OT: True Detective finale discussion, links
SPOILERS AHEAD
So, I know that the board has discussed this great series before. What did people think about last night's finale? I thought it was pretty great. From the absolute evil creepiness that was the Childress property to its inhabitants...goodness, I think I'm going to have nightmares about Erroll and his half-sisterladyfriend for awhile. Just pure evil incarnate.
And the best part, of course, was the evolution of the relationship between Marty and Rust Cohle. It was great to see the self-awareness in Marty at the end, when he breaks down and cries, and to see Rust go from someone who believes in nothing to a man who finally starts to see the glass as half-full, in his own way. Really a great ending.
Some interesting links to reviews below; the video from HBO explaining the finale is excellent. What did everyone think about the finale and how the series arc concluded?
HBO video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE2n-nwiqDs
Grantland: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/the-true-detective-season-1-a… and http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/true-detective-finale-all-we-…
Vulture/NY Magazine: http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/true-detective-recap-season-1-finale-for…
Alan Sepinwall with the creator, Nick Pizzolatto: http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/true-detective-creator-nic-pi…
Sepinwall's review: http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/season-finale-review-true-det…
AV Club: http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/true-detective-form-and-void-201999
Yeah, me too. I love that they were vindicated. And that it went to the press. I also may have jumped off my couch and said "Fuck YES Rust!" when he hit Erroll with the head shot. It was a great end to their bromance, also. The great thing about this series is that it was and is really like an 8 hour movie. That's why, to me, when done well, there is more that can be done on television than in a typical movie film. The actors and director have more time to tell the story.
Also, how about the beautiful cinematography of the series? Incredible.
I can see "bigger" actors coming to TV if it follows this format.
They can commit to a show knowing it is only going to be 8 episodes and possibly film a show like this in between movie projects.
I read somewhere that some of the same actors (not MM/WH) might be used in season 2.
I hope they bring back Clarke Peters no matter how small the part. I feel like he has a contract with HBO to appear in every show.
it was no WILDCATS but I watched it.
Generally, it seems that the finale of a great series goes one of two ways: Tie up loose ends or swing for the fences.
I thought True Detective adhered more toward the former. The finale was fine, there were some great scenes, it didn't take away from anything that came before it...but it didn't really elevate the show the way it could have had any one of (or a combination of) the numerous theories laid out online and amongst friends come to pass. I feel like Breaking Bad chose this route as well. I thought there was potential for something exceptional and all we really got was Rust and Marty getting their man, though the way it went down was extremely creepy, entertaining and thrilling.
I'm glad they didn't "swing for the fences" because that would just go against what Nic P. has been saying from the start.
Midway through the series I started researching the in-depth relationship to the King in Yellow, the subtle clues throughout each episode, and the deeper meaning of the dialogue. After last night, I realized this was just a good police drama with 2 good actors. I think it's gotten WAY overblown.
It still seemed like they were still filming MM in a yellow hue which I had read (perhaps here) was some subtle hint that he was the yellow king. Obvioulsy that theory did not pan out.
I think the writer/director lead people down a lot of dead end alleys which added to the mystique. For instance:
- Rust also walked up to Marty's house with yellow flowers in his had.
- The little devil figurine in the bedroom of Marty's second affair.
- The guard named Childress who seemed to address the dude in prison prior to the guy slitting his wrists.
I enjoyed this show a lot. The writing and direction were incredibly good, and MM might just win an Emmy for his performance. If you guys like dark police shows, give Hannibal a try, it is also a fantastic show, and the fact that it is on network and getting away with some of the stuff it's getting away with is mind-blowing.
Fantastic finale and overall series. Best part, Alexandra Daddario's rack in episode 2. Hubba hubba.
Terrible? Come now.
And no point? The point was the journey. It was spelled out as explicitly as possible. You can't beat all the evil, as Marty says. But their efforts made some impact. It was the story of two men redeeming themselves and breakign out of self-destruction and, in the end, becoming friends. That's one point right that.
If I wanted to watch a story about two men redeeming themselves, beating evil (but not all evil! DUN-DUN-DUUUUN), and becoming friends, I'd watch Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys, 48 Hours, Another 48 Hours, or any of the other hundreds of Buddy Cop movies with the same take home.
I just thought True Detective was breaking new ground and was disappointed that all we got was killing the bad guy, heroic survival, and maybe there really is some meaning to life.
I felt like there was a major shift (and dropoff) from the tone and grandness of the early episodes to the last two, and the finale really felt boring and conventional to me. The dangling air fresheners and the man strapped to the bed seemed like blatant knockoffs of the film Seven, and the buddy-buddy neatness of Marty and Rust coming together in the end as better men just felt like a betrayal of their earlier characters. I loved the series, but really felt let down by the finale.
I second this.
Maybe, but I think they wasted a ton of screen time that could've been used more economically toward plot development. The whole interrogation of the sherrif at the beginning of this episode was worthless, for example. And I can't even remember what happened in Episode 7. It was bad writing, in my opinion.
It's really really hard to finish a story strong. The same rushed feeling happend in the last two episodes of Breaking Bad, and they had six years to pace the plot arc.
If you feel Marty's family being involved in some way with the Yellow King was needed, I recommend you try the Lethal Weapon movies.
[Oops, was intended for Magnum P.I.]
Ditto. Everyone loves the crazy, intricate plots but that doesn't make something good.
If you couldn't appreciate it for what it was - and needed it to meet your own crazy expectation - then you missed out.
That's funny because I wrote my response above to MGoBender before reading this.
Marty's family being involved would've been an interesting way to reinforce the theme there's more than one way to harm women and children, more than one form of evil, sometimes borne of our own neglect and self-absorption.
Just something. As is, I don't really know what the show was about that hasn't been rehashed by every cop movie.
My favorite part of the show was the acting during the triangulated storytelling of the first half of the season and some of the directorial flairs, like the robbery on the stash house in episode three.
I am adding link to probably my favorite TV show review site who always does an excellent job in my opinion:
http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/true-detective-form-and-void-201999
Good link- I will add it. I read this as well.
Not sure if you're a Sopranos fan but the writer in the AVCLUB assigned to that show that did has amazing reviews that they did just a couple years ago for The Sopranos. Highly recommended to read if you're ever watching a re-run of episodes.
I also use AVclub for well rounded reviews. Here is one for the new season of Hannibal. I am really digging this show. Might be the best thing on network tv.
http://www.avclub.com/review/hannibal-seems-intent-becoming-tvs-best-show-201631
But he definitely went up more than a few notches in my book after watching this show.
But didn't he find his happiness? He says at the end that the "light is starting to win." He and Marty survive, taking down their little bit of evil while each being personally redeemed. Each going from a life of lonliness and self-destruction to what seems to be a new life where they are actually friends and, dare we say, optimistic about the future and their PI firm (not explicitly stated, but that's the obvious next step).
Personal take from an admitted pessimist is that Rust did not find his happiness. He's a prisoner who was finally released only to have the warden slam the gate shut when he was one step away from getting out and then being thrown back in his cell.
I can see where he would possibly have some hope at this point, realizing that when he does finally die there will be happiness waiting for him. But I don't think he's happy in any way. Hell, that's the only time all season he cried, if I remember correctly. So maybe he can look forward to some peace when he dies. But as Marty pointed out, maybe there's nothing that can kill Rust Cohle.
It was mostly like I expected. I expected nothing that elevated the series and essentially what I got was that. This show was weird for me. It wasn't excited. It didn't leave me waiting a week to see what happened next. What it was was probably some of the most intense TV I have ever watched. There were some hangers but not like Breaking Bad or Prison Break or other shows like that. It was just great TV in general.
There was a poitn in the show where I thought we would find out Rust was somehow involved. I never expected before last night but last night I had a feeling that could happen, though it didn't and I'm glad it didn't.
Also, McConaughey is going to sweep TV and movie awards this year. What a year. I watch DBC this weekend as well and what a great job by him.
Episode 8 wasn't the best of the series but it was satisfactory enough. Things were tied together a little too quickly for my liking but I do like happy endings so the "light winning" was nice. Can not wait for next season. I was thinking Detroit would be a great setting for a series like this. Rural Louisiana was great. Funny story: I went to the Chris Webber time out Final Four in NOLA. 4 heavyweight programs sold out every hotel in metro NOLA (for the first two games). My buddies and me wound up driving west of NOLA several miles to find a place. It was really scary with real poverty and chemical plants all over the bayou. To this day they give me grief for not getting reservations and having to stay in weird vodoo land. At least we didn't see any guy riding around on a lawn mower...
Thanks for the link- added it to the OP.
I wish we'd learned more about the Yellow King/Carcosa mythology in the end, though. I don't mind Rust and Marty not catching every member of the cult, but we were given too many reasons to wonder about the nature of the cult/mythology to then be told as little about them as we were. That's not to say that I wanted a real monster at the end, but I did want to know more about what the Tuttles and Childresses believed. I also think Audrey's behavior was a bit too much of a red herring. She wasn't just a troubled kid - she was a troubled kid who acted out the exact manner of Marie Fontenot's death (or was it "just" sexual abuse?) with her dolls. I feel a little toyed with there.
Much of acting, much of the writing, and the cinematograpy were outstanding. I'm not sure I've ever seen a show that created such a vivid sense of place. The music was exceptionally well-chosen as well. The biggest compliment to the show I can pay is to say that I felt totally immersed in its story and place and wanted to spend some more time there searching for answers.
Personally, I thought one of the more itneresting features of the finale was MM's breakdown at the end, when he was discussing his near death experience.
This was a character as steeped in nihilism as I can remember on television. References to death being the end, with no promise of afterlife and a stark opposition to religion and its promises of an afterlife or salvation. Even in the last episode, he refers to people as "sencient meat"--to which WH responds, "What's scented meat?".
Then, during his near-death experience, he feels a connected to his late daughter and father and emerges from that experience with the conclusion that in the battle between light and dark--that light is winning (since there was only dark in the beginning).
Whether one believes in afterlife, etc., does not matter to me. But, I thought that change represented a dramatic shift in the character forged by his experience in the case. Either way, I thought it pretty interesting from a character development standpoint.
For all of the issues mentioned below...IMO the finale was a big let down from what it could have been. The first 6 episodes were amazing...the last 2 felt like they were thrown toghether. The last 12 minutes of the last episode was basically filler.
After reading a couple very elaborate theories online about how the season might end, having things end as simply as they did was almost a twist in its own right. Although I wasn't blown away by the conclusion, it was pretty good. The series was interesting to me in that it took so much care to avoid certain cliches, but couldn't seem to avoid a couple of them. I am extremely thankful that the show never went supernatural on us.
I thought this was one of the better shows I've seen in a while; there were plenty of things I could nitpick out of it that I didn't like, but none big enough to turn me off. The best thing about it was Cohle and MM's acting of that role. I'm actually pleased that he seemed to find a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel by the end of the episode. I know a lot of people thought he should have died and finally found his peace, as it were. But that would have been such an obvious choice. The show was dark enough already, given the subject matter - children being raped, abused, killed - that I felt like having a hint of positivity in the end was welcome.
March 10th, 2014 at 11:29 PM ^
...and I thought it was great. Better than I expected. Very suspenseful, creepy, and in a way, kind of moving. Cool to see the relationship between Marty and Rust Cohle. Those two are great together on screen...both are very good actors, and are sneaky funny.
March 11th, 2014 at 11:09 AM ^
I laughed when he said that line too. I thought it was funny how they flipped eachother off too.
March 11th, 2014 at 12:37 AM ^