Early in the third season of HBO's "True Detective," fans and Redditors perked up at the mention of a "crooked spiral," which the fictional true-crime documentarian Elisa Montgomery (Sarah Gadon) connected to the straw dolls found in the forest near a dead body at the end of the first episode. After Will and Julie Purcell go missing, the boy is discovered in a praying pose, and Montgomery suspects his death is part of a larger conspiracy. "There's a web forum that posts about real-life criminal cases, things that are unsolved or unresolved," she explains to retired detective Wayne Hays (Mahershala Ali). "They have a whole...
The post Why True Detective's Creator Tied Seasons 1 And 3 Together appeared first on /Film.
The post Why True Detective's Creator Tied Seasons 1 And 3 Together appeared first on /Film.
- 8/5/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Call it coincidence or just Oscar’s great luck.
The same year that Matthew McConaughey took home a Lead Actor Oscar win for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014, he found himself with an Emmy nomination in the Lead Actor Drama Series category for HBO’s True Detective series. This year, history repeats itself for Mahershala Ali who after winning a best supporting actor Oscar (his second) for Universal/DreamWorks/Participant’s Green Book, finds himself with an Emmy nom in the Lead Actor Limited Series/Movie slot for the same HBO series.
True Detective‘s season 3 takes place within three different timelines: In 2015 with retired detective Wayne Hays (Ali), his memory failing, looking back at the disappearance of 12-year-old Will and 10-year-old Julie Purcell. He reflects on the days and weeks immediately following the 1980 crime, as well as developments in 1990, when he and his former partner, Roland West, were subpoenaed after...
The same year that Matthew McConaughey took home a Lead Actor Oscar win for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014, he found himself with an Emmy nomination in the Lead Actor Drama Series category for HBO’s True Detective series. This year, history repeats itself for Mahershala Ali who after winning a best supporting actor Oscar (his second) for Universal/DreamWorks/Participant’s Green Book, finds himself with an Emmy nom in the Lead Actor Limited Series/Movie slot for the same HBO series.
True Detective‘s season 3 takes place within three different timelines: In 2015 with retired detective Wayne Hays (Ali), his memory failing, looking back at the disappearance of 12-year-old Will and 10-year-old Julie Purcell. He reflects on the days and weeks immediately following the 1980 crime, as well as developments in 1990, when he and his former partner, Roland West, were subpoenaed after...
- 7/16/2019
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
“To ask somebody to make that significant of a shift and totally rethink your story was the first thing to accomplish,” Oscar winner Mahershala Ali said when he pitched himself to True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto about taking on the lead role for Season 3 of the HBO anthology series.
“My only insecurity was if the story would be fundamentally changed by changing the race of the lead character,” said Pizzolatto, who was joined by Ali at Deadline’s The Contenders Emmys event Sunday on the Paramount lot. “Mahershala assured me he didn’t want the story changed and he didn’t want the character defined by his race but to be, as he was on the page, something of a broader, more dimensional leading man than just someone whose defining characteristic would be race.”
Pizzolatto loved the idea and went back to rewrite the episodes to make sure to strike a...
“My only insecurity was if the story would be fundamentally changed by changing the race of the lead character,” said Pizzolatto, who was joined by Ali at Deadline’s The Contenders Emmys event Sunday on the Paramount lot. “Mahershala assured me he didn’t want the story changed and he didn’t want the character defined by his race but to be, as he was on the page, something of a broader, more dimensional leading man than just someone whose defining characteristic would be race.”
Pizzolatto loved the idea and went back to rewrite the episodes to make sure to strike a...
- 4/7/2019
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
(This post contains full season spoilers for True Detective Season Three. On Sunday night, Sean T. Collins recapped “Now Am Found,“ the season finale.)
“You write the story, you get past the start, it’s important to know how you want it to end,” Amelia Hays declares midway through the concluding chapter of True Detective Season Three. This is perhaps the most self-conscious bit of writing about the process of writing in an episode full of it. The series’ two previous iterations each stumbled at the finish line in ways...
“You write the story, you get past the start, it’s important to know how you want it to end,” Amelia Hays declares midway through the concluding chapter of True Detective Season Three. This is perhaps the most self-conscious bit of writing about the process of writing in an episode full of it. The series’ two previous iterations each stumbled at the finish line in ways...
- 2/26/2019
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
Yes, Sunday’s True Detective finale provided us armchair sleuths with a few key answers — but our corkboard still has plenty of Post-its with big question marks stuck all over it.
We know that Julie Purcell was abducted by the Hoyt family to replace Isabel Hoyt’s dead daughter, and that Will was killed by an accidental shove that led to him hitting his head on a rock. (Thank you, Mr. June, for laying all that out in vivid detail.) But even though the finale stretched to an hour and 15 minutes, it didn’t tie up every loose end. Now that the dust has settled,...
We know that Julie Purcell was abducted by the Hoyt family to replace Isabel Hoyt’s dead daughter, and that Will was killed by an accidental shove that led to him hitting his head on a rock. (Thank you, Mr. June, for laying all that out in vivid detail.) But even though the finale stretched to an hour and 15 minutes, it didn’t tie up every loose end. Now that the dust has settled,...
- 2/25/2019
- TVLine.com
[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for the season finale of “True Detective” Season 3, Episode 8, “Now Am Found.”]
Whether it comes from a ghost or a man who would rather be one, the big talkers in “True Detective” sure love their exposition. And that’s Ok, since just as much meaning could be gleaned when no one said a word. It just depends what you’re looking for in Nic Pizzolatto’s Season 3 finale. For the at-home detectives, two big speeches provide as much clarity to the case as you could desire, while the silent moments are reserved for those more invested in characters than plot. “Now Am Found” is stubbornly determined to satisfy each kind of viewer, and while the last stretch of road is a little long, the engine a tad clunky, there’s a charming ease to the drive that proves comforting.
Episode 8 takes its time covering the most pertinent hanging questions and still leaves a few unanswered,...
Whether it comes from a ghost or a man who would rather be one, the big talkers in “True Detective” sure love their exposition. And that’s Ok, since just as much meaning could be gleaned when no one said a word. It just depends what you’re looking for in Nic Pizzolatto’s Season 3 finale. For the at-home detectives, two big speeches provide as much clarity to the case as you could desire, while the silent moments are reserved for those more invested in characters than plot. “Now Am Found” is stubbornly determined to satisfy each kind of viewer, and while the last stretch of road is a little long, the engine a tad clunky, there’s a charming ease to the drive that proves comforting.
Episode 8 takes its time covering the most pertinent hanging questions and still leaves a few unanswered,...
- 2/25/2019
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
“What if there’s another story? What if something went unbroken? All this life, all this loss — what if it was really one long story that just kept going and going until it healed itself? Wouldn’t that be a story worth telling? Wouldn’t that be a story worth hearing?”
These are the words of Amelia Hays to her husband Wayne … sort of. The late writer is just a figment of the aging detective’s senile imagination when she says this to him, providing the final piece in the...
These are the words of Amelia Hays to her husband Wayne … sort of. The late writer is just a figment of the aging detective’s senile imagination when she says this to him, providing the final piece in the...
- 2/25/2019
- by Sean T. Collins
- Rollingstone.com
Nick Harley Feb 25, 2019
The central mystery of True Detective Season 3, the disappearance of Julie Purcell, is finally solved.
The following contains spoilers for True Detective Season 3.
In the end, True Detective Season 3 was a long story that healed itself. When Julie Purcell disappeared, when her brother Will was found dead in Devil’s Den, a wound opened up in the center of a small Arkansas town that proceeded to swallow the lives of Wayne and Amelia Hays, Roland West, Lucy and Tom Purcell, and many others. In particular, Wayne’s work, his marriage, and his memories were so intertwined with the case that the mystery of Julie’s disappearance was all that held his mind together to keep it from unraveling. But all of the lives that were consumed, the tears shed, and the hours spent combing through the evidence eventually lead to something growing out of all that misery.
The central mystery of True Detective Season 3, the disappearance of Julie Purcell, is finally solved.
The following contains spoilers for True Detective Season 3.
In the end, True Detective Season 3 was a long story that healed itself. When Julie Purcell disappeared, when her brother Will was found dead in Devil’s Den, a wound opened up in the center of a small Arkansas town that proceeded to swallow the lives of Wayne and Amelia Hays, Roland West, Lucy and Tom Purcell, and many others. In particular, Wayne’s work, his marriage, and his memories were so intertwined with the case that the mystery of Julie’s disappearance was all that held his mind together to keep it from unraveling. But all of the lives that were consumed, the tears shed, and the hours spent combing through the evidence eventually lead to something growing out of all that misery.
- 2/25/2019
- Den of Geek
True Detective season 3 finale "Now Am Found" redeems a lawnmower man in an uplifting twist.
This True Detective review contains spoilers.
True Detective Season 3 Episode 8
True Detective season 3, episode 8, “Now Am Found,” closes out season 3 with the most insidious twist a series as dark as this can present, a happy ending. More than just happy, it is positively uplifting. And the thing that keeps it afloat is the lies it took to get it to rise. True Detective is about deception. At the close of the last episode, Detective Wayne Hays drove off in the limo of a very important figure in the community. Edward Hoyt, here played by Michael Rooker, who sideswiped Kevin Costner's New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison as he looked for the true conspirators in a presidential assassination in Oliver Stone's JFK.
We get a short flashback to Hays as campus security at a...
This True Detective review contains spoilers.
True Detective Season 3 Episode 8
True Detective season 3, episode 8, “Now Am Found,” closes out season 3 with the most insidious twist a series as dark as this can present, a happy ending. More than just happy, it is positively uplifting. And the thing that keeps it afloat is the lies it took to get it to rise. True Detective is about deception. At the close of the last episode, Detective Wayne Hays drove off in the limo of a very important figure in the community. Edward Hoyt, here played by Michael Rooker, who sideswiped Kevin Costner's New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison as he looked for the true conspirators in a presidential assassination in Oliver Stone's JFK.
We get a short flashback to Hays as campus security at a...
- 2/24/2019
- Den of Geek
(Spoilers ahead for Season 3, episode 6 of “True Detective”)
It took a while for “True Detective” Season 3 to get to the point, spending the first five episodes ambling through this mystery with very few clues to help viewers figure out what in the world is happening here.
But I had an idea, after that first Sunday when the first two episodes of the season aired. I suggested that the kidnapping of the Purcell children was part of a conspiracy involving the Hoyt family of Hoyt Foods. That would be a very “True Detective” direction for this story to go, and with nothing that really firmly pointed at any suspects, that seemed like the most logical guess at the time.
And as the season went on, continuing to avoid presenting a plausible list of suspects, I couldn’t help but assume that the Hoyt family had to be involved. And, finally, the...
It took a while for “True Detective” Season 3 to get to the point, spending the first five episodes ambling through this mystery with very few clues to help viewers figure out what in the world is happening here.
But I had an idea, after that first Sunday when the first two episodes of the season aired. I suggested that the kidnapping of the Purcell children was part of a conspiracy involving the Hoyt family of Hoyt Foods. That would be a very “True Detective” direction for this story to go, and with nothing that really firmly pointed at any suspects, that seemed like the most logical guess at the time.
And as the season went on, continuing to avoid presenting a plausible list of suspects, I couldn’t help but assume that the Hoyt family had to be involved. And, finally, the...
- 2/18/2019
- by Phil Owen
- The Wrap
Hoyt on True Detective has become a huge clue for viewers of the current season. The name is going to be a really important one in the final two episodes based on what took place during the episode titled “Hunters in the Dark.” Sometimes, episodes of True Detective can appear a bit disjointed, and that is exactly what happened on February 10. But it finally led to a bit of a payoff, even though some viewers may not have been sure of what they were seeing in the closing moments. True Detective Season 3 villain revealed? Julie Purcell (Bea Santos), […]
The post Hoyt on True Detective: Season 3 clue revealed to HBO viewers appeared first on Monsters and Critics.
The post Hoyt on True Detective: Season 3 clue revealed to HBO viewers appeared first on Monsters and Critics.
- 2/12/2019
- by Ryan DeVault
- Monsters and Critics
Time may or may not be a flat circle, but the success rate of Wayne Hays and Roland West sure is. This week’s True Detective — “If You Have Ghosts” — comes straight from series creator Nic Pizzolatto, who shows our heroes working together diligently to solve the mystery of Will Purcell‘s murder and Julie Purcell‘s disappearance. In fact, these partners try to tackle the case in three different decades … and find themselves in dead ends each time.
In the 1980 timeline, when Brett Woodard‘s landmine booby traps go off,...
In the 1980 timeline, when Brett Woodard‘s landmine booby traps go off,...
- 2/4/2019
- by Sean T. Collins
- Rollingstone.com
[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “True Detective” Season 3, Episode 5, “If You Have Ghosts.”]
Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: “If You Have Ghosts” is a great episode of “True Detective.” Rich with information, filled with stunning (and surprising) performances, and paced well between revealing personal confrontations and critical developments in the case, Episode 5 delivers everything viewers could want from the series. Sure, the opening shoot-out isn’t as memorable as the Season 2 brouhaha, and it hurts to see Wayne (Mahershala Ali) be so dismissive of his wife during a communal partners’ dinner, but both served the story first, and that’s what matters.
During the discussion below, we’ll get into some of the finer details that made Episode 5 so solid — yes, including Stephen Dorff’s gangbuster, “Hey, there’s someone acting here other than Mahershala” turn — but with more than half the long-awaited third season in our rearview, it’s...
Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: “If You Have Ghosts” is a great episode of “True Detective.” Rich with information, filled with stunning (and surprising) performances, and paced well between revealing personal confrontations and critical developments in the case, Episode 5 delivers everything viewers could want from the series. Sure, the opening shoot-out isn’t as memorable as the Season 2 brouhaha, and it hurts to see Wayne (Mahershala Ali) be so dismissive of his wife during a communal partners’ dinner, but both served the story first, and that’s what matters.
During the discussion below, we’ll get into some of the finer details that made Episode 5 so solid — yes, including Stephen Dorff’s gangbuster, “Hey, there’s someone acting here other than Mahershala” turn — but with more than half the long-awaited third season in our rearview, it’s...
- 2/3/2019
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
(Spoilers ahead for the first three episode of season 3 of HBO’s “True Detective”)
The HBO mystery anthology series “True Detective” took a lengthy hiatus after its second season aired way back in 2015, but now it’s back with Mahershala Ali in a new story that spans decades.
We’re three episodes in, and it’s still tough to know what to make of this whole thing so far. That’s not too terribly surprising, given the cryptic and slow burning nature of the show — creator Nic Pizzolatto and co. are big on holding back key details until the right moment.
Here’s the broad stuff we know about the mystery at the center of Season 3 of “True Detective” so far (we’ll get into smaller details in a bit). A pair of children, a brother and sister named Will and Julie Purcell, went missing after school one day in...
The HBO mystery anthology series “True Detective” took a lengthy hiatus after its second season aired way back in 2015, but now it’s back with Mahershala Ali in a new story that spans decades.
We’re three episodes in, and it’s still tough to know what to make of this whole thing so far. That’s not too terribly surprising, given the cryptic and slow burning nature of the show — creator Nic Pizzolatto and co. are big on holding back key details until the right moment.
Here’s the broad stuff we know about the mystery at the center of Season 3 of “True Detective” so far (we’ll get into smaller details in a bit). A pair of children, a brother and sister named Will and Julie Purcell, went missing after school one day in...
- 1/24/2019
- by Phil Owen
- The Wrap
[This story contains spoilers for the Jan. 20 episode of HBO's True Detective, "The Big Never."]
The case of Will and Julie Purcell deepened and became more complex in Sunday's True Detective — and the effects of what happened (or didn't) in 1980 reverberated heavily in the show's later timelines.
Episode two revealed that in 1990, Julie is apparently still alive as her fingerprints were found at the scene of a robbery in Oklahoma, helping spark the reopening of the case. It also creates an opening for Wayne Hays (Mahershala Ali) to get out ...
The case of Will and Julie Purcell deepened and became more complex in Sunday's True Detective — and the effects of what happened (or didn't) in 1980 reverberated heavily in the show's later timelines.
Episode two revealed that in 1990, Julie is apparently still alive as her fingerprints were found at the scene of a robbery in Oklahoma, helping spark the reopening of the case. It also creates an opening for Wayne Hays (Mahershala Ali) to get out ...
- 1/21/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Thrills and chills! Twists and turns! Mind-warping philosophical rants, past occult conspiracies, and the highly stylized dialogue of a million film noirs from another dimension!
These are the things that True Detective built its reputation on, the things that made its groundbreaking first season a prestige-tv alternative. And in this week’s episode — “The Big Never” — well, you’ll find none of those things here. Three episodes deep into its third season, the HBO anthology show may be back on the familiar sad Southern buddy-cop beat, but aside from the...
These are the things that True Detective built its reputation on, the things that made its groundbreaking first season a prestige-tv alternative. And in this week’s episode — “The Big Never” — well, you’ll find none of those things here. Three episodes deep into its third season, the HBO anthology show may be back on the familiar sad Southern buddy-cop beat, but aside from the...
- 1/21/2019
- by Sean T. Collins
- Rollingstone.com
We're only two episodes into the third season of True Detective, and already we've turned into internet sleuths and late-night investigators. We've been quickly introduced to a ton of information about the crime, its victims, and potential suspects. While many theories have already started to circulate about who the killer is, there have been claims the case is beginning to look a lot like the West Memphis Three murder that rocked a small town in Arkansas in the early '90s.
Keep reading for the rundown on that case and its possible influence on True Detective season three. Be warned that graphic details of the real crime are included ahead.
The Crime
In 1993, three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas were murdered. Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were reported missing on May 5, 1993 after they did not return home. The boys' bodies were found the next day near a canal in Robin Hood Hills.
Keep reading for the rundown on that case and its possible influence on True Detective season three. Be warned that graphic details of the real crime are included ahead.
The Crime
In 1993, three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas were murdered. Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were reported missing on May 5, 1993 after they did not return home. The boys' bodies were found the next day near a canal in Robin Hood Hills.
- 1/20/2019
- by Hannah Abrams
- Popsugar.com
True Detective, we hate to love you, and love to hate you. You leave us clawing to every minor detail, wondering if they're simply coincidences or major clues that will eventually lead us to the killer. Is the lack of punctuation in the ransom note an indicator of the killer's age or Iq? Does Julie Purcell's lingering stare to her father in the opening scene speak volumes about her relationship with her him? Is Steve McQueen's death meant to foreshadow a connection to a cult? Or is it simply to establish a timeline? What is the significance of the fact that Detective Hays incorrectly says there's a full moon on the night the children disappear? Is it to show his memory is fading, or something more sinister? And what about all the animal metaphors? Season three might be driving us a little crazy, but we'd be lying if...
- 1/20/2019
- by Hannah Abrams
- Popsugar.com
True Detective is back on the case: HBO’s crime anthology returned for a third season on Sunday night with a densely plotted two-hour premiere — will you keep following the clues?
After a typically evocative credit sequence, we head to rural Arkansas, where we meet state police detective Wayne Hays, played by Oscar winner Mahershala Ali. The mystery plays out across three time periods: In 1980, Hays and his partner Roland West (Stephen Dorff) are called in to investigate after two local kids — Will and Julie Purcell — go missing one night. But we also see Hays ten years later in 1990, facing...
After a typically evocative credit sequence, we head to rural Arkansas, where we meet state police detective Wayne Hays, played by Oscar winner Mahershala Ali. The mystery plays out across three time periods: In 1980, Hays and his partner Roland West (Stephen Dorff) are called in to investigate after two local kids — Will and Julie Purcell — go missing one night. But we also see Hays ten years later in 1990, facing...
- 1/14/2019
- TVLine.com
[This story contains minor spoilers for the season three permiere of True Detective.]
It's not for nothing that reviewers have been comparing the newly launched season of True Detective to the show's breakout first run. The HBO anthology has returned to the multiple-timeline structure and Southern Gothic atmospherics that helped make season one distinctive.
The central case, involving a missing brother and sister named Will and Julie Purcell in Arkansas in 1980, also carries undertones of the "Satanic Panic" stories of ritual abuse from the 1980s and early '90s. Those stories also influenced the details of the case ...
It's not for nothing that reviewers have been comparing the newly launched season of True Detective to the show's breakout first run. The HBO anthology has returned to the multiple-timeline structure and Southern Gothic atmospherics that helped make season one distinctive.
The central case, involving a missing brother and sister named Will and Julie Purcell in Arkansas in 1980, also carries undertones of the "Satanic Panic" stories of ritual abuse from the 1980s and early '90s. Those stories also influenced the details of the case ...
- 1/14/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Nick Harley Feb 18, 2019
True Detective is back on HBO and we're examining each episode to find each the best, strangest, and most hard-boiled moments.
“The harvest moon cloaked the expansive Ozark wilderness with an odd milky glow. The steps of the search party crunched the dead leaves beneath their feet, creating a dull roar in the still night.” *Takes long drag of cigarette, stares out the window searchingly, a sad saxophone swells*
Sorry, I was just doing a little light roleplaying as True Detective writer and creator Nic Pizzolatto. To get into character, I went outside and starred into the eye of a dead raccoon I found in the street while pounding cans of Lone Star. Anyway, welcome to the True Detective Awards! Each week, we’ll be breaking down all of the big moments from True Detective Season 3, honoring each episode’s best, strangest, and most hard-boiled scenes with completely arbitrary,...
True Detective is back on HBO and we're examining each episode to find each the best, strangest, and most hard-boiled moments.
“The harvest moon cloaked the expansive Ozark wilderness with an odd milky glow. The steps of the search party crunched the dead leaves beneath their feet, creating a dull roar in the still night.” *Takes long drag of cigarette, stares out the window searchingly, a sad saxophone swells*
Sorry, I was just doing a little light roleplaying as True Detective writer and creator Nic Pizzolatto. To get into character, I went outside and starred into the eye of a dead raccoon I found in the street while pounding cans of Lone Star. Anyway, welcome to the True Detective Awards! Each week, we’ll be breaking down all of the big moments from True Detective Season 3, honoring each episode’s best, strangest, and most hard-boiled scenes with completely arbitrary,...
- 1/14/2019
- Den of Geek
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.