While everyone knows that True Detective is a great show and in my opinion one of the greatest debut series in the history of television, I would say the best thing about this show is that it has the uncanny ability of never dropping the ball. Most shows, even the great ones, drop the ball when it comes narrative and characterization for an episode
Take for example the this week's installment on the back of easily one of the best tracking shots I've ever seen on television or even on the silver screen in one of the most pulsating episodes you'll ever watch.
Everything was great in the last episode and it could have served as an excuse to take a break in the narrative and reflect on what took place in the last episode the tension in a show that has refused let us off the hook and has demand our attention from day one. However, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Nic Pizzolato, respectively the director and writer/creator of True Detective, used episode 5 to provide more tension and increasingly unsettling revelations about our two protagonists, Detective Rustin Cohle and Marty Hart. In this week's episode, we knew that Cohle was as dark as it gets and his partner was not that far behind in the morally bereft stakes but I wasn't expecting Detective hart to execute a handcuffed suspect.
That murder confirmed to me that Hart is decisively a darker character than Cohle for the same reason Walter White was decisively the most evil character in a show populated with cold-eyed hitmen, ruthless drug-lords and Neo-Nazis: both character could rationalize their evil acts no matter how destructive they are. Both Hart and Cohle are world class liars exemplified by their bullshit story they sold to Gillborough and Papiana which we learn later in the episode would come back to bit them hard and fast as Cohle learns through a murder suspect on a unrelated case that "the yellow king" is still out there.
In this episode we also learn why Gillborough and Papiana are interviewing both Cohle and Hart as they suspect wrongdoing on Cohle's part during the Dora Lange investigation and even may suspect Cohle may have played a parts in subsequent murders that similar to the Dora Lange case. this episode has set up an very interesting dynamci as Gillborough and Papiana look for an angle on Cohle via Hart, Hart do his best not to incriminate himself for his own sins during the Dora Lange investigation.
The show also made a slight flashforward from 1995 to 2002 as we see the effects of the intervening years on Harts' children and his relationship with his wife Maggie. Him and Cohle are still close and Maggie even sets him up with someone. this episode was great because this seamlessly execute storytelling elements that would ruin most shows such as hallucinations (mostly Cohle's), character narration and the frequent jumping through time periods but this only seems to enhance the storytelling in True Detective.
In sum, the only flaws I can point to about True detective is that it has three episodes left and the cast will change for the season as the show is fantastic as it is with its' bonafide Hollywood quality leads, direction, writing and in generally the best mis en scene you'll ever see on television as True Detective is another great testament of the power sound and image.
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