a Slave and Dallas Buyers Club to comedic fare like This is the End and television shows such as American Horror Story and now True Detective. I can remember a time when the only films that were shot in Louisiana were based on John Grisham novels (Runaway Jury) or featuring a seedy detective (see Heaven’s Prisoners, starring Alec Baldwin). There were a few hits, but our time on the silver screen wasn’t great then. Now, it seems like the best of the best is lining up to film here. The product of that talent coming here has consistently one-upped itself for at least five years.

If you aren’t watching everything Matthew McConaughey does now, you’re being silly. His renaissance started around Killer Joe and Bernie, two smaller films from respected directors. The latter reunited him with Richard Linklater, who made McConaughey a star in Dazed and Confused. On the flip side, where is the praise for Woody Harrelson? It seems this guy has had every chance to just disappear from the entertainment world. Slowly and steadily, though, he has popped up, providing another winning bit to good-to-great films, see No Country for Old Men, Zombieland, The Messenger and the underrated character study Rampart. Routinely, writers will bring up the embarrassing parts these actors used to play. It’s time we forget about the past given these actors’ recent immaculate resumes.