True Detective - Series Premiere - Recap: A Tragic Misstep In Evolution
Recap video and review of True Detective - Series Premiere - The Long Bright Dark:
Does the world really need another show like True Detective? Another season-long procedural about two broken detectives investigating the murder of a similarly fractured individual? For the moment, I'm not entirely sure this show is necessary. But then, multiple seasons of glam-obsessed E! reality shows aren't really necessary either. Television isn't exactly a medium of necessity, it's simply a medium like any other -- one of commercial consumption and artistic exploration, occasionally in equal measure. So while True Detective isn't really necessary, given the recent glut of season-long procedurals like The Killing, The Following, Broadchurch and The Bridge, "The Long Bright Dark" argues that it's all in the execution -- because, make no mistake, True Detective is like none of those shows. In many ways, it's better.
Credit: HBO
"The Long Bright Dark" centers on a frame story that will provide the structure for the season: in 2012, detectives Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) are being interview separately, asked by law enforcement to provide their reflections on a case they worked together in 1995 involving the murder of Dora Lange, a woman whose killing immediately brought up comparisons to the occult, given the grim nature of how her body was arranged. The cause for Marty and Rust being interviewed is another string of murders that could possibly be the same work of the killer they investigated seventeen years earlier. In essence, Marty and Rust must confront the possibility that they put away the wrong man, and that the killer they chased so determinedly in 1995 might still be out there, seventeen years on. Right off the bat, in presenting the Lange murder, True Detective pulls no punches, presenting homicide not as the salacious, headline-grabbing event it so frequently is portrayed as being on local news channels, but as the raw, visceral display it truly is. And it's completely gripping, as one starts to wonder just what the hell kind of person these two men could be hunting. In the strict sense, not a whole lot happens here. They investigate leads, canvass the neighborhood, gather evidence, and talk to potential witnesses. But that's not what makes True Detective special -- it's the atmosphere, the sense of foreboding, and the interaction between these two polar opposite detectives. In short, I'm not entirely sure how one would even recap this thing, since so much of what happens is between-the-lines. Anyway, here goes nothing:
Credit: HBO
Through this investigation, with the narrative moving back and forth between 1995 and 2012, the episode allows us to get to know Marty and Rust in a more intimate fashion than we otherwise might have. This is because the 2012 segments illustrate that the men ended up in two very different places in their lives following the investigation: Marty seems none the worse for wear, sporting an outfit that seems to indicate he's been promoted in the seventeen years since the Lange killing. Rust, meanwhile, has devolved from his matinee idol good looks, and has traded it in for a ratty old shirt, a sloping mustache, and long, greasy blond hair. He's covered in tattoos, smokes like a chimney, and spends his days off drinking by noon. Granted, in terms of personality, this isn't really any different from the Rust we meet in 1995 -- he's still introspective, still pessimistic, if not nihilistic, and still vaguely contemptuous of other people. But it's clear that the past seventeen years have been several hundred miles of bad road, figuratively speaking. And since we spend much of the episode with Rust, it's Rust whose perspective informs the premiere.
Credit: HBO
I suppose one of the issues people will have with this show right away is that it's far more cerebral than most crime dramas. And this is because, much like most of those shows I mentioned above, True Detective is a series that's far less concerned with the mystery at its center than with the enigma of its leads. Yes, this is a tiresome trope in modern crime drama, but it's also one that is necessary if there is to be any hope of sustaining the plot over the course of eight episodes or more. So it's good, then, that the casting department got this so right. Matthew McConaughey is outstanding here as Rust, imbuing the detective with a world weary sensibility. He's seen it all, and what he's seen has scarred him beyond the capacity to be healed. We don't necessarily know why yet, as we're only seeing the beginnings of the Lange investigation. But already, we can see how this case would have been the one to change him. Rust had earned the nickname "The Taxman" due to his reliance upon a notebook in which he kept track of all his clues during an investigation, making him look like some sort of homicide accountant. This meticulousness is offset somewhat by Rust's self-defeated approach to the world, as he seems to speak almost exclusively in flowery prose, calling an abandoned mall "somebody's memory of a town" and telling Marty, "I don't sleep, I just dream." All Marty can do is roll his eyes and chide his partner as they continue to piece together just what happened to Dora Lange.
Credit: HBO
One could easily understand how Marty would be exasperated with his partner's psychological exhaustion, as Marty is pretty much Rust's polar opposite. He's a much more traditional, by-the-books detective, and his curiosity about Rust, his psychological stability, and his investigatory methods is reminiscent of John Watson's approach to Sherlock Holmes, who is an enigma unto himself. And so it is with Rust. Even when they have a nice dinner with Marty's family, Rust still can't avoid admitting that he hates his job, droning on with any number of flowery speeches about his own personal philosophies (such as his belief that humans weren't meant to exist as a species, calling us "a tragic misstep in evolution"). The contrast between Marty and Rust is as essential to the show as the mystery of Dora Lange's murder, and it'll be interesting to see how their partnership evolves as the series goes on. Harrelson, for his part, is every bit as good as McConaughey, depicting that Marty is someone who doesn't really have time for Rust's self-reflective b.s. It's a great part that Harrelson brings to life vividly.
Credit: HBO
I know it sounds like I'm down on True Detective, but I actually did really enjoy "The Long Bright Dark". It doesn't really do anything novel outside of the frame story conceit, but it doesn't really have to innovate when what it already does, it does remarkably well. We're still early into the investigation, and so this episode came across as more of a table-setting episode, introducing us to the characters and their world, instead of focusing on the mystery at the heart of it all. Sure, we get to see the pair investigating occult activities at a local church (apparently, people like gutting cats and nailing them to church doors), and we also get subtle hints that Rust may be a suspect in the 2012 murder. But these are just hints of what is to come. Right now, what we have to go on are the fully-realized, lived-in performances of McConaughey and Harrelson. And for True Detective, that's more than enough to make this a premiere worth watching.