The first season of True Detective is a sharp, bleak look at Southern horror. From the title/intro onward, this show tapped into something stark and brutal, shaded with tones of moss, whiskey, and blood. Themes of human sacrifice (in many forms), weakness, and grim obsession are all explored masterfully in these eight episodes.
Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have perhaps never been this good separately. Perhaps they bring to bear certain dark wisdom inherited from the wandering vastness of their Texas upbringing. Perhaps their own family stories infuse them with the thorny experience to navigate these roles. Whatever they're drawing from, they embody a twisting, wicked brilliance here - an intimate madness that sucks us into these characters' bleak lives and their hard scraping struggle.
Simply put, this is perhaps the most visually stunning series in years. Beyond simple camera work, is the delicate crafting of MOOD. Stylistically, this show is beautiful and harsh. We see, with acute clarity, a sprawl of green growing wildness all mangled up with the obscenely pretentious works of man. We see parishes of despair and sordid sameness, with dark patches of perverse, tainted, violence and death. With every outdoor scene, we sense that doom sleeps (and dreams) behind every moss-covered tree and broken down church.
And in those patches of doom, there are hints that some of the very underpinnings of this reality are dark and terrifying. The references to Chambers' The King in Yellow take all cutting elements of this production and bind them in a wicker-work of hopeless, calculated ruin. As the old poem goes - The shadows lengthen...In Carcosa.
Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have perhaps never been this good separately. Perhaps they bring to bear certain dark wisdom inherited from the wandering vastness of their Texas upbringing. Perhaps their own family stories infuse them with the thorny experience to navigate these roles. Whatever they're drawing from, they embody a twisting, wicked brilliance here - an intimate madness that sucks us into these characters' bleak lives and their hard scraping struggle.
Simply put, this is perhaps the most visually stunning series in years. Beyond simple camera work, is the delicate crafting of MOOD. Stylistically, this show is beautiful and harsh. We see, with acute clarity, a sprawl of green growing wildness all mangled up with the obscenely pretentious works of man. We see parishes of despair and sordid sameness, with dark patches of perverse, tainted, violence and death. With every outdoor scene, we sense that doom sleeps (and dreams) behind every moss-covered tree and broken down church.
And in those patches of doom, there are hints that some of the very underpinnings of this reality are dark and terrifying. The references to Chambers' The King in Yellow take all cutting elements of this production and bind them in a wicker-work of hopeless, calculated ruin. As the old poem goes - The shadows lengthen...In Carcosa.