Regular TV suits are the most paranoid sycophants in entertainment. Their primary concern is not offending ANYBODY. Which is bullshit, since really it's the opposite: TV viewers need to lighten the fuck up. You can have gore-drenched graphic violence like on The Following but whatever you do, nobody can say "fuck" or show female nipples. That's just too much for our fragile minds. Pathetic. Stop pandering, you money-grubbing fucks. Think about how good TV could be with total writing freedom and not a murder of FCC crows constantly hovering over it. Too much for you? The remote is on the armrest. Back to the show: Rust's last line of the finale was the best line of the show, a nice glimmer of hope for a truly dark, brilliant series. Had to rewind it a couple times to catch it. There was your final twist: things turned out okay.
Re: Re: True Detective I can't think of a single show I watch that airs on regular TV, not one. All of my entrainment comes from FX, HBO, AMC, Showtime and Cinemax. Netflix is always there now with 2 solid original programs that have both been renewed. I watch Suits on USA but even that show seems to be suffering from bad writing and even worse cameos. Just watched the finale last night and I like how it ended, great acting and writing, gonna be hard to top the first season.
I just finished the second ep, and while the boys are chewing up the scenery, so far it's just meh. There's nothing great about it yet (other than Woody's character's girlfriend. Sweet mother of shit, she's hot).
He was also Shane Botwin's drunken cop mentor the last couple seasons of Weeds. The Wire. Easily. Once you get some distance from this season and look at it objectively, you'll see it was just ok. Holy fuck, calm down on the hyperbole. You have been sucking this shows dick so long and hard that it's become a feedback loop I don't think you're even aware of. This show was thoroughly meh, with a couple really well directed moments, some cool art direction, and two Actors (capital A intended) elevating mediocre writing to a place where it looks like good writing. The plot was obscure and hard to follow. The character notes were borderline cliche. Entire vast swaths of subplot could have been cut out without affecting the main plot. I'm not saying it was a bad show. It was above average. But it's not cracking the top 20, and the only reasons it's memorable at all are McConnaughey, Harrelson, and the sweet, sweet asses of Harrelson's women. Hahaha. Ugh. Didn't mean-face-black-detective-#1 say they were at least half siblings?
Ill just say, again, that Ive not really watched very many detective dramas. While some of the major plot points seemed cliched, satanic cult killings, the whodunit aspect played out pretty fucking well with the regular life drama of the characters(Im guessing the latter is what you think could have been cut?). It will be remained to be seen by me if it is a show I can rewatch multiple times and enjoy it as much as the first time. I know I can't watch Dexter over and over because honestly I don't think the show stood up on its own drama wise.
You know what was a better detective show, as far as whodunit mystery goes? Like, main plot only, not counting case of the week bullshit? Veronica Mars. The first season's main plot of who killed Lilly was fantastic, only to be topped by the multi season arc of who raped her and season two's arc of who blew up the bus. I get that "Shit like that doesn't happen in real life, man, that's the whole point. It was the detective's curse. It's gonna be some guy you never seen before, but was right under your nose." But you know why people watch detective shows? To try and figure out the case along with or before the detectives. So if it's some goddamned random redneck off in the woods, that's not satisfying to me. That means that I don't give a fuck about the first five episodes. They meant nothing, except for the picture of the green house, and the description of a guy with scars and green ears. Five episodes of kick ass acting that didn't count for a goddamned thing.
Well playing down the traditional whodunit aspect is just the way they decided to use HBO's ability to take chances on series that primetime network TV can't. Like you said they sure as shit delivered on acting and production design/cinematography. I think in totality, weak points and al,l ranks higher on my personal all time rankings then quite a few series. The aforementioned Dexter for one. I d like to watch The Killing and see how it stacks up since Ive always heard good things.
I thought there might have been a little more to scar face and the overall "they're all fucking bastards" aspect but overall have to look at this entire run in a simple fact of "well what did you want"? They dealt with fucked up shit, never let it go and finished it as best as realistically could have happened. I think I like Harrelson more and more and more as the years go by. (yes mcconaughey was amazing as well.)