(Review updated after Season 4).
A murder-mystery series with each season set in a different location, with different characters, and independent from the others.
Season 1 of True Detective was great. A slow-burning, incredibly intriguing crime-drama. Viewers were fed pieces of information regarding the crime, complete with a few red herrings and sudden bursts of action. All this was interspersed with the private lives and dramas of the two detectives (played superbly by Matthew McConoughey and Woody Harrelson). Plus, the finale was an incredible adrenaline rush of action. This all made for a highly intriguing, engaging and entertaining season.
In Season 2 creator Nic Pizzolatto tried the same thing: a slow-burn, with a rush of action towards the end. However, the first half of the season is too unfocused to be engaging. You have whole 50- minute episodes where you feel you really only got maybe 10 minutes of entertainment or information out of it. So many scenes with people staring blankly at each other for minutes on end...
I understand what he was trying to do: develop the characters, give us small pieces of information, build the background and intrigue. However, this time the story develops too slowly to maintain, or even develop, any engagement with the characters.
By the time you reach the climax of the season, you are so disengaged you hardly care who the characters are. E.g. Someone dies. You're pretty sure you're supposed to know the character and their relevance to the story but you were zoned out whenever their character was mentioned or had screen time. Thus, a piece of the puzzle dissolves.
All this leads to a massive dissipation of intrigue, and watching is just a chore - you're in this far, might as well see it through.
Add in some terrible miscasting and performances - Vince Vaughan should stick to B-grade comedies and Taylor Kitsch should stick to whatever he does best (this isn't it) - and a damp squib of a finale and Season 2 is very disappointing.
Season 3, released 3½ years after Season 2, initially looked very promising and had the potential to see a return to the form of Season 1. Puzzling mystery and a 3-time period storyline made for intriguing and engaging drama.
However, the mystery soon dissipated as the 3-time period formula gave away much of where the mystery was heading. Rather than being a murder mystery it became a human/relationship drama, and not a very interesting one. Nic Pizzolatto did his best to recreate the dark, brooding atmosphere that permeated Season 1 but it can't hide the lack of genuine intrigue or of character engagement. Good ending though.
Season 4 is easily the worst season of the lot. After Seasons 2 and 3 were so lacklustre I was hesitant to watch it. However, the plot seemed interesting so I gave it a go. Initially the plot was intriguing and the setting - Alaska during days with 24 hours of night - made for a great backdrop that should have created a great atmosphere. This initial watchability was short-lived, however: the season reached its highpoint about 20 minutes in and then went continuously downhill from there.
All the potential shown in the first 20 minutes is wasted as for the next five episodes all we largely have is pointless domestic stuff and other empty filler. The mystery, despite being the reason everyone watched the show, seems to take a backseat. Even when things do progress on that front it's in implausible, random, style-over-substance ways. The ending is particularly disappointing - I'd rather not have known what happened and who did it as the plot is incredibly weak, to the point of being laughable.
Hopefully this is the final season as everything that has happened after Season 1 just brings down the True Detective brand.
Season ratings: S1 - 9/10, S2 - 5/10, S3 - 6/10, S4 - 4/10.
A murder-mystery series with each season set in a different location, with different characters, and independent from the others.
Season 1 of True Detective was great. A slow-burning, incredibly intriguing crime-drama. Viewers were fed pieces of information regarding the crime, complete with a few red herrings and sudden bursts of action. All this was interspersed with the private lives and dramas of the two detectives (played superbly by Matthew McConoughey and Woody Harrelson). Plus, the finale was an incredible adrenaline rush of action. This all made for a highly intriguing, engaging and entertaining season.
In Season 2 creator Nic Pizzolatto tried the same thing: a slow-burn, with a rush of action towards the end. However, the first half of the season is too unfocused to be engaging. You have whole 50- minute episodes where you feel you really only got maybe 10 minutes of entertainment or information out of it. So many scenes with people staring blankly at each other for minutes on end...
I understand what he was trying to do: develop the characters, give us small pieces of information, build the background and intrigue. However, this time the story develops too slowly to maintain, or even develop, any engagement with the characters.
By the time you reach the climax of the season, you are so disengaged you hardly care who the characters are. E.g. Someone dies. You're pretty sure you're supposed to know the character and their relevance to the story but you were zoned out whenever their character was mentioned or had screen time. Thus, a piece of the puzzle dissolves.
All this leads to a massive dissipation of intrigue, and watching is just a chore - you're in this far, might as well see it through.
Add in some terrible miscasting and performances - Vince Vaughan should stick to B-grade comedies and Taylor Kitsch should stick to whatever he does best (this isn't it) - and a damp squib of a finale and Season 2 is very disappointing.
Season 3, released 3½ years after Season 2, initially looked very promising and had the potential to see a return to the form of Season 1. Puzzling mystery and a 3-time period storyline made for intriguing and engaging drama.
However, the mystery soon dissipated as the 3-time period formula gave away much of where the mystery was heading. Rather than being a murder mystery it became a human/relationship drama, and not a very interesting one. Nic Pizzolatto did his best to recreate the dark, brooding atmosphere that permeated Season 1 but it can't hide the lack of genuine intrigue or of character engagement. Good ending though.
Season 4 is easily the worst season of the lot. After Seasons 2 and 3 were so lacklustre I was hesitant to watch it. However, the plot seemed interesting so I gave it a go. Initially the plot was intriguing and the setting - Alaska during days with 24 hours of night - made for a great backdrop that should have created a great atmosphere. This initial watchability was short-lived, however: the season reached its highpoint about 20 minutes in and then went continuously downhill from there.
All the potential shown in the first 20 minutes is wasted as for the next five episodes all we largely have is pointless domestic stuff and other empty filler. The mystery, despite being the reason everyone watched the show, seems to take a backseat. Even when things do progress on that front it's in implausible, random, style-over-substance ways. The ending is particularly disappointing - I'd rather not have known what happened and who did it as the plot is incredibly weak, to the point of being laughable.
Hopefully this is the final season as everything that has happened after Season 1 just brings down the True Detective brand.
Season ratings: S1 - 9/10, S2 - 5/10, S3 - 6/10, S4 - 4/10.