True Detective is pretty fascinating. The first season was such a blockbuster for so many reasons, and it became a genuine water cooler show. That lead to season 2 being one of the most hyped seasons in quite sometime. And it was a critical BOMB. It was nearly a series killer. The fact that there was an eventual third season starring a multiple Oscar winner barely went noticed. All of that is to say there is actually much to dissect once you get past the noise and perception of the show.
4. Season 4: Night Country
Issa Lopez pitched a detective show to HBO, and they asked her to adapt it to be a fourth season of True Detective. That corporate decision really set this season up for failure in a way that I could not have appreciated at the time. It frankly was just not clear how much of the special sauce of True Detective was not in the structure or storytelling but in the particular brand of bozoness that Nic Pizzolatto brought to the table.
Night Country simply does not feel like True Detective – for better or worse. It just feels like a detective show about two detectives. Despite some thematic similarities, the only thing about this season that makes you feel like this is True Detective are the direct lore references to the most celebrated season – the first season. Lopez directly connects Night Country to Rust Cohle in a variety of ways that frankly just feel completely tacked on in a corporate IP way.
Pizzolatto has aggressively attacked this season, and Lopez et co. have obviously defended themselves against him. This new season was a huge success and got the show another season (run by Lopez). I feel a great deal of empathy for everyone involved in this great situation. Pizzolatto created this very specific piece of art – flaws and all. Lopez originally envisioned her very own thing. The latter was compromised by the corporate desire to maximize commercial appeal. They all deserve better.
3. Season 2: The Light’s Losing
“My strong suspicion is we get the world we deserve.”
Season 2 of True Detective had a truly thankless job. Season 1 was a phenomenon and was genuinely very good television. So the follow-up season had two paths: take the easy route and deliver more of the same or try to push forward in a more challenging direction and make something new. The show went in the latter direction, and to such a degree, that the season was largely rejected at the time, met with minimal reevaluation, and essentially killed the True Detective brand (despite some very late follow-ups).
Almost ten years later, I went and finally re-watched it and was shocked to find that I enjoyed it more the second time around and certainly found it more interesting.
I think the key thing to understand is that the season is really trying to function as an antithesis to season 1 as much as humanly possible. If the first season tried to be almost fun, then this season wanted to avoid that. If the first season wanted to find optimism in a dreary world, this season wanted to avoid that (and boy did it ever). Season 2 of True Detective is a show grabbing the audience by the neck and demanding to know, “Why do you take pleasure from this?” I really appreciate that. It is a terrible way to do business, but the financial success of this show is not my priority. I love that it did not settle and instead tried to probe deeper and interrogate the very concept of a detective show.
2. Season 3: Is the light winning?
Given the hugely negative reaction to season 2, it should not be too much of a surprise that this third season that came out years later was a “back to basics” in multiple ways. Much like season 1, it was far more of a straightforward procedural that featured two detectives in multiple periods of their lives trying to solve a case.
Where the show deviates though is that season 3 is far more of a solo character study than anything else – centered around Mahershala Ali. In what should be no surprise, Ali once again establishes here that he is one of the very best and most compelling actors working today.
The season goes in-depth in him in all ways. It paints a beautifully empathetic portrait of a man who carries so much of the baggage of this land with him in so many ways. He is trying to make his way and find his path with the tools that he has. He is caught between so many competing ideas of validation – it is truly heartbreaking and tragic how much he was denied and how much he denied from himself. And the consequences of that. Can you make something beautiful for yourself in this cursed land?
1. Season 1: The Yellow King
“Once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light’s winning.”
The streaming era attempted to erase the concept of a water cooler show. That communal aspect of watching a hot show is one of the great and redemptive pleasures of television. True Detective season one was one of the last of a dying breed during this time period. It amassed a huge following immediately, gained a ton of a buzz, and then became a phenomenon by the end of the season.
And here is the thing, it is completely worthy of all the praise and attention it got at the time.
Now, there are a lot of significant reasons why this season of television was so good. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson were both outstanding. Their obvious chemistry was off the charts. The show was if nothing else a great character study with these two. Then the procedural element was done really well.
However, those elements alone do not make it so special to me. What makes the procedural element and the character studies so well-done is how they connect and illuminate the biggest idea of the show: Conjecture vs. Sprawl.
What at first seems like a simple (fucked up) murder mystery with spooky and potentially supernatural elements was really a story about how there are the elites in this country and there is everyone else. In this context, the show emphasizing that Good vs. Evil is the eternal fight of life feels less cliche and trite. Because the war the elites wage on the rest of us at all times is truly just that. A beautiful season of television.
The Reel World 
