True Detective

[Jimmy McNulty]

As above, cannot see it as at all contrived and certainly not predictable. I think it's more of a disappointment on some people's part that it wasn't a twist and the killer wasn't a high profile character or some grimly machiavellian shadow of a man sat behind a large desk in a mansion etc.

***SPOILER*** (yeah, where's the code?)

The killer was as a product of generations of abuse himself and there was some talk of his having been groomed for some form of transcendence. Anyway, we're talking about many people here that were committing these crimes. These shitkickers had a ring and rings are based around everyone being in key positions to keep the ring closed. The killer happened to be the caretaker for one of their ritualistic sites and apart from his appearance and general redneckishness, by virtue of the way he lured the detectives into Carcosa and stalked Rust, he didn't appear to be an idiot at all. Quite the opposite as he affected different personas when speaking to different people, even putting on that educated trans-atlantic accent while watching TV. The showmakers were showing us that this guy, while matching our idea of how a redneck simpleton would look, was not an idiot. A vicious primal beast of a man, but not an idiot.

[Jofrey]

The killer happened to be the caretaker for one of their ritualistic sites and apart from his appearance and general redneckishness, by virtue of the way he lured the detectives into Carcosa and stalked Rust, he didn't appear to be an idiot at all. Quite the opposite as he affected different personas when speaking to different people, even putting on that educated trans-atlantic accent while watching TV. The showmakers were showing us that this guy, while matching our idea of how a redneck simpleton would look, was not an idiot. A vicious primal beast of a man, but not an idiot.

I think many people latched onto the notion that the whole redneck aspect of the plot was a diversion and that we would be lead back to a white, intellectual figure who had been afront of us all the time.......ala the usual Dexter nonsense where he always remains one step ahead of the clumsy keystone cops.

When Rust got there he said "this is the place"

Rust was lead, gladfully, into Carcosa of his own freewill and I think the director very carefully captured the sense of imploding - impending fear which he must have felt. The hallucination was a manifestation of the black stars circling which we also knew Rust was prone to.

You have to remember that the subtext to this series is an obscure set of stories (available for free on the net) based around a play called "The King in Yellow" where anyone who reads the play goes insane. Carcosa and the black stars are taken from it.

I think they could not have chosen a better subject for the attacker/killer.

Obviously abused relentlessly as a child....abandoned and scorned.....forced to re-learn everything....educate himself.....watch obscure movies....imitate the voices perfectly and carry them through in normal practice.....torture his torturing father....revisit him on a daily basis.....

he is the embodiment of that which should not be.

[Jimmy McNulty]

^ Well put.

[Jofrey]

I fuking love shows like this.

The amount of literary interest that it has generated is enormous.

Nietzsche might be the new redneck Justin Bieber

[Bettyboo]

I liked the show, but predicted the ending about 3 or 4 shows out. It built up well then just went downhill after episode 5.

I rarely watch any series because they are just brain numbing by and large (the is the first one I've watched since the original X-Files), I suspect that many people do watch a lot of these series, and that's part of the reason why this one was outstanding - most others are utter brain numbing shite; this one wasn't amazing, it was just superior to the brain numbing crap that dominates...

[patsycat]

Betsy, don't tell me you have never watched all 8 Seasons of Dexter? Or all, god no's how many seasons of CSI or Criminal Minds or Greys Anatomy? NCIS and my favourite Hawaii 50? Bones or Castle?

I thrive on those Series. I also live in a desert, but it is a French TV crap desert. Full of crap Entertainment shows with people singing old songs who sang them 30 years ago. And Swiss TV with the umpa umpa every weekend.

Hell's Kitchen started again today on Yootoob.

The Hairy Bikers Tour of Asia is good. They actually, as chefs, seem to understand and do not make fun of the culture as other chefs have done.

Then, there's this, i don't know how to embed. But you may enjoy -

[Bettyboo]

Dexter?

CSI

Criminal Minds

Greys Anatomy

NCIS

Hawaii 50

Bones or Castle

Hell's Kitchen

The Hairy Bikers

Never seen any of those, except a few shows of CSI (can't remember where I saw them, had a geezer with red hair that used to look at the camera and take his glasses off several times per episode...).

TV is brain numbing. I usually spend my time reading, researching or surfing Hitomi's Facebook page...

[patsycat]

OK each to their own. But i am one of those people that without my weekly series shot, i would be a bit lost. When you've watched a series for 8 or ten years...

I also read, but perhaps not posh books like you.

I am going back in time these days, last night i watched The Royle Family Xmas Special 2012 - laughed out loud, scared the neighbours.

[Jimmy McNulty]

I rarely watch any series because they are just brain numbing by and large (the is the first one I've watched since the original X-Files), I suspect that many people do watch a lot of these series, and that's part of the reason why this one was outstanding - most others are utter brain numbing shite; this one wasn't amazing, it was just superior to the brain numbing crap that dominates...

If you haven't watched anything since the X Files then you've missed what many term the golden age of television and that is in reference to nothing mentioned in the subsequent posts. The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, The West Wing, Deadwood, Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad. None of it brain-numbing, television has moved on hugely. While True Detective is essentially a short form series in comparison with everything else listed there and therefore rather incomparable, it does hold up within the medium as one of the best shows that have been made. It really is very very good.

But you're entitled to that opinion. I would suggest you now go out and watch The Wire though. You'll find there's a good degree of disparity between what you appear to think the medium has been populated with since Mulder and Scully first met alien bounty hunters and stretchy blokes that could get in your house through the catflap and what has actually been broadcast.

[MissTraveller]

Hey..I finally watched the last episode and went back and re-read all of what you guys wrote under spoiler alerts.

I liked the ending. It did leave me with a few questions though. How did the cops arrive to the house when there was no cell phone service and no home phone to call anyone as backup?
I found it a bit far fetched that Rust actually survived taking a knife out of his stomach/chest since in real life this will kill you pretty fast. The way Russ was talking at the end it sounded like a near death experience that he had and seeing and feeling his loved ones.

I really think it is too bad that both of them won't be in any further seasons, but it could be interesting to see a whole new show. Will they continue with this theme or will it be a whole new plot and storyline?

I don't usually watch much tv, but thanks for the Hannibal suggestion Patsy and I never watched Breaking Bad either.
My bf suggested for me to watch this series as I do like watching shows like CSI, The Mentalist and 24.

[Jimmy McNulty]

This show is nothing like CSI, The Mentalist, and 24. It's like saying, 'You like the beach, you should go and take a bath.'

[cyrille]

This show is nothing like CSI, The Mentalist, and 24.

And grouping them together as 'mind numbing tv' indicates a severe lack of understanding.

I can see now how the show was ruined for him because he guessed the baddie.

Just like in 'Scooby Doo'.

[Butterfly]

I can understand Betty points, but sometimes evil is hidden behind what seems to be a harmless fat loser, and like everything in that show, it was to break our romantic visualization of evil with a superior individual

I knew from the start that the killer would be some kind of hillbilly loser, but the whole beauty of that series wasn't to get the killer at all costs, but the path to the killer and the stories in between. In some ways, the ending was minor and not important.

The ending scene with them recovering wasn't no so much Hollywood like. Again, a sharp contrast to the rest and still a message of hope from what was one of the most cynical character ever written on a TV show.

It was a very good ending, and the killing the serial killer was only a minor part of it, I would dare say insignificant in the whole quality of the show.

[Butterfly]

My bf suggested for me to watch this series as I do like watching shows like CSI, The Mentalist and 24.

oh boy

[Bettyboo]

Well, you fellas like your TV, so good for you.

I feel slightly differently about things, not keen on this stuff. I don't much like formula thrillers either, nor cliched music such as Brian Adams. Each to their own... This series was decent.

[patsycat]

I have a piece of paper where i write down the days i can download the latest episodes of the series i have been watching for years.

Sad, some may think. But, if you have to live with dubbed badly in French, you may get my drift. I now have a tv where i can watch my series in Original Version, but they are two years behind on Swiss or French TV.

I don't have much money, so cannot go down ze pub every night. My lifeline is my phone and my tv.

Shoot me...

Tonight, however, Pats is venturing out because all the "Irish" pubs are doing their St. Paddy's thang.

One pint of Kilkenny and then home.... Cost - 10 quid for a pint.... They may throw a Guiness T shirt in there for good patronage!!!

Oh, forgot the other 10 quid for a taxi home. I live at the other end of drug dealers paradise here, no way am i walking through there late at night singing The Sash me Father Wore.... Or Finnegans Wake.

[Jimmy McNulty]

Well, you fellas like your TV, so good for you.

I feel slightly differently about things, not keen on this stuff. I don't much like formula thrillers either, nor cliched music such as Brian Adams. Each to their own... This series was decent.

Yeah, I don't like formulaic thrillers or Brian Adams either. They're essentially the antithesis of what I like. There is great television out there in The Wire and Mad Men etc. It's your choice as to whether you want to check them out, but the fact that you haven't watched anything of note via that medium in two decades do not make them necessarily formulaic or cliched as everything was back then. My idea of hell would feature television channels showing only 80s and early 90s era television drama and present day reality television. Get back to us if you edify yourself on the subject.

[cyrille]

I don't much like formula thrillers either, nor cliched music such as Brian Adams

So now The Wire and other assorted tv series that you haven't seen = Bryan Adams.

R-i-g-h-t.

[AVVICI]

Breaking Bad.

[Bettyboo]

...

[cyrille]

[Bettyboo]

[Jimmy McNulty]

[MissTraveller]

This show is nothing like CSI, The Mentalist, and 24. It's like saying, 'You like the beach, you should go and take a bath.

Well it is no HBO, but it is in the crime/investigative genre. I'd take HBO anyday because it is grittier and more realistic.

[MissTraveller]

I would dare say insignificant in the whole quality of the show

Oh boy.