Director: Cary Jojo Fukunaga
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey, Michelle Monahan
Running Time: 480 minutes (8 episodes)
Certificate: 18
Extras:
Chances are if you’ve not seen True Detective, Nic Pizzolatto’s eight-part HBO drama, you’re probably planning on it. Dominating television chat continually since it’s TV debut in February, with high-quality suggestive whispers of The Wire-esque quality, preconceptions were always (and will remain) the biggest obstacle this television show faces, backed up even further by the shared lead performances of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey – bolstered by a convenient yet wholly well-deserved Oscar win for his performance in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB; as Louisianan detectives Martin ‘Marty’ Hart and Rustin ‘Rust’ Cohle, these two ever-capable performers deliver show-stopping turns to rival all work to have come before (yep, even HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN TEN DAYS…)
By the time opening episode ‘The Long Bright Dark’ draws to its close, the respective portrayals of these two guys – both long pushed to the absolute limits by that one case which rears its head to define, not only their careers but their lives – are what yanks you back to return, in spite of the bleak, uncompromising landscape Pizzolatto establishes with a helping hand from series director Cary Joji Fukunaga (SIN NOMBRE, JANE EYRE). Missing children, linked with eerie stick sculptures and ominous drawings on church walls – this Louisiana is one you’ll cross off the family wish list.
In 1995, Detectives Hart and Cohle are partnered for the case of former prostitute Dora Kelly Lange, killed in a ritual murder, which throws up numerous leads which all shed light on connections to other missing person reports from years past. Flash-forward to 2012, with the case seemingly solved and the two cops, now retired, not having spoken in years due to a bitter falling out, the murders start up again.
True Detective charters on the slower scale of television shows, but never becomes laborious. The well-judged and skilfully-constructed time frame the series works around (flitting between the two time periods always raises integral questions you are confident will be answered) causes tensions between the characters who raise their heads throughout. The role of Michelle Monahan’s Maggie, long-suffering wife to cheating husband Hart, evolves as a more intriguing multi-layered character than you would suspect after the first handful of episodes.
Attention-to-detail is bravely embraced in favour of balls out action; which isn’t to say True Detective never veers to this territory. The much-lauded tracking shot which comprises the climax of fourth episode ‘Who Goes There’ deals the series a vital cinematic burst which you can just imagine ricocheting through the world of network television, delivering a message to the competition out there to take notice and to watch and learn.
With the series upholding an anthology format, with different actors and settings for each season, these 8 episodes are depicted as Rust and Cohle’s swansong as much as their introduction, each episode bringing with it its own revelation and memorable moment to vie as series best. What this essentially means is that True Detective – the most watched first season of an original HBO series in over 10 years – evolves two-fold by the series mid-way mark, emerging into an even more psychologically-charged gothic chiller than its first perceived to be. Unsettling, unrelenting and uncompromising throughout, the series finale may not end as profoundly as one would hope from a series as compelling, yet the sense of potential ensuing disappointment can be mainly attributed to the simple fact we’ll never be granted the opportunity to oversee another case with Marty and Rust.
[usr=5] True Detective is released on Blu-ray and DVD on 9th June 2014.
