True Detective (TV Series, HBO)

[ProfessorChaos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXwCoNwBSkQ

did anyone else tune in for this? the trailers had me rather intrigued, so i checked it out, and was hooked within the first ten minutes or so. great performances by both mcconaughey and harrelson, awesome cinematography, and i really like the jumping between the original case (set in '95) and the current day....really interested in seeing where this one is going.

HBO has announced there will be 8 episodes "this season", so i'd expect a season two announcement before too long. i originally thought it was going to be a one-and-done deal, but apparently, that's not the case. while that makes me a bit skeptical, i must admit that so far, i'm really digging it and will be tuned in next week for sure. airs sunday nights at 8pm for those of you in the u.s.

[Neil]

Starts in the UK next month - I'll keep an eye out for it!

I'll maybe set series link and watch it later in the year as Walking Dead is back on... Then Game Of Thrones!

[ProfessorChaos]

i didn't really want to compare them, as they're on different networks and are two totally unrelated shows, but they air at the same time on the same night.....but after one episode i'm way more into this show than i have been in TWD for quite some time, and will be watching this as it airs, and setting the dvr to watch TWD at a later time.

regardless, though, it's definitely worth a gander.

[AcesandEights]

I'll watch it on demand, definitely. Thanks for the heads up and reminder about this series!

[MinionZombie]

Checked out the first episode - I dug it - it's got this weird vibe to it that I quite like. It's mysterious, and dark, but slightly humorous at times too, and very stylish. Bonus points for closing the first episode with "Young Men Dead" by The Black Angels. :cool:

[ProfessorChaos]

i thought the second episode was even better than the first. the back story of rustin cole is very interesting, with his revelation of his days as a deep-undercover narcotics officer and admission that he had visions and mild hallucinations for years afterwards. i imagine there's quite a bit more we'll be discovering about him down the road as well.

and man, that alexandra daddario.....what a fox. woody harrelson must've been really loving job the day they filmed that scene where she restrained him and read him his rights. sadly, it seems his life at home is suffering because he's got his priorities all discombobulated.

it's funny how the case these guys are working on is almost overshadowed by how troubled and contrasting these two characters are. great stuff. really excited to see where it goes now that they've digging up more disturbing clues, particularly that creepy image on the wall in the church.

[MinionZombie]

Just added some spoiler tags to some of your post there, prof, as Neil is in this thread and hasn't seen the episodes yet.

I do agree though, it's very intriguing and I'm rather enjoying it. Also, yes, that scene with AD was great. ;)

[ProfessorChaos]

wow. that was another stellar episode, this show just keeps getting better. it appears they're gonna take next week off in order to avoid fighting with the super bowl for viewers, which sucks. don't they realize it's 2014 and most people have tivo and dvr devices?

anyways, from the previews, it looks like next week's episode is going to be packed with action and suspense....it's gonna be awesome, i'm sure. what i'm intrigued about though is the fact that they seeeem to have a solid suspect and appear to be closing in on the killer, yet there are five episodes left....guess we'll see.

this show is on my mind quite a bit throughout the week. two weeks is going to seem like an eternity.

[MinionZombie]

Oh man, two weeks? Lame - I hate it when shows get shunted off because of the flippin' Super Bowl, particularly when it's on a pay channel like HBO.

The show seemed to suggest last week that the person they nab for the killings in 1995 isn't the actual killer, hence the interviews nearly 20 years later.

That final shot with the tattooed guy wandering around a field in just his undercrackers, wearing a gas mask, and wielding a machete was downright creepy, too. :shifty:

Yeah, it's definitely the sort of show that gets lodged in your head ... it's hard to define, but the mood is so strong that you can't help but be swallowed by it.

[ProfessorChaos]

about that final shot:

do you suppose that the dude in the gas mask is the "green-faced spaghetti monster" mentioned in the eyewitness report by the kids? they showed a drawing of it, and with how strange a device a gas mask would appear to young children, i immediately recalled that drawing and conversation from the first episode. i'm quite intrigued....

i also suspect that creepy fucker is the killer, but there's more to the story than meets the eye, given all the episodes left. cohle and hart were both very aware that this upcoming incident with the randall ladoux character (the guy in the gas mask) was a huge part of the case, and it sounds like once the next episode starts, the shit really hits the fan, so to speak.

and yes, the two week wait is bullshit. i plan to rewatch the first three episodes in order to be caught up and refreshed when the next one airs.....which is no problem, as i find this show mesmerizing and almost hypnotic. last night i was so caught up in cohle's ramblings and beer-can arts and crafts that i was almost surprised when the credits began rolling and i realized it was over.....damn i love this show!

[MinionZombie]

Interesting theory there, prof - could be ... could be.

It is a mesmerising show, although I do find myself really having to pay strict attention sometimes as I do tend to sort of 'drift away' into the poetic nature of the show ... I don't mean in a way like "I'm bored", I mean in a way that I kind of get distracted by a certain rhythm of speach, or a particular shot, or some idea that one of the characters proffers that gets my mind wandering in another (equally) satisfying direction, so I do have to make sure I keep pulling my head back in to keep track of certain key bits of info to stay on track. :)

Also, quite often with shows I skip the opening credits, but there are a few shows with which I always watch the opening credits - The Sopranos, The Walking Dead, for instance - and True Detective is another one that I now watch the opening title sequence every single time. The music, the vibe, the imagery - it perfectly gets my head into the right space to watch the episode.

It was nifty to get that creepy looking preacher's helper/bible fearer bloke in this episode. His part in the opening titles is so stand-out, and so I wonder if all the various shots are to do with certain elements/clues/whatever throughout the season.

[ProfessorChaos]

oh man, that was intense. i knew that the undercover bit was gonna hit a snag sooner or later, and once ginger and his crew broke out the police uniforms and didn't bother getting a cop-looking car, shaving their zz-top beards off, or bother keeping sober long enough to run up in a ghetto with plans to rob a stash house, i knew the shit was gonna hit the fan.

such great acting, the scenes between hart and his wife were almost uncomfortable things were getting so heated. hard to say that he doesn't deserve what happened, though.

two weeks was a long time to wait for this episode, i had a feeling it was gonna be a good one. unfortunately, i've got to go out of town for two weeks for training for work. i'll be able to watch the episodes on the weekend between that i get to be home for, but i'm going to have to wait till next friday for the next one and another week after that for the next one.

as for the prospect of a second season, i recently read that the next season would be a reboot with a new case and new detectives. i think it's gonna be hard to top this first season, for sure.

[MinionZombie]

Aye, I also read the 'different cast, different case' approach for a new season, and like you I'm not sure how/if that'll work out - the lead duo they've got in this one is pretty darn special.

I see/saw what you mean about that unbroken take near the end of the episode - absolutely epic - a good 8 minutes. Indoors, outdoors, indoors, outdoors, over fences, police cars, choppers, guns, and sorts - it must have been a huge scale logistical operation to achieve that - fantastic.

[ProfessorChaos]

just got around to watching the latest episode, the wait was almost unbearable. and, as always, the show did not disappoint. this show's track record is flawless in my opinion. cohle's philosophical ramblings, the tone, music, cinematography (that shot of the tiara in the tree, new on the day it was thrown and stuck on the branch, then quickly aging to show the passage of seven years, was perfect), and most of all, the acting, has been top-knotch every single damn minute as far as i'm concerned. this is without a doubt the best thing on tv right now.

it was awesome to see the way things went down with ledoux, particularly how hart and cohle told the investigators in '95 and even the detectives 17 years later how it all went down, compared to how differently things actually progressed. and man, that headshot on ledoux was graphic. i know that we see literally dozens of walkers on TWD each and every week having their heads smashed or destroyed by hammers, bullets, rifle buttstocks, knives, swords, etc, but there are so many, they feel cheap and almost corny after a while.....but when hart stormed out of that shack and point-blank blew ledoux brains all over the ground, it was such a powerful moment. and i realize they are different shows with totally separate agendas, it just goes to show how well-developed and well-written true detective is when one single headshot carries more weight and gravity than an entire season of TWD's killings, whether it's shane, axel, hershel, or whoever getting their head shattered . and speaking of the walking dead, did anyone notice that the girl who plays the creepy lil lizzie psycho also plays hart's younger daughter in the 2002 timeframe? those beady little eyes gave her away instantly.

i really don't think that rustin has anything to do with the killings in '95, nor any killings since then. my hunch is that in the 2012 timeframe, he's no longer a cop, but still working the case as a civilian, since he feels that as far as law enforcement is concerned, the case is over and died with reggie ledoux, even though the suspect from the pharmacy robbery told him him the killer was still out there...either that or being covered up. lots of signs have pointed towards rich powerful men in powerful positions being involved in these ritualistic sacrifices, and i feel that there's way more to the story than the show has revealed as of yet.

only three episodes left, and i feel the best is yet to come! as of now, this series is a must-buy on day one for me, no hesitation whatsoever.

[Neil]

Found the first episode a little slow/plodding... I'll give it a couple more episodes...

[MinionZombie]

Neil - the pace is gradual, but worthwhile. It's only eight episodes, anyway ... if it was this pace over 13 or more episodes then it'd be too slow, but over 8 it's not bad. It slowly builds up a head of steam and gets murkier and creepier as it goes.

Yeah, I also noticed that the girl who plays creepy Lizzie in TWD was in the most recent episode. There was quite a lot of pace in this most recent episode with the quick passages of time, and we're really moving forward.

I too am not convinced Cohle is the killer. It'd be a shit reveal if that was the case generally, plus there's still three more episodes left ... like you prof, I'm thinking he's been investigating on his own time as an ex-cop.

Headshots - well, it's part of the world of TWD, it's more of a functional need for the characters to perform in order to survive, so it's going to be a frequent event ... whereas in True Detective such an act is not a common thing, at all, and should be actively avoided if you're a cop (unless it can't be helped), and there hasn't really been any of that sort of thing in the show, so when it comes then naturally it's going to have a big old impact ... and it most certainly did. There's also a big difference between killing a zombie and killing a human being ... even if said human being is a total scumbag.

I've struggled to follow certain plot elements along the way, or piece certain things together as quickly as I might otherwise do, so on occasion I do feel a little bit lost by the show, but then I inevitably receive a clue or a piece of information that reminds me of something and how it ties things together. It certainly demands your strict attention, and the sense of atmosphere and mood is tip-top.

Really looking forward to seeing how it all plays out over the last three episodes. :cool:

[ProfessorChaos]

well, with out-of-town commitments for work, and a week's vacation to the gulf coast for mardi gras, i was a couple weeks behind on this, but caught up in time for the finale. i thought the show ended in a very satisfying manner, even a bit optimistic given how dark the show got at times. a few things:

first of all, it pains me to say it, but i was wrong and my girlfriend was right about maggie and rust having a sexual encounter, although it went down in a manner that really felt cheap and trashy...not sure what the gf expected to happen between them, but she said that she definitely didn't see it going down quite like that.

awesome to see rust and marty's reunion, very neat how they fell back together without really missing a beat, even though it'd been about a decade since they'd spoken or seen each other.

as for the finale: the green-eared spaghetti monster turned out to be the creepy groundskeeper, which was a popular internet theory that i didn't quite give a lot of thought to. gonna have to go back and watch the whole series again and really pay attention to the scene where rust runs across him back in '95. his lair "carcosa", was deeply disturbing....all those bodies and bones throughout, stashed away inside the numerous structures he'd made with the branches and sticks, was very eerie, but what really raised the hairs on my neck was the piles of children's clothing and shoes everywhere from all the kids he'd sacrificed and killed over the years.

when the showdown finally began, i wasn't sure if either of the detectives would make it out alive, both had some pretty gnarly injuries. glad to see they got out alive and the villain didn't....though i wish that the tuttle family didn't get off so easy and the feds were able to make the connections to bring all the sick fucks down. but like marty said, at least they got "their guy", who was likely one of the larger players in the whole deal.

i was glad the show had a strong epilogue, which gave this season a real sense of closure. rust's near-death experience was a great monologue, which will likely help mcconaughey nab the best actor emmy next go-round. i really dug how they showed how much the two partners went through and how close it brought them in the end. hart's gift of a pack of smokes and the conversation around it had me chuckling and realizing how much i'll miss these characters and how hard it's gonna be to do any better in season 2 with a supposedly whole new cast and story.

will be picking this one up on blu-ray for sure, and will likely end up binge-watching all eight episodes in one weekend with some friends who haven't had the chance to see it since they don't have HBO and aren't very tech-savvy, but are very interested in seeing this....and i've got a feeling they won't be disappointed.

[MinionZombie]

Yeah, a very good season closer that's for sure.

Like you prof, I think they've really got their work cut out for them to bring about a second season that'll live up to the quality of these eight episodes of season one.

The finale was seriously creepy - the set design and decoration was some of the best, if not the best, that I've seen in any TV show (or movie, for that matter).

Carcosa was inspired - beautifully designed, but terrifyingly demented at the same time ... the insane ramblings of Errol echoing around and shifting from side to side and back to front all around Rust was really disturbing.

Likewise their house was creepy as all get out. A total dump, but also a vision of the cluttered and diseased minds haunting it. Those stacks of videotapes around the TV, that vom-inducing bathroom, all those dolls (the one with the missing face wigged me out).

Furthermore Errol and his "at least" half-sister ... very disturbing ... and the different voices Billy put on, shifting from average scumbag to pot-bellied Cary Grant impersonator to all-out psycho nutjob. Chilling.

Also glad we got plenty of time to say goodbye to the central characters - Rust's monologue was indeed wonderful, and nice to see him show heartfelt emotion ... it was tragic and beautiful all at the same time.

I'll have to go over the facts of the case again just to get it into my head a little better and tie up some things, but I'll definitely be wanting to revisit this show. I smell a Blu-Ray purchase. :thumbsup::cool::)