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| Mahershala Ali in True Detective |
Welcome to a new column called Channel Surfing, in which I sporadically look at current TV shows and talk about them. These are not ones that I care to write weekly recaps for and are instead reflections either on the episode, the series, or particular moments. This will hopefully help to share personal opinions as well as discover entertainment on the outer pantheon that I feel is well worth checking out, or in some cases, shows that are weird enough to talk about, but should never be seen.
There's something that feels a bit... familiar... about season three of HBO's True Detective. It isn't the return of creator and writer Nic Pizzolato. No, he's always been there. What feels odd is how this series has fallen back on an older formula, and one that is reminiscent of its roots. For starters, its lead Mahershala Ali just won a Golden Globe the week before for Green Book: a film that is looking to get the actor his second Oscar. While it may be far removed from the conversation at this point, it's the same strategy that Matthew McConaughey used when using season one to keep him in the conversation before winning an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club. There's also the plot device of an older Ali looking back on his past via interviews in order to understand a crime that was committed "on the day that Steve McQueen died." It's all material that seems odd when you consider that maybe, just maybe, Pizzolato is trying to course correct the series.
For those few who do follow the series closely, True Detective's first season was a phenomenon that helped to solidify the golden age of the miniseries. It fought against Fargo for Emmy's that year, and it helped to give McConaughey his best role of the past 10 years. However, the second season was a notorious misfire the likes that no series usually experienced. It can be blamed on the fast turnaround, but Pizzolato's vision for season two was considered convoluted, unintelligible, and had some of the most embarrassing dialogue. Sure, it could've been a hat trick to get Vince Vaughn back into society's good graces, but instead it was evidence that maybe the show wasn't built to last. Talks of a season three were so mired in season two's awfulness that it almost never happened.
By some miracle, HBO has given True Detective another show with Pizzolato teaming with director Jeremy Saulnier in the much anticipated two hour premiere this past Sunday. Everything looked to be in place. Even the opening credits sequence had that nice vintage feel of a cigar-burned oil painting. More than anything, it had restraint and lacked any truly embarrassing lines. There was no Taylor Kitsch's jowls flying as he rode a motorcycle down the highway. What there was was a return to form with a basic structure and a simple yet familiar mystery: two kids went disappearing, but why? It's not a total retread yet, but what it does have is a mystery of why this case is still being talked about. There's new wrinkles to the formula this time around - such as Ali's wife being bestselling crime writer. There's much more depth on a personal level, as if Pizzolato has taken some of the criticism to heart.
With beautiful back road scenery, the show captures an atmosphere and a vibe that is in keeping with the series, but is trying to do its own thing. In the first episode, there's plenty to enjoy about Ali's Detective Wayne "Purple" Hays. Yes, it's once again a drug-abiding detective story, but it doesn't feel as rooted yet in hallucinations. All that is questioned is perspective, and the details are slowly falling out in a way that are compelling. If nothing else, Pizzolato is interested in the police officer who has a shady past and a shadier memory. It's easy to see in how this is the one plot device that gives the show leniency, making the mystery unable to fully be a realized vision. The viewer has to ask why the story may sound off. Is it because Hays is high, or is it because he is senile? Maybe it's something worse.
Over the course of the two hours, there's little to suggest that the show is on par with season one. Then again, part of the charm was how surprising it was and how it grew. Still, it isn't a season that has yet redeemed itself entirely in a way that makes it more than the conventional detective shows it was once better than. Ali is giving a good performance, and one that helps justify his status as a great actor, but the series has yet to go in a direction that's particularly engaging. It's fine and serves as the perfect set-up to the story that may come. It's a relief that there's little that is inherently wrong. However, what is there that makes it inherently great? There's not enough to suggest that the show was worth saving for any reason other than to show that Pizzolato is a better writer. It's a redemptive season in some ways, and even if it just finished at the level of fine, it would be a great improvement over the long dark shadow that hangs over him.
True Detective so far has been a great and terrible show. What season three looks to do is to remind us why we fell in love with it in the first place. There's plenty of fodder to suggest that this will be the case by the end of 2019. The clues are planted in a way that's highly compelling. Still, is there enough different to not make it feel like on some level that it is a retread? The structure feels verbatim at points, and who knows if The Yellow King will be born in some new context. For now, the show is doing good if a bit slow and producing evidence that the biggest surprise that this show could give is not a crazy mid-season revelation, but that the show was more than a one premise wonder.
For those few who do follow the series closely, True Detective's first season was a phenomenon that helped to solidify the golden age of the miniseries. It fought against Fargo for Emmy's that year, and it helped to give McConaughey his best role of the past 10 years. However, the second season was a notorious misfire the likes that no series usually experienced. It can be blamed on the fast turnaround, but Pizzolato's vision for season two was considered convoluted, unintelligible, and had some of the most embarrassing dialogue. Sure, it could've been a hat trick to get Vince Vaughn back into society's good graces, but instead it was evidence that maybe the show wasn't built to last. Talks of a season three were so mired in season two's awfulness that it almost never happened.
By some miracle, HBO has given True Detective another show with Pizzolato teaming with director Jeremy Saulnier in the much anticipated two hour premiere this past Sunday. Everything looked to be in place. Even the opening credits sequence had that nice vintage feel of a cigar-burned oil painting. More than anything, it had restraint and lacked any truly embarrassing lines. There was no Taylor Kitsch's jowls flying as he rode a motorcycle down the highway. What there was was a return to form with a basic structure and a simple yet familiar mystery: two kids went disappearing, but why? It's not a total retread yet, but what it does have is a mystery of why this case is still being talked about. There's new wrinkles to the formula this time around - such as Ali's wife being bestselling crime writer. There's much more depth on a personal level, as if Pizzolato has taken some of the criticism to heart.
With beautiful back road scenery, the show captures an atmosphere and a vibe that is in keeping with the series, but is trying to do its own thing. In the first episode, there's plenty to enjoy about Ali's Detective Wayne "Purple" Hays. Yes, it's once again a drug-abiding detective story, but it doesn't feel as rooted yet in hallucinations. All that is questioned is perspective, and the details are slowly falling out in a way that are compelling. If nothing else, Pizzolato is interested in the police officer who has a shady past and a shadier memory. It's easy to see in how this is the one plot device that gives the show leniency, making the mystery unable to fully be a realized vision. The viewer has to ask why the story may sound off. Is it because Hays is high, or is it because he is senile? Maybe it's something worse.
Over the course of the two hours, there's little to suggest that the show is on par with season one. Then again, part of the charm was how surprising it was and how it grew. Still, it isn't a season that has yet redeemed itself entirely in a way that makes it more than the conventional detective shows it was once better than. Ali is giving a good performance, and one that helps justify his status as a great actor, but the series has yet to go in a direction that's particularly engaging. It's fine and serves as the perfect set-up to the story that may come. It's a relief that there's little that is inherently wrong. However, what is there that makes it inherently great? There's not enough to suggest that the show was worth saving for any reason other than to show that Pizzolato is a better writer. It's a redemptive season in some ways, and even if it just finished at the level of fine, it would be a great improvement over the long dark shadow that hangs over him.
True Detective so far has been a great and terrible show. What season three looks to do is to remind us why we fell in love with it in the first place. There's plenty of fodder to suggest that this will be the case by the end of 2019. The clues are planted in a way that's highly compelling. Still, is there enough different to not make it feel like on some level that it is a retread? The structure feels verbatim at points, and who knows if The Yellow King will be born in some new context. For now, the show is doing good if a bit slow and producing evidence that the biggest surprise that this show could give is not a crazy mid-season revelation, but that the show was more than a one premise wonder.
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