Re: True Detective
I understand T-bone Burnett--Mr. Llewyn Davis himself--is handling the music for the show.
The credits are cool, definitely.
- Cotterpin Doozer
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Re: True Detective
AshDigital wrote:
The cinematographer, Adam Arkapaw, gets it. It's interesting to look at his IMDB. Nothing but shorts and documentaries and then Top of the Lake and now True Detective.
Thank you for that. I finished watching Top of the Lake a couple of weeks ago, so no wonder True Detective feels so familiar. It truly is beautiful to watch, and I can highly recommend Top of the Lake for the same reason.
That being said, I must say I really hesitated to watch this. After recently watching in quick succession Top of the Lake, The Fall, and Broadchurch, all of which feature wonderful performances by their leading ladies, I was in no mood to see a show that fails the Bechdel test as magnificently as True Detective does.
And I'm still not, if I'm perfectly honest.
The show is fairly well-written, very well-acted, and superbly directed, and it deserves a lot of the praise it's getting. But so far, it seems to me like every single woman in this show is a saint, a whore, or dead, and I'm finding that aspect of it pretty hard to tolerate. Hart's storyline leaves me feeling rather disengaged; it's boring and not at all what I was hoping for but also somehow exactly what I was expecting. Cohle, on the other hand, has a lot more to offer, as the end of episode four clearly demonstrates. Although I could do with a little less monologuing.
Which is in part why I have to agree with Doctor Submarine; the 2012 interview scenes don't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, in a police interview concerning an on-going investigation, why would those two detectives waste time listening to Cohle and Hart prattle on about shit that has nothing to do with their case? Marriage. Parenthood. The job. Life after the job. What on Earth does any of that have to do with serial murders? As a framing device, it leaves much to be desired.
So, I'm still on the fence on this one.
- Rob
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Re: True Detective
Cotterpin Doozer wrote:
I mean, in a police interview concerning an on-going investigation, why would those two detectives waste time listening to Cohle and Hart prattle on about shit that has nothing to do with their case?
They'd prefer if Hart and Cohle weren't always so discursive, I'm sure. Their little exasperated sidelong glances sometimes reveal as much.
The "official" reason for the interviews seems to be that these new detectives are taking on a once closed but now re-opened case, which was formerly Hart & Cohle's case. Thus the new guys want to know everything that went on during the original investigation, and they want to hear it from the horse's mouth. "We're particularly interested in how Cohle worked the case," they tell Hart early in the series. I'm definitely no policeman, but it makes sense that the new guys on the case would want to know anything and everything Hart and Cohle remember. Especially if they consider one of them a suspect, since the more he talks the more locked in he is to a particular version of events.
- Snowflake
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Re: True Detective
There’s nothing to say that what we see isn’t embellished for us as viewers and just a direct representation of what they are telling the cops. I mean, it may seem longwinded to us watching every moment, but a lot of that may translate, in their telling, as a few offhand comments to their interrogators. The magic of cinema!
Though I think Rob’s take is quite satisfying.
I love this show, nothing on TV has ever enticed me like this, far from it. It’s like an eight hour long Seven, the production is astounding.
Also, I’m tickled pink by the literary references (obtuse to be spoilerfree) in ep 2 and 4, I’m excited to see where they are going with that, though I would be truly surprised if they “went there”.
The Low Frequenter
- Saniss
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Re: True Detective
There's something more to the interviews, I think. I get the feeling that the two cops are trying to understand the characters of Rust and Marty. Their mission might not be only to get material for the current crime investigation, but also to find out about the blurriest parts of what happened in 1995, and everything around it. They're particularly interested in Rust - his past, and what made him turn into the drunkard he is now. They ask themselves, several times, about Rust's relationship with his father. Marty's relationships don't seem irrelevant to them, either. It's a global thing.
- bullet3
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Re: True Detective
By the way, I love that the show is explicitly setup to be 1 eight-hour story. We know this will be a complete story without having to pad things out for future seasons. It gets the benefit of the extended TV runtime, without all the negatives that usually implies compared with feature films.
It also opens the possibility for lots of unique things for other seasons. Like, for Season 2, they could do a complete 180 and follow a pair of detectives working in some foreign country, like Russia, and see how utterly different procedure is there.
- Doctor Submarine
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Re: True Detective
Gotta say, the most disappointing thing about the show at this point is the case itself. It started out intriguing, but the stuff with the biker gang in the most recent episode felt so recycled.
"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague
- Doctor Submarine
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Re: True Detective
Doctor Submarine wrote:
Gotta say, the most disappointing thing about the show at this point is the case itself. It started out intriguing, but the stuff with the biker gang in the most recent episode felt so recycled.
hahahahaha never mind.
"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague
+3
- Saniss
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Re: True Detective
Yeeeeeehup. There are many things going on but I don't fully understand them right now.
Also, some people on IMDB brought up something interesting:
Spoilers up to episode 5
The whole thing going on with Marty's daughter. First the dolls, then the drawings, then the sex with two guys. Some argue that it's just character development with Marty's flawed fatherhood, and others think there is more to it. I tend to agree with the latter.
- bullet3
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Re: True Detective
Doctor Submarine wrote:
Doctor Submarine wrote:Gotta say, the most disappointing thing about the show at this point is the case itself. It started out intriguing, but the stuff with the biker gang in the most recent episode felt so recycled.
hahahahaha never mind.
Yep, the case genuinely seems awesome now, I can't wait to see where it goes now.
Also, I'm now obsessed with the credits song from ep 5:
+1
- Teague
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Re: True Detective
Also, one screenwriter, one director.
Teague Chrystie
I have a tendency to fix your typos.
I have a tendency to fix your typos.
- Snowflake
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Re: True Detective
Yeah, this is fantastic. A week feels like forever.
The Low Frequenter
- paulou
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Re: True Detective
Oh hey there is a True Detective thread.
Last night around 10 I went, "Okay fine I'll watch the first ep of this and go to bed."
Then it was 3AM and I was caught up. Oops. This is some wonderful television.
To wit:
Last edited by paulou (2014-02-18 01:04:45)
- Ewing
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Re: True Detective
Teague wrote:
Also, one screenwriter, one director.
I thought I made that clear when they were the lone writer and director credits in the first post.
- Zarban
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Re: True Detective
I wasn't entirely on board with the flashback nature of the story at first, but now I see that they are using it to very good effect, revealing character, complicating people's perceptions, drawing out implications... it's clearly well thought out as well as well written.
It feels tight and interconnected, but not in the somewhat artificial way that Christopher Nolan's stuff can sometimes take on. I'd like to see the theatricality ramp up a bit--so far there's no real villain, just henchmen and suggestion. I hope it doesn't stray into supernatural territory, but if the writer and director choose to go there, I have some faith that they'll do it well.
- oTom
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Re: True Detective
I'd be seriously disappointed if the show took a supernatural turn.
- Doctor Submarine
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Re: True Detective
Atmospherically, they've set up a world where something supernatural could happen and it wouldn't feel totally out of place, but in terms of the story I'm not convinced it would work.
"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague
- paulou
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Re: True Detective
The show has weened us from the pair's reliability as narrators, slowly brought us towards the present day, and have demonstrated Cohle's mental instability. If the last few episodes follow this pattern, wouldn't be surprised to end up at a place where some crazy shit starts happening, but it isn't clear to anyone inside the show's universe, or outside of it watching, if it's imagined or truly supernatural.
Supports the meta-narrative of Cohle's philosophical pessimism as a written character destined to do the same shit forever. The show spinning out wouldn't defeat their fates, but rejects them for oblivion.
Nic Pizzolatto said, not wrote:
Is he a man railing against an uncaring god? Or is he a character in a TV show railing against his audience? Aren't we the creatures of that higher dimension? The creatures who can see the totality of his world? After all, we get to see all eight episodes of his life. On a flat screen. And we can watch him live that same life over and over again, the exact same way.
Yay fatalism.
+1
- paulou
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Re: True Detective
Between the scene in the locker room where Cohle calls Hart out for smelling like another woman, ending with him sniffing his fingers after he leaves, and the Kingpin clip I posted earlier, contributes to the characters-stuck-in-media reading of the show. Which is fascinating to think about. Real Tralfamadorian. Or I'm just nuts.
Last edited by paulou (2014-02-18 19:11:54)
- Snowflake
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Re: True Detective
I would love to see them making a supernatural bent to the story work.
The Low Frequenter
- Rob
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Re: True Detective
If they can go supernatural with this story and make me dig it, that would be a remarkable achievement. So far I've been so impressed with the directions they've gone that I'm not even dubious about it. Normally I would be.
- paulou
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Re: True Detective
There was some other time (maybe same interview?) where Pizzolatto addressed that, stating he loves genre, and isn't trying to subvert the genre or trick and abuse the audience. It's obfuscated just enough that you can enjoy it either as a juicy noir, or notice all of the hints and accoutrement.
Like how the flat circle speech cuts to Hart's family at a skating rink, just rolling around in circles.
Or how walking out of the woods, Cohle's carrying a dead child with him, while Hart carries an abused one. And since Cohle's daughter is dead, isn't crazy to think that leans on the mounting evidence that Audrey has also been a victim.
- Zarban
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Re: True Detective
paulou wrote:
the mounting evidence that Audrey has also been a victim.
oh shit dude
oh shit
if grandpa is in on this, there's gonna be some heavy shit going down
- Saniss
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Re: True Detective
I watched the sequence at the grandpa's house again but no hint really came up. He does say "I've seen kids today, all in black, wearing makeup, shit on their faces. Everything's sex." at some point, but it's probably just foreshadowing (or it's nothing at all).
This is one of these shows where every detail is so carefully thought, I could easily end up over-interpreting everything.
Last edited by Saniss (2014-02-19 01:23:03)