Why ‘True Detective’ Is The Best Thing You’ll Start Watching This Year
We’re five episodes in to the best show on television, and if you haven’t let yourself get hooked yet, there’s something amiss. Within the series’ multi-textured storyline, it seems there isn’t a fault to be found – or at the very least, we’re bewitched and beguiled to the point we don’t see any that could be there. True Detective is everything you want it to be. Here are just four reasons why it should be watched on every person’s TV screen in 2014.
1. True Detective
You can have a stellar cast, gorgeous shots of stunning locations, and all manner of brilliant special effects, but what good is all that if a show can’t hold itself together? True Detective is enthralling. It’s a mystery, coating an enigma, pasted with intrigue, sprinkled with clues… Hell, it makes you hungry just thinking about it. Starting this series is like falling down the rabbit hole: you’ll fall deeper and deeper into the world that’s been created, finding yourself spun every-which-way around in the process. It’s not fast-paced, or action-filled – in fact, its quite the opposite – and wonderfully so. There’s plenty of time for you to lose yourself in the investigation, delve into the character’s backgrounds and their secrets, and not once does this show let down. Thank you HBO.
2. Matthew McConaughey
Remember How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days? Well, this is the same heartthrob. Except now he’s decidedly more serious, definitely more inscrutable, and damn if that doesn’t make him a whole lot more enticing. Between his brief role in The Wolf Of Wall Street, and his Oscar-nominated performance in Dallas Buyers Club, the guy is about to become your new favourite actor. If you were in any doubt about it before (look at your life, look at your choices), True Detective will soon change your mind. McConaughey’s character, Rust Cohle, is a drug-using pessimist with a view on the world cynical enough to make you question existence. You’ll be in love.
3. Every other cast member and character
Woody Harrelson’s performance as Martin Hart is the perfect counterbalance to McConaughey’s Cohle. Their dynamic, and mixed tensions, is one of the prime strengths of the show. Questionable morals play off against questionable beliefs and underlying loyalty shines as each of their characters are further unravelled to us. Hart’s wife (played by Michelle Monaghan) adds a strong female dynamic to the mix – though slightly removed from the underlying plotline of the leading duo’s investigation. And all this is only three episodes in. With over half a season still to air, this show is only going to get better.
4. Louisiana
Now, I’ve never been to the state, so I can’t say how accurate a representation we’re being given here, but some of the settings shown in this series are Beautiful – capital ‘B’ for emphasis – and those that aren’t are so Beautifully shot that it doesn’t matter. In the first episode, Cohle pauses to take in these surroundings, stating that “this place is like somebody’s memory of a town, and the memory’s fading.” True Detective has an incredible aesthetic feel to it, aided by cinematic shots and naturally-stunning landscapes.