4) Keeping the slow build to those moments compelling
I have to admit, what makes me most excited for each new True Detective episode from week to week isn’t the fact that I’m riveted by the mystery of these serial murders, although that does rivet me, it rivets me good. I am curious about what ultimately happened in 1995, and the plot is as gripping as any other component of the show. But the show’s strongest moments, in my view, and its most rewarding overarching element is that central relationship between Cohle and Hart.
The scenes when they’re driving from place to place are abundant, which is a statement on how much time detectives actually spend just traveling around, but also abundantly rich in superb dialogue and character exchanges. Cohle riffs on some nihilistic philosophy, and Hart responds with a mix of anger and confusion. This is delicious stuff. Anyone who doesn’t know people who talk like Cohle must not know many academics—the guy would be suited to be a writer of some sort, a TV critic even, the way he pontificates on the virtues and vices of minutia.
Mostly it just emphasizes the amount of time and energy it tends to take to actually investigate a serial killer, in a way that is often glossed over by slick TV shows and movies, and all the goings on between interviewing suspects and witnesses has proven to be ripe for story material, giving us a better understanding of the toll such work can take on characters like Cohle and Hart.
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Published: Feb 13, 2014 11:14 am