# True Detective - HBO - McConaughey / Harrelson \[SPOILERS\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697 "2013-06-11T03:43:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/381 "2014-03-08T23:00:31Z")
Not I buy the whole theory, but it’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/382 "2014-03-08T23:05:17Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Hmmm, I see one person carrying something that’s bobbing up and down a bit. Quite possible. But I don’t think it’s Rust. He finds the body, drags it out to the tree, poses it, then he sets the cane on fire. So we have to assume he found the body in a place hidden so well that it wouldn’t be found without his involvement. Seems a stretch. If he’s that close to the killers that he could find a hidden victim, he’d know who they were. But somebody left the body there and then made sure it’d be found, so it’s a puzzlement, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/383 "2014-03-10T02:01:20Z")
But, but… ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/384 "2014-03-10T02:37:39Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > But, but… That’s not how it works. 🙂 Maybe we should apply Marty’s line to some of the unanswered questions. My take on the whole damn thing is that Rust was looking for darkness. He doesn’t have to look anymore. He knows it will be waiting for him and that it’ll be okay, even sweet. My husband and I were both tearing up. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/385 "2014-03-10T02:43:07Z")
So it was really about Rust and Marty all along. I’m okay with that. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/386 "2014-03-10T02:50:12Z")
It’s like Pizzolatto wasn’t even listening to us at all! ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/387 "2014-03-10T04:48:13Z")
Goddamn, I mean hot goddamn, what a denouement! I couldn’t have predicted a word of it. Thanks, HBO, Pizzolatto, and all others involved in the cast, crew, and production – that was a television Experience. Shit, I’m still processing. I mean, on the surface, it was paint by numbers, but my god the window dressing was worth the price of admission and then some. Who could have predicted it would end on an upbeat? If I take anything away from True Detective, I take away - much like jazz - it’s the notes their \*not \*playing. The entirety of the back story of the Tuttle / Childress clan was merely touched upon like the lightest of piano keys where the same material in lesser hands would have been beaten like a high school timpani. What restraint! To suggest the most lurid, creepiest details in impressionistic brushstrokes rather than lurid headlines. In the barren wastes of TV, “where once there was only dark: If you ask me the light’s winnin’.” ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/388 "2014-03-10T06:09:55Z")
Well that was underwhelming. Carcosa was \*incredibly \*creepy though. Not a place I would ever want to walk through at night. _shiver_ ---
**Author:** ![Anomie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Anomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anomie)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/389 "2014-03-10T06:40:35Z")
Production values: Astonishing Cast and acting: Exceptional Dialogue: Interesting (even with the occasional eyeroll at Rust’s Philosophy 101 and near-death experience) Plot: I feel like I have seen this one billion times before ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/390 "2014-03-10T07:06:31Z")
Yeah, the cinematography and the look of the production were just outstanding. I really wish I had not read this thread though, as it just made me expect something \*more \*to happen. And I \*really \*hated that they used the worn out cliche of “Bad guy is fighting with our protagonist and just as he raises his hands to deliver the killing blow, he is shot from behind by the hero’s previously wounded partner.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/391 "2014-03-10T10:48:06Z")
Yeah, the finale was very standard action flick. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/392 "2014-03-10T12:49:33Z")
Yeah, I wish I had taken Pizzolatto at his word a little more. I think this episode would have been much more enjoyable if I had just watched for a typical detective story, rendered with incredible style and talent, plus a soupçon of eldritch weirdness. I got too wrapped up in looking for clues and trying to predict what crazy things would happen. I finished the episode, found myself feeling a little let down, then reflected: what? it isn’t strange, dramatic, and appealing enough to our voyeurism to see a family of incestuous pedophile murderers who worship some bizarre offshoot Voodoo god? It’s not thrilling enough to see Rust chase Errol through the totally messed up family catacombs, get stabbed, beat a motherfucker with his skull, and get saved by Marty? Will our thirst for luridness only be appeased if there was also a giant multigenerational conspiracy involving the police and Marty’s family, in addition to having links to the governor? I think we’ve just all been too conditioned to expect twists. This really was an excellent story, and I will watch the whole thing again with proper expectations, as well as watching next season without trying to pick it apart so much. That said, I’m not thrilled with the obligatory “atheist has supernatural experience that shows him the error of his ways” bit. Not that I didn’t cry at McConaughey’s performance, but jeez, could we have just left it at a peaceful, warm darkness and not actually trotted out the beloved dead as well? I guess I should be grateful there wasn’t a tunnel with a bright light at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/393 "2014-03-10T13:19:23Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > That said, I’m not thrilled with the obligatory “atheist has supernatural experience that shows him the error of his ways” bit. Not that I didn’t cry at McConaughey’s performance, but jeez, could we have just left it at a peaceful, warm darkness and not actually trotted out the beloved dead as well? I guess I should be grateful there wasn’t a tunnel with a bright light at the end. I agree, mostly, but it was still kind of what the story needed, though. That Rust find some optimism in the darkness. My problem was that it came at the very end of the story with no lead up or indication that that’s where Rust was heading. Contrast it with Marty’s resolution (the understanding that his family loved him even after he’d been an absolute bastard to them), which was properly set up, and more powerful for it, I’d argue. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/394 "2014-03-10T13:27:19Z")
Just starting on E5, and also page 5 of this thread _hands on hips, pants_ Can’t believe some of the ‘plot holes’ people think they see. Making perfect sense so far. … huge production values, beautifully crafted script, intriging arcs … ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/395 "2014-03-10T13:42:02Z")
Great series. Hilarious seeing so many pundits across multiple sites looking for clues where none existed. Just great writing and acting. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/396 "2014-03-10T13:47:53Z")
Anyone else think that the shot of Rust near the end, when he’s in his hospital bed and the camera pulls into his reflection in the window, made him look exactly like classical images of Jesus? ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/397 "2014-03-10T13:49:03Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Great series. Hilarious seeing so many pundits across multiple sites looking for clues where none existed. > > Just great writing and acting. Yup. I think[this Atlantic article](http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/the-em-true-detective-em-finale-thats-it/284312/)is pretty fair - lots of praise for the quality of the production, reflection about why it felt sort of flat at the end, and a bit of mea culpa for embracing the conspiracy-theory hysteria: > [@](#): > > Yes, I agree that it’s a show that couldn’t decide what it was, that shifted radically in tone and structure from episode to episode. But its moments of greatness far outweighed its disappointments for me—even now, when I’m close to my depth of disappointment. Like Amy, I thought the first three episodes were sublime, and if the show never quite fulfilled their promise, it still did enough things right—often very, very right—to reward viewing (if perhaps not the kind of obsessive viewing that I ultimately fell prey to). ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/398 "2014-03-10T13:53:27Z")
Sepinwall has [a post-finale interview up with Pizzolatto.](http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/true-detective-creator-nic-pizzolatto-looks-back-on-season-1) Interesting stuff. In an earlier interview at the start of the season, he told Sepinwall that he doesn’t care about serial killer stories and that this is the story of these two detectives. Taking that into account, it’s not surprising that people are somewhat disappointed a bit in the plot part of the series - but as a character study it was outstanding. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/399 "2014-03-10T14:08:01Z")
From the interview I linked to above, I found these two bits interesting: > [@](#): > > Sepinwall: Finally, you wrote this entire thing in a vacuum, as someone relatively new to television, not knowing how it was received. And the show comes on, and people go nuts about it, they are penning raves, coming up with elaborate theories about the Yellow King and Lovecraft and everything else. How did it feel to see your creation being received in all of these ways? > > Nic Pizzolatto: I felt like, look, it’s all good, and I really mean that. To me, that is what it means to connect and resonate with people. It means that they are going to project onto the work. There’s never been anything I didn’t love that I didn’t connect with on a personal level because to some degree, I projected upon it. That said, I think I’ve made clear that my only interest in the Chambers stuff (Robert W. Chambers wrote “The King in Yellow”) is as a story that has a place in American myth. And it’s a story about a story that drives people into madness. That was mainly it. Beyond that, I’m interested in the atmosphere of cosmic horror, but that’s about all I have to say about weird fiction. I did feel the perception was tilted more towards weird fiction than perhaps it should have been. For instance, if someone needs a book to read along with season 1 of “True Detective,” I would recommend the King James Old Testament. I wouldn’t tell anyone to go buy Robert Chambers. It’s not that great a book. Joseph Conrad and William Faulkner I think are in there far more than Chambers or Lovecraft. But again, I guess I hope that these 8 chapters, once the totality of it is evident, it might provoke a re-evaluation. But if it doesn’t, I’m very happy with the reaction we’ve had. It couldn’t have been better better. I’m just surprised by it. I remember talking to you three months ago and having to convince you: “This just sounds like every other show,” “I know, I know.” And now my wife read a comment the other day that said I live out in the desert, and I run some kind of cult. (laughs) I don’t know what I can say about that. I think this show answers everything it told you to ask. The questions it didn’t tell you to ask are questions best left to one’s self. And regarding season 2: > [@](#): > > Can you tell me anything at all about season 2? > > ]Nic Pizzolatto: Okay. This is really early, but I’ll tell you (it’s about) hard women, bad men and the secret occult history of the United States transportation system. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697/400 "2014-03-10T14:21:00Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > From the interview I linked to above, I found these two bits interesting: > > And regarding season 2: Let the conspiracy begin anew. It’s all there in the obscure works of Franciscan mystic Telios De Lorca, “and the number of the five stellar blazes, shall be five, and in the transit between borders, five points of the shining quintet [will be the sign](http://i.imgur.com/CrDOBRg.png) under which the evening sacrifice is lain.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-detective-hbo-mcconaughey-harrelson-spoilers/660697.md?page=21)