I literally just finished watching it, and I'm feeling pretty underwhelmed.

Time willing, I'll try and type something up after I get back from class. I need to let it percolate for a bit.

I would have liked a bit more insight into Errol but overall I really enjoyed the finale. A- or B+, I'll elaborate more later.

The conflict between what the creator is trying to say, and what the audience assumes they're trying to say, can be great. Especially when that misassumption is re-enforced via the echo chamber of the internet. What effect this has on season two will be interesting. If they assume they've driven away a certain type of viewer, it would be very easy to go too far in one direction or another.
(I don't get HBO, so who knows when I'll get to actually see the thing ^_^)

The more I think about it, the less I like it. You want to see a show that commits to the stuff that True Detective abandoned? Watch Hannibal. It's so much better.

Whatever, I'm glad it didn't use any of the terrible, convoluted, bullshit over-connected online theories.

A perfectly executed, straightforward character study detective story, with some cosmic horror overtones is exactly what I wanted, and is exactly what the show delivered.

The brain starts doing some really batty things near death.  My grandfather (a lifelong atheist) flatlined on a table in 1981.  He had the classic near death experience of floating above his body.  He had no explanation for it, it didn't cause him to reassess his faith per se, but it definitely changed him.  Also, the moments before both Steve Jobs and Lou Reed died, their loved ones witnessed those men experience something indescribable.  I'm not preaching anything spiritual, but clearly wacky shit goes when you're about to croak.