Anyone watching TRUE DETECTIVE

[Goldberg Bogan Find all posts View Profile Close Goldberg]

..all the Facebook shnooks are going on about it, so I decided to give it a shot. You got America's two favourite intellectual rednecks, Woody Harelson and Matthew McConaughey playing detectives in
Lousiana hunting a satanic serial killer. It has a very gothicy, Red Riding /David Fincher style about it. also feels like a Vertigo comic. Not substantially fresh about it, so I don't understand the hype yet..

SO far it's OK, I guess, any other takers?

[Roderick Butthorn Find all posts View Profile Close Roderick]

I've been watching give it a big thumbs up. I agree that it starts out solid if unremarkable, but it quickly comes into it's own as it progresses.

Slightly spoilery comments follow: [Episode 4 features an excellent drug heist scene that is done in one continuous 6 minute take. And in the fifth episode the plot takes a nice turn and takes things off in a different direction that potentially changes the perspective on what has come before.]

I dig the atmosphere (less Seven and more Justified) and pacing and there is a also a Lovecraftian undercurrent that steadily reveals itself without anything overtly supernatural going on. I recommend sticking with it if the first episode doesn't quite grab you.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

I've watched the first episode, and I'd like to see more.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

I saw the first 3 episodes but I just couldn't get into it. Woody and McConaughey are both very fine in their roles, but the tempo is attrocious and to be quite honest it really is a staple of cop-show and serial-killer film cliches they are trying to pass off as "new and cool" which really doesn't work for me.

[Roderick Butthorn Find all posts View Profile Close Roderick]

I really enjoy the deliberate pacing and atmosphere, and like I said, there is a shift in gears in the 4th and 5th episodes. However, if you are not digging the show much by episode 3 I don't know if it will be enough to sell you on the rest of the series.

[MonkeyBeat Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MonkeyBeat]

I've been watching all the episodes so far, and I have to say that the pacing is my main beef with the show. It feels to me like it was a 150 minute movie that they decided to push to a series. The acting is good, and I like most of the plot points, but it feels like there is so much unnecessary filler with Harrelson's story that it's never going to pay off big enough for how much time is spent on it.

[Nolando Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nolando]

Am loving the slow burn.

And I'd give more props to Lynch & Twin Peaks for its inspiration than I'd ever give to the likes of that hack Fincher.

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

I just started watching it. Two episodes in and yeah its slow, but like Nolando I dig that mostly. Not a fan of flashback movies and shows, but they are piecing together pretty well. I like that they elude to something that happened in the past too, and that they keep building to it. I cant wait to see the blow out they must certainly have with each other. I could do without the adultery stuff though, and I hope that it serves a purpose.

[Christian Bates-Hardy Pod Person Find all posts View Profile Close Christian Bates-Hardy]

Loved this series. My wife and I crushed all 8 episodes in about two sittings. Can't wait for Season 2.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

I really liked the look and feel of it, and the acting was great. I did feel that the story was somewhat lacking, though...by the end of it, I didn't feel like there were any crazy revelations that validated the 7 previous hours.

Still better than most of what's on TV, though.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Press release!



"Rich and absorbing...unlike almost anything else on TV" - Variety

"A tour de force for stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey" - Entertainment Weekly

True Detective

Available on Blu-rayâ„¢ with Digital HD, DVD & Digital Download June 10, 2014

Bonus Content Includes Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Interviews with A-list Cast & Crew

New York, N.Y., March 26, 2014 -Starring Academy Award® nominee and Emmy Award® winner Woody Harrelson (The Hunger Games) and Academy Award® winner Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) as two detectives assigned to a grisly and cultish murder case in the Louisiana bayou country, True Detective has become one of the most critically-acclaimed new series of 2014. This "breathtaking" (Time) crime drama, which was the most-watched first season of any HBO® original series since the legendary premiere of Six Feet Under® in 2001, makes its home entertainment debut on Blu-ray with Digital HD ($79.98), DVD ($59.99) and Digital Download on June 10, 2014, just in time for Father's Day. Both sets of True Detective include the full eight-episode season, along with extensive bonus materials including exclusive interviews with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, a discussion between series creator Nic Pizzolatto and Academy Award®-winning composer T Bone Burnett about the development of the show and the pivotal role of the series' music, and never-before-seen footage from the series.

True Detective focuses on Martin Hart (Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (McConaughey), two detectives and former partners who worked in Louisiana's Criminal Investigation Division in the mid-1990s. At first glance, Hart and Cohle couldn't be more different. Hart, a native Louisianan, is an outgoing family man with two kids, whose marriage to wife Maggie (Michelle Monaghan, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) is buckling under the stress of the job. Cohle, a former undercover narcotics detective from Texas, embraces isolation, articulating a pessimistic, even bleak, world view. But they share an obsession with justice and a facility for violence that will inflict irreparable damage on both men. In 2012, the two are interviewed separately by investigators about their most notorious case: the macabre 1995 murder of a prostitute by a possible serial killer with disturbing occult leanings. As they look back on the case, Hart and Cohle's lives collide and entwine in unexpected, sometimes catastrophic ways, and their personal backstories and often-strained relationship become a major focal point of the investigation.

Alternating between 1995 and 2012, all eight episodes were written by series creator and showrunner Nic Pizzolattoand directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (Jane Eyre), who executive produce along with Scott Stephens (HBO's Deadwood®), Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, and Steve Golin.

Also featured in True Detective are Kevin Dunn (HBO's Luck®) as Major Quesada, Hart and Cohle's boss; Tory Kittles (Sons of Anarchy) and Michael Potts (HBO's The Wire®) as detectives Papania and Gilbough, in charge of the 2012 investigation; Elizabeth Reaser (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) as Laurie; Shea Whigham (HBO's Boardwalk Empire®) as revivalist Joel Theriot; Clarke Peters (HBO's Treme®) as a rural minister; Jay O. Sanders (Person of Interest) as Billy Lee Tuttle; and Lili Simmons (Cinemax®'s BansheeSM) as Beth, a prostitute.

Special features for both the Blu-ray & DVD releases include:

Making True Detective - A behind-the-scenes look at production on the hit series, featuring interviews with cast and crew and including never-before-seen footage from Episode 4.
Up Close with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson - Exclusive interviews with the stars about filming the series.
A Conversation with Nic Pizzolatto and T Bone Burnett - An in-depth discussion with the series writer/creator/executive producer and the legendary composer on both the series and the pivotal role music played in the show's development.
Inside the Episode - Series creator/executive producer/writer Nic Pizzolatto and director Cary Joji Fukunaga discuss character development and offer insights into each episode of the series.
Two audio commentaries - Featuring series creator/executive producer/writer Nic Pizzolatto, composer T Bone Burnett and Executive Producer Scott Stephens
Deleted Scenes - Never-before-seen episodic footage from the series

True Detective
Blu-ray with Digital HD, DVD & Digital Download
Street Date: June 10, 2014
Order Date: May 6, 2014
Rating: V-MA
Runtime: Approx. 480 minutes (excluding bonus features)
Price: $79.98 Blu-ray with Digital HD (3 BD discs; Digital HD)
Price: $59.99 DVD (3 discs)

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

I felt the last episode was a bit of a let down, until I thought about it more. I realized the story was about the two men and their relationship, and how the case united, divided, and then united them. Not so much about the killings or the guilty.

Only complaint about the show: can't understand half of what the two mumbling, southern accented fucks were saying. Had to rewind a lot to catch stuff a second time.

But man, I really REALLY liked the show. Top notch performances all over the place, no over-the-top action, lots of cool camera movements...and violent. I love crime stories.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

Only complaint about the show: can't understand half of what the two mumbling, southern accented fucks were saying. Had to rewind a lot to catch stuff a second time.

This. Good to hear Americans can't understand what these hillbillies are saying either.

I felt the last episode was a bit of a let down, until I thought about it more. I realized the story was about the two men and their relationship, and how the case united, divided, and then united them. Not so much about the killings or the guilty.

Also this. Add onto that the philosophical underpinnings of the piece- it's basically an ongoing dialogue about the nature of identity- and you've got a fairly unique little series here. I think those saying we're not seeing anything we haven't seen in Se7en or whatever are missing the point. I enjoy Se7en as much as the next man. It's good, giallo-esque trash but True Detective has a lot more to it for the man who's willing to engage with it.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

Hmm. This came out on DVD/Blu-ray over here this week. Not sure whether or not to spend the last of the petty cash on it, as I hear it's fairly reasonably priced at one of the supermarkets...

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

Also this. Add onto that the philosophical underpinnings of the piece- it's basically an ongoing dialogue about the nature of identity- and you've got a fairly unique little series here. I think those saying we're not seeing anything we haven't seen in Se7en or whatever are missing the point.

Agreed utterly on that last sentence, Dom. I'm only on the third episode so far, but TRUE DETECTIVE reminds me more of James Ellroy (and his focus on the cost of obsession - and the intimation of corruption, which I'm guessing plays a bigger role in later episodes) than SE7EN. The ritualistic aspect of the murders makes me think more of modernist fiction (eg, Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS) or, given the rural setting, THE WICKER MAN - which, like the work of some of the modernist authors, had its roots in Frazer's THE GOLDEN BOUGH - more than SE7EN, to be honest.

I can see why people might reference SE7EN in discussions of this series, but it seems a lazy point of comparison, imo. In this sense, a more valid point of comparison in terms of modern fiction would, I think, be David Peace's RED RIDING series of novels (which married elements of Ellroy's writing with aspects of THE GOLDEN BOUGH), as Aaron suggested in the first post.

The only thing that irks me slightly is that sometimes McConaughey's character is too erudite for his own good and sounds a little like a lecturer in literature or comparative cultures - which, of course, is pretty much the writer of the show Nic Pizzolatto's own background, as I understand.