True Detective

[woah]

Has anyone else watched this? I typically dislike television series very much (Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Breaking Bad etc etc don't really do much for me) but a friend convinced me to watch this and it's pretty damn good in my opinion. There are "only" 8 episodes (this is probably a good thing though) but it honestly feels more like a movie than a television series. I just finished up episode 4--really digging it. It can be a bit "edgy" and thus a little corny, but if you can get over that you'll probably enjoy it.

 

I was going to post the trailer here but it doesn't really do the show justice. There is a second season in the works but it's a completely removed storyline with different actors, a different setting, and different directors (and I'm pretty sure HBO just nudged them into doing it. I recall the director saying it was his intention from the start to only do one season specifically to avoid "milking the series"--as is so common with television networks these days)

[demagogue]

I'll say what I said the first time this topic came up in a forum, when the show was first running.

 

To appreciate this show best IMO, you should realize, at its core, it's not really a procedural cop show about solving a case so much as a (messed up) buddy cop show, and it's closer IMO to something like Lethal Weapon than, e.g., Silence of the Lambs or Se7en that it gets compared to more often.

 

Anyway, it's offbeat and the friction in the dialog and personalities is great, good enough to make a good run of it for the one season it gets.

[brethren]

Curious to know why you dislike TV shows in general, seems like a very arbitrary reason to judge something. Is it the acting, the sets, the writing...? Every show is different though. I can see how shows with longer seasons (16-24 episodes) might rub someone the wrong way because they can get a bit unfocused and drag on, but something like Game of Thrones with 10 episodes is very comparable to True Detective. In any case, I'm a big fan of every show you mentioned for different reasons, but True Detective is one of those rare events that really stuck with me and my wife while watching. I think it was the intensity level, but we just couldn't stop watching and every airing left us wanting more. I get a little bit of that with other shows, but not to the same degree. I think what also made TD unique was the great characters and the great actors that brought them to life. Season 2 has a lot to live up to.

Edited December 15, 2014 by brethren