It's all really well done.Īlso laudable is the old-age make-up by Michael Marino, which is some of the best I've ever seen, and is complemented by an exceptional performance from Ali. A question asked of Hays apparently in 1990 is actually being asked in 2015, with the sound bridging the picture edit a streetlight going out in 1980 cuts to a key-light going out in Hays's 2015 interview a shot of Hays looking through a window in 1980, shows his 2015 reflection a single-shot scene in a car depicts the characters repeatedly changing from 1990 to 2015 every time their face is off-screen. And then, in 2015, Hays, now a widower suffering from memory loss, begins recording an interview for a true-crime TV show doing an episode about the case.Įspecially laudable is how the show handles the time jumps, employing a variety of methods that collapse the three different periods into one another.

When unexpected evidence comes to light, the case is reopened. Ten years later, in 1990, Hays (now married to Amelia and with two children) is working a dead-end desk job and West is a lieutenant. Shortly thereafter, Wayne forms a bond with the kids' English teacher, Amelia Reardon (Carmen Ejogo), who has her own reasons for pursuing the case. The case lands on the desk of Wayne Hays (an insanely good Mahershala Ali) and his partner Roland West (a superb Stephen Dorff). In 1980, in the fictional town of West Finger, Arkansas, two children disappear. The story is split over three time periods. Season three without Saulnier (or Fukunaga) isn't as bad as season two, but it's still very weak. After that, directorial duties were split between Pizzolatto himself and journeyman TV director Daniel Sackheim.

Season three has such a vision for the first two episodes, which were directed by Jeremy Saulnier. Season one had Cary Joji Fukunaga who gave us a very thin story by way of such unforgettable imagery that it made everything feel deeper than it really was. Pizzolatto (a novelist by trade) seems to need a director with a keen enough vision to mask the fact that his scripts are actually pretty by-the-numbers. But this being creator/writer/showrunner Nic Pizzolatto unfettered, there's a lot to criticise too – the glacial pace, the under-written female roles, the cod-philosophy, the (toxic) machismo. And there are some interesting themes – racial tension, journalistic ethics, marriage, fatherhood, the shadow of Vietnam, old age. Unquestionably, there's a lot to praise – the aesthetics, the sense of place, the acting. Season three? Well…of all the shows I've ever seen, season three of True Detective is one of them. Season one of True Detective was ground-breaking, one of the finest seasons of TV ever made.

True detective season 1 trailer