I swear I read somewhere that the premise of a cop talking through a teleportation accident was a riff off an episode of Homicide where a man gets caught in a subway accident, and that episode in turn was inspired by a cop describing the situation in Taxicab Confession. If that all maps out, that moment started and ended in HBO in such a weird and wild way.
Having now seen the ending of Season 3, I didn’t find it weak or disappointing at all. It’s a good season, well worth watching. Comparing it with Season 1, I’d say the strengths of 1 were the tone and richness of the story and the performances of McConnaughey and Harrelson. For this season, the strength was the structure of the story-telling, the arc of the characters, and the quality of the ending. Just my take.
All in all I liked the season, but it felt a bit drawn out at the end. I think the acting was overall really good, and I think the focus on the characters worked well. I think the first season was 7/8 excellent with a weak ending. I think season 2 was not as bad as the general consensus. It was a tier below, but it had some things that worked really well. I’d rate season three a bit over the second season, but not as good as the first one.
I’m also not as down on season 2 as the consensus.
Me either. The quality is definitely more spotty, but it was also more ambitious than the other two seasons, and it has scenes and dialogue that I’ll always remember, which is not something I can say for the other seasons. I would still probably rank the 2nd season as the worst, but it is by far the most rewatchable, in my opinion - I can’t imagine ever watching any of season 3 ever again, despite some amazing performances.
Holy shit you guys.
Why didn’t you tell me that Season 3 is as fucking fantastic as it is/was?
All the promise of True Detective as a series finally gets paid off here. The storytelling and plotting is as precise and clockwork and as the story reveals itself, those reveals aren’r head-slappingly stupid out-of-the-clouds nonsense.
And yeah, the acting is really, really great throughout the entire cast and across all episodes.
Yeah, the gf and I just watched it a few weeks ago, and loved it to death.
Thing is, I picked it up on sale on DVD at Amazon for 10 bucks like over a year ago, and I got it because I already had the other two seasons on DVD, and it was cheap, so why not?
Then I shelved it because I hadn’t even known S3 had come and gone when I saw it at Amazon, and had obviously missed this thread, and since I couldn’t even really remember much of S2, I was not exactly compelled to watch it.
Then one night I came home from work, and the gf had placed the DVD set on my computer desk. She had seen it on the shelf, and since she had loved both S1 and S2, she was disappointed that I hadn’t even told her I had bought this.
Anyway, she was right in wanting to see it. S3 was fantastic (not comparing it to either of the other two, since I don’t remember enough about them to compare anything - Maybe I need to see S1 again).
I do not understand this sentence. Are you praising it or damning it?
sorry, should be “aren’t”. That contraction got removed in post. ;)
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who’s crazy about True Detective 3. I want to write it on all walls wherever walls are to be found.
I didn’t think there was any way it could be good. I loved the first season, hated the second. I liked the first one so much I read Galveston, and it just left me angry and disappointed. I was so let down by how cheap and manipulative it was.
If I hadn’t heard Mahershala Ali and Jeremy Saulnier were involved, I would’ve passed on it, so I’m really amazed that 3 is as good as it is.
It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen on how intolerance and brutality affects a person over the course of a life. It’s so damn subtle, and that makes it hit so much harder.
I absolutely love how it ties it all together in the end, essentially going “Sike, the plot was never what you thought it was, we just used it to tell you the story of this character.”, while that character is literally disintegrating before our eyes. It’s so masterfully done.
It’s hard to describe just how much I respect and admire it. I’ve already watched it twice, and I know I’m gonna keep going back to it. I feel like it’s the perfect example of a TV show doing something that a movie can’t, because it will never have the time.
I should go back and watch S3. I’ve only seen S1, but I presume there is no harm is skipping the unpopular and apparently suboptimal S2.
S2 is IMO the weakest of the 3, but I don’t actually think it is bad. I watched it as it was rolling out, and it kept my interest, and the muddled ‘resolution’ didn’t much change that. I never felt like I’d been had or that I’d wasted my time on it.
That said, there isn’t any need to watch it before watching the vastly superior S3. There isn’t any continuity from one season to the next. It is / was an anthology series.
I enjoyed S2 for the characters and their motivations, as well as a couple of really neat action scenes. I’ll agree that the overall narrative thrust was weaker, but I don’t think the hate S2 gets is really all that justified.
Indeed, I thought it was the best work I’ve seen from Vince Vaughn (which isn’t great praise I know), and good performances from Rachel McAdams and Colin Farrell as well. I believed the characters and cared about them, which is a big part of what you really want from drama.
Also season 2 didn’t bait and switch you into hoping the show might be about cool Lovecraftian things instead of boring the gardener was the killer things.
I really liked season 2. I loved Vince Vaughan for fucking once and I thought Ray Velcoro was the most interesting character in all three seasons (Colin Farrell could also play Harry Du Bois!).
It did not, but if you believe this (which, you know) it’s all a sort of Tibetan Book of the Dead thing:
https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/bcuekx/true_detective_season_2_and_the_tibetan_book_of/
This was my reaction. I usually hate that guy, but I liked him in that character.
Pre-COVID I started watching season 3 on American Airline flights back and forth from DC. Two years later I got HBO Max through my ATT contract and was finally able to finish it recently. I thought it different, but every bit as good as season 1. It hits hard too as my father-in-law is slipping into dementia. Watching how the partnership and friendship between the two protagonists evolves over time felt right, complicated and very hard at times, like real life.
Not ashamed to admit it took me a little while to figure out why Hayes was called Purple.
My memory of 2 is also liking the actors, but being extremely disappointed by where the characters were going, and the choices they were making. Some of the plot lines felt really out of place to me. The problem was all in the writing.
One thing about 2 though, is that Lera Lynn soundtrack. Amazing. Do yourself a favor and listen to this and this. The last one isn’t from the show, but man, it’s good.
Agreed about the amazing soundtrack. Everything else was somewhat poop though.
The plotting was complex to the point of self-parody. Actually, a lot of it devolved into self parody.
My favorite bit was when they send the closeted gay cop into a strip club to gather info, literally recreating this gif:
