HBO's True Detective series discussion thread

[Printer Bandit]

marty and rust should have died at the end and the killer(s) get away.

that would have been dark and most realistic.

that would have been the best ending.

 

[Wingznut]

Not let down. Just not so easily placated by a comic book ending when the story was originally so much more. I think the writers painted themselves into a corner that they eventually realized they couldn't possibly wrap up completely in eight episodes. So they gave us a boogeyman and it's a perfect ending for those who believe in boogeymen.

I'm pretty sure the entire thing was written before it was shot

Like I said, by where the story had progressed through the first six or seven episodes, that wasn't going to happen by the end of episode eight.

I'm not sure what you are saying.

It's not like they write one episode, film it, then write and film the next.

 

[Wingznut]

marty and rust should have died at the end and the killer(s) get away.

that would have been dark and most realistic.

that would have been the best ending.

I highly doubt most people would agree with you... Including the creators.

 

[smackababy]

After reading the last couple days' worth of posts, my thought is that many of you are looking to the cult, Childress and Tuttle as the main storyline. Focusing on their crimes and their future.

IMO, the show was about Marty and Rust. It's called "True Detectives". The entire 8 episodes was ultimately about them, not the crimes, victims or perpetrators. It was a character study of two men, their personal outlooks on life, tolerance of each other at first, hatred later, and then ultimately about a close friendship at the end. They didn't like each other when they had to work together. After Rust slept with Marty's wife, it was hatred. And at the end Marty is letting Rust stay with him and basically carrying him to the car; true friendship.

It also showed the change in the character of Rust...from someone hell bent on killing himself somehow and not feeling anything. He was going to die after he finished his unfinished business of the case. Then he had a vision/feeling of his daughter and his outlook changed. As zinfamous said earlier, light crept into his darkness.

I think one of the beautiful things about shows like this is it allows everyone to take something different away from it. That's what I took away from it.

The show is called True Detective (singular) and is an ode to the true crime magazine True Detective launched in the 20s.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

marty and rust should have died at the end and the killer(s) get away.

that would have been dark and most realistic.

that would have been the best ending.

I was thinking it would be good if Rust and/or Marty died, but the bad guy was killed when the cavalry arrived. The show could then end with news coverage of the case, including, perhaps, information on the dossier Rust and Marty had sent the media.

The more I think about it, the more I'm annoyed by their use of the hackneyed "I don't have any cell service" plot device as a means for forcing the final confrontation. Rust, in particular, was certain they'd found the killer's lair. They had been investigating this case for 17 years, and spent a fair bit of time assembling and mailing those dossiers. There was no reason to think the killer would be more likely to escape (and in fact he would have been far less likely to) if they had waited 10 minutes for more police to arrive. I know that for dramatic purposes the conflict had to be between our heroes and the bad guy, but that felt like a cheap and silly way to get us there.

 

[seepy83]

I want to know why Dora Lange was publicly displayed and other victims weren't. The answer might just be "because there wouldn't have been a show without it", but it makes me curious if the writer intended there to be more to it than that.

 

[Eug]

Yeah, they used the "I have no cell service" thing a few times during the series, and it gets annoying. They do that in a lot of shows.

In the good ol' days (1980s and earlier) it wouldn't have been an issue though.

 

[smackababy]

Yeah, they used the "I have no cell service" thing a few times during the series, and it gets annoying. They do that in a lot of shows.

In the good ol' days (1980s and earlier) it wouldn't have been an issue though.

The thing is though, in quite a lot of those places, there is no cell service. There are quite a few places in rural country where you hit dead spots. Now, does that take away that it was a plot device? No, but it wasn't entirely unrealistic. Now, had they been just outside New Orleans or Lafayette, I'd be very suspect they had zero bars.

I want to know why Dora Lange was publicly displayed and other victims weren't. The answer might just be "because there wouldn't have been a show without it", but it makes me curious if the writer intended there to be more to it than that.

I think that one wasn't "kept out of the papers" like the others. The Lake Charles one was kept from the public by the Tuttle. It looks like the most ritualistic killings took place in Carcosa and were displayed there, not openly in the public. We also can't really account for Errol to do anything with much sense, as he was crazy.

 

[Albatross]

Dark,ambiguous,serious for 7 episodes and in the eighth Disney takes over.Clear answers,good guys win,the light will take over from the dark.Anybody knows anything about season 2?

 

[smackababy]

Dark,ambiguous,serious for 7 episodes and in the eighth Disney takes over.Clear answers,good guys win,the light will take over from the dark.Anybody knows anything about season 2?

So, in Disney movies, the majority of the cult goes free and those largely responsible for mass corruption in the government and law enforcement go unscathed? Let's not even go into the countless number of children molested at the hands of the Catholic schools.

Yep! Good guys won and it was all neatly tied up!

 

[Wingznut]

Dark,ambiguous,serious for 7 episodes and in the eighth Disney takes over.Clear answers,good guys win,the light will take over from the dark.Anybody knows anything about season 2?

So, in Disney movies, the majority of the cult goes free and those largely responsible for mass corruption in the government and law enforcement go unscathed? Let's not even go into the countless number of children molested at the hands of the Catholic schools.

Yep! Good guys won and it was all neatly tied up!

This... Seriously.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Dark,ambiguous,serious for 7 episodes and in the eighth Disney takes over.Clear answers,good guys win,the light will take over from the dark.Anybody knows anything about season 2?

A couple of middle aged women, one of them a crime novelist, investigate the disappearance of an heiress to a media empire.

 

[Eug]

The thing is though, in quite a lot of those places, there is no cell service. There are quite a few places in rural country where you hit dead spots. Now, does that take away that it was a plot device? No, but it wasn't entirely unrealistic. Now, had they been just outside New Orleans or Lafayette, I'd be very suspect they had zero bars.

True, but it's still annoying, because that plot device is used so often. Yeah, it's more a problem in other shows, though. They'll be 2 feet outside the city limits and suddenly no signal at all.

However, they partially redeemed themselves by introducing the plot point of going through the crazy half-sister-wife to get a phone call done via the landline.

 

[zinfamous]

After reading the last couple days' worth of posts, my thought is that many of you are looking to the cult, Childress and Tuttle as the main storyline. Focusing on their crimes and their future.

IMO, the show was about Marty and Rust. It's called "True Detectives". The entire 8 episodes was ultimately about them, not the crimes, victims or perpetrators. It was a character study of two men, their personal outlooks on life, tolerance of each other at first, hatred later, and then ultimately about a close friendship at the end. They didn't like each other when they had to work together. After Rust slept with Marty's wife, it was hatred. And at the end Marty is letting Rust stay with him and basically carrying him to the car; true friendship.

It also showed the change in the character of Rust...from someone hell bent on killing himself somehow and not feeling anything. He was going to die after he finished his unfinished business of the case. Then he had a vision/feeling of his daughter and his outlook changed. As zinfamous said earlier, light crept into his darkness.

I think one of the beautiful things about shows like this is it allows everyone to take something different away from it. That's what I took away from it.

Exactly. I was going to post that yesterday but I got tired of posting.

However, it is actually called "True Detective," the singular being significant. For the entirety of the show, you think we are talking about Rust, obviously, but what we see is Marty's progression from a by-the-numbers, constantly distracted officer to an effective, focused detective in the final episode. Rust is the one that brought that type of light to him.

 

[Kev]

I think a lot of the people that are letdown because it wasn't as dark an ending as they hoped--I guess meaning either Cohl or Rust died? aren't really noticing how dark the ending was?

It wasn't that I was disappointed that it wasn't as "dark as I hoped." And it's really not about being disappointed that they didn't "wrap everything up in a tidy bow" as some other people would say. Those are really minor things

It was because in the very last scene, Rust turned a complete 180 in his characterization. He went from being the most staunch, nihilistic atheist I have ever witnessed on screen to being a guy who says "look at the stars, the light seems to be winning." Complete bullshit if you ask me, and I have no idea why the felt they needed to go down that path. Feel free to disagree though.

 

[smackababy]

It wasn't that I was disappointed that it wasn't as "dark as I hoped." And it's really not about being disappointed that they didn't "wrap everything up in a tidy bow" as some other people would say. Those are really minor things

It was because in the very last scene, Rust turned a complete 180 in his characterization. He went from being the most staunch, nihilistic atheist I have ever witnessed on screen to being a guy who says "look at the stars, the light seems to be winning." Complete bullshit if you ask me, and I have no idea why the felt they needed to go down that path. Feel free to disagree though.

I don't think so. He was a not nearly as dark and nihilistic in the '95 stuff as he was in the interviews. He had also never really dealt with the death of his daughter, but upon his near death experience seemed to have come to terms with what he now feels will happen next. Rather than "this is just a shit hole we exist in and I can't wait for it to be over" to more a "this is a shit hole with some bright spots I will get to feel again when it is over". So, he was all darkness and had saw a little light.

It may not have been the ending you wanted, but it wasn't bad or completely out of the blue. He had even stated he wanted this violent circle that was his life to come to a close. It has, in some ways.

 

[Printer Bandit]

brad pitt for season 2?

http://hbowatch.com/true-detective-casting-rumors-start-with-brad-pitt/

 

[BeeBoop]

I don't know why people love this show. I watched the whole thing and it was just too slow for me. Boring!

 

[raasco]

Piss off, it's great.

 

[BeeBoop]

Piss off, it's great.

I thought the acting was great and the villian was good too but the entire story was just too damn slow. I caught myself falling asleep a few times. BORING!!!!!

 

[raasco]

I thought the attention to details was outstanding. If that means it's boring, then I guess I like boring TV shows and movies.

 

[pcslookout]

I thought the acting was great and the villian was good too but the entire story was just too damn slow. I caught myself falling asleep a few times. BORING!!!!!

Same here.

 

[zinfamous]

I thought the acting was great and the villian was good too but the entire story was just too damn slow. I caught myself falling asleep a few times. BORING!!!!!

Same here.

perhaps this is more your speed

 

[MongGrel]

brad pitt for season 2?

http://hbowatch.com/true-detective-casting-rumors-start-with-brad-pitt/

Interesting, I'd say unlikely, but ya never know.

Actors have done stranger things in the name of acting.

Not like he needs huge paychecks these days, but HBO isn't small time I guess and he'd be a big draw.

I'd like to see how it would go.

 

[BeeBoop]

perhaps this is more your speed

I love it! :biggrin: