True Detective

Holy shit... If that wasn't a different turn than Veronica Mars...

So while Mud was the first movie I saw in full of the McConaissance, True Detective was the first thing I watched of the McConaissance and the first thing that made me want to explore the comeback.

I watched a couple of episodes, was slightly impressed, especially with how dark and introspective a character like Rust Cohle was and how likeable and yet how much of an asshole Woody Harrelson's character Marty was. The show was interesting from the get go. And then I had limited wifi, I wasn't able to watch it consistently until today... and then I binge watched the other half of the season.

True Detective follows the uneasy relationship between Marty Hart (played by Woody Harrelson), a state police detective who hasn't seen much action and and describes himself as pretty normal and average, and Rust Cohle (played by Matthew McConaughey).

The two of them investigate the murder of a young woman who was killed in a ceremonially, satanic manner. Both Rust and Marty are deeply affected by the murder and they continue on a path to discover who the serial murderer is, and stop him before he kills again. This investigation spans over almost two decades, and a lot of it is told in flashbacks. Marty and Rust are being investigated in 2010 and reflect on their careers leading up to that point.

And that's not even a good synopsis.

I would like to explain this further but I'm running into spoiler territory. So if you haven't seen this, SEE IT! Usually I disclaim that spoilers are coming up and they're at your own risk but this is a situation where I insist you go and watch True Detective. DO IT!

By god, if these two aren't one of the best team ups I have ever seen, I don't know who is.

As I said before, Marty is a pretty average detective. He's in good standing and he knows how to properly investigate. At the beginning of the flashbacks, its been about 3 months that they've been partners and Marty is still getting used to Rust's abnormal behavior.

And when I say abnormal behavior... I just that Rust Cohle is quite simply put, just one of the craziest mother fuckers you will ever see on television.

Its not an outward crazy though. Rust is introspective, quiet, and calculating.

They call him the Tax Man at the beginning because of his giant ledger he takes to crime scenes. He has these moments where he's talking to Marty and he's just spewing off these monologues that are just introspective and quiet honestly, depressing. But these are the kinds of rants you'd find in Fight Club and other hippy BS like that. There's no doubt you'll find T-shirts sooner or later of things Rust Cohle says trying to make better meaning out of it that it already is. But I digress.

What is better than Rust's rants of depression are Marty's reaction to them. Marty is the vehicle of sanity and at first, he's what we can relate to as we watch this character do his thing. Marty, at first, seems like the normal character... but that soon changes.

Its quickly discovered that Marty is having an affair behind the back of his wife (played by Michelle Monaghan). And then you have all of Marty's drama with his family and dealing with alcoholism, and children who eventually grow up. And by god if that isn't some of the best personal drama I've seen in a long time.

I feel like I might be overselling this show but the same thing was done to me when I first heard of it.

This was one of the many shows my good friend and fellow movie/TV watcher was hyping up for a long time. It was this and Dexter. Now I watched Dexter... and I wasn't impressed. So you can imagine why I was a little hesitant to watch this show.

Now I was planning on watching this show, I mean its two hollywood actors doing a crime thriller, why wouldn't I watch this. But it wasn't on my list of priorities. Well this show has put my friends credibility back up because this is one of the best pieces of work that I have ever seen on HBO. The story is just so rich, the characters are just so well established and interact with each other perfectly. There is literally very few things that I can say bothered me or were things I did not love in this show.

And this show was intense. I mean we're talking occult stuff with crazy symbols and antlers being used as crowns for victims of murder. Not to mention we're in the bayou of Louisiana and there is some fucked up shit going on down there.

Lets talk individual performances.

Woody Harrelson - By god the man can act. At first I thought Harrelson was going to have more of an observation role, he was going to be the one marking the behavior of Rust Cohle. But no, second episode you figure out he's having an affair and they delve into that vice and how he copes as a guy who is knowingly cheating on his wife. And then they bring in alcohol and that just makes things even more messy. And later there's him being a father and how his temper can get the best of him.

Marty Hart is a really, really interesting character. Woody Harrelson knocks it out of the park. You want to despise him for hurting his wife, being an all around asshole but at the same time he acknowledges that he's fucked up. He's likeable and yet incredibly fallible.

I'll get to Matthew McConaughey in a second but in correspondence with Woody Harrelson's character, I want to talk about Michelle Monaghan.

I haven't seen Michelle Monaghan in a lot of stuff. One of the first things I saw her in was Mission Impossible 3. Here's my review for that in case you're interested. I wasn't wild about her in that film but that was a totally different kind of film.

Her in this... is alright. I'll give it, she's a lot better than I originally thought she was, because honestly I wasn't that wild about her being in it to begin with. But she brings it in this show. Is she phenomenal? No. But she's pretty good considering.

She does a good job of a woman just getting sucked into the bullshit that Marty Hart is going through. One way or another, she sticks around despite his bullshit (at least for a while). And she does a pretty good job.

Again, I'm not wild about her but I feel like she's a good part of the awesomeness that is True Detective and completes the circle, even if its a small piece.

But the largest part, by far is in Matthew McConaughey's Rust Cohle.

This show would be your run of the mill crime drama if it wasn't for Matthew McConaughey and his dark, introspective, cold interpretation of Rust Cohle.

Now it could be argued that this performance is not good at all, its just stoic and doesn't show off McConaughey's acting skills, especially if he's just monotone and stoic the entire time. And that would be true if not for two reasons.

First, the character kind of calls for it. This is a man who has nothing in his apartment at the beginning but a bed and a stack of books. He's been divorced because of the death of a child, he's been so far undercover its painful.

Oh and you want to talk about being undercover. There's an episode where he goes undercover, does a line (mulitple lines) of cocaine. McConaughey looks like shit in that scene. Its just a phenomenal performance.

The second reason that argument doesn't work is because it only really happens in the first episode. He's very stoic and introspective in the beginning but either I get used to it, or it becomes more complex and intriguing as the story goes on. And I'm certain its the latter.

Rust Cohle is not just stoic, he's fascinating. The shit that comes out of this guys mouth is actually really hilarious and yet it kind of makes you think. And same as Marty, this guy isn't a good guy. He's later known as the guy who can get a confession or get people to talk and he's just bluntly honest with them. There's a point where they're getting information out the ex-boyfriend of the diseased about the man who they think murdered her. As they're leaving the ex-boyfriend asks if he might have been responsible for his girlfriends death, Rust just flat out says, yeah you could be.

And that's a really great element of the show. Its deeper than most crime mystery dramas. This could be obvious since its not an episodic serial and instead a mini series from HBO.

But that's the great thing about this show. As much as Rust Cohle can be an asshole, he's honest with people. They say he's got integrity. And a lot of the rants he goes on, you can chalk it up to depressing thinking or over simplification of a more complex issue, but at the end of the day, he's not wrong.

He talks about existence, consciousness, all that crazy introspective things and it makes you think.

Do you have to come out of this show with a change in personal beliefs or way of life? Of course not. But its a great comparison especially with the two characters of Rust and Marty.

The comparison between the two's monologues and words said in the investigations in 2010 are great antithesis to each other.

In case I haven't said it enough, this show is just too damn good. As far as the McConaissance goes, its probably the best I've seen. It blows Mud out of the water, that's for damn sure. Its a shame that McConaughey is not coming back for the second season of True Detective but I think the show ended his storyline really well and McConaughey himself was satisfied with the end of the show. No need to overstay a welcome.

There's a lot more I can say about this show but its obvious that I love it too much to really find anything critically wrong with it. If you can, please let me know. I'm more than willing to hear other opinions of the show. There's not too many shows that I want to buy the entire season right after I just watched it, but this is one of them.

That's my opinion on True Detective. What do you think? Comment and Discuss below.

I'll leave you with this. You want a good example of the kind of shit that comes out of Rust Cohle's mouth? Watch this, Pete Holmes hits it on the head. Enjoy!