After years of watching different Law and Orders and CSIs, it’s gotten hard for people to attach themselves to police procedurals. Sure, they watch them, but are they fans, or are they going through the motions? True Detective, which premiered on HBO in January of 2014, was different, though. It gripped people.
Starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as two Louisiana State Police detectives, the first season focused on a murder case that spanned 17 years and took Detectives Rust Cohle and Marty Hart deep down into a chasm of human darkness that we’d all rather pretend doesn’t exist.
Will the second season enthral audiences in the same way now that McConaughey and Harrelson have moved on? Is it the performances or storytelling that is the beating heart of this show? We’re gonna find out Sunday night, but for now, it’s worth looking back on what went on last season. And since there are still some people who haven’t season the first season and who are pondering a binge watch, we’re keeping this free of unnecessary spoilers.
Meeting the players
Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson both walked away from True Detective with a handful of award nominations for their performances. From this opening scene when we first meet Rust and Marty, they do a marvelous job of making sure that we understand who these characters are. One’s mild-mannered and blue-collar and the other does whatever he wants, like lighting up a cigarette in the middle of an interview, even though it’d been illegal to do so indoors for years.
A realist’s view on the meaning of life
Rusty describes himself better in this scene than anyone else could – besides creator Nic Pizzolato. He’s essentially a realist with a penchant for pessimism. It’s strongly implied that this is somehow he and Marty’s first time breaking the ice after spending three months working together. Unfortunately, Marty got way more than he asked for when Rust provides his commentary on what truly motivates people in life.
Bending the narrative or stating the facts?
The first time we see Rust and Marty on a crime scene provides another glance into their similarities and differences. They both work with what they can see in front of them, but what separates them is how Marty stands on facts while Rust runs with his ideas.
Rust’s religious outlook
For many people in America’s rural south, religion is one of the pillars that life stands on. So Rust, being as irreligious as they come, was quite out of his element when he attended a revival ministry to follow up on a lead with Marty. He goes in depth with his views on religion and we see that his opinion hasn’t changed much 17 years later.
A face-to-face confrontation
Two polar opposites can only get so close before they clash. As nature intended, Marty and Rust butt heads on multiple occasions. After Rust delves a little too deep into Marty’s personal life, their latest confrontation turns physical.
Marty doles out an important lesson
Marty is a man of principle. So, no, he wasn’t going to arrest these two young men for what they did (here’s where spoiling something would be super useful), but he for damn sure wasn’t going to let them get away without learning an important lesson about paying for your actions.
Rust takes action
As amazing as Matthew McConaughey’s acting is, a lot of Rust’s scenes limit him by only allowing him to use his hypnotic way with words. In the now-famous six-minute tracking shot, though, we see Rust get his hands dirty as he navigates a neighborhood that quickly morphs into a warzone.
Marty takes a moral stand
Perhaps it’s because he’s a father. Or maybe it’s just because he’s a decent human being. But Marty can’t stand to see an under-aged girl working as a prostitute. This scene also doubles as a commentary on a lot of bigger issues, such as child abuse and sexualization.
Rust owns the room
When he wasn’t teetering on the negative side of being a certifiable genius, Rust used his talents to make interrogation rooms his domain. After being in the room with someone for a few minutes, he was able to figure out their weakness and exploit it. His skills in this scene were so impressive that you can’t help but want an encore.
“If you get the opportunity, you should…”
Ask, and ye shall receive. In another display of Rust’s interrogation tactics, he uses his charming southern drawl to get a confession out of a mother charged with child endangerment. His last words to her are absolutely chilling. The only thing that could’ve alleviated the tension would’ve been a trademark McConaughey “Alright, alright, alright…”
“Say it again…”
If you hadn’t figured it out already, Rust’s personality makes it hard to have very many friends on the police force – or, in general. It’s really hard to fix that when you go around slapping coworkers with no hesitation.
“You are like the Michael Jordan of being a son of a b*tch…”
People make mistakes. It’s the responsibility of their friends to help them work their way through them. The only problem here is that Rust and Marty are still trying to figure out if they’re actually friends or just partners. So, when Marty needed help, there wasn’t much hand holding going on.
Long time, no see
This is the first time that Rust and Marty have seen each other in ten years. Given that there has to be a good reason that they went a decade without speaking, it’s interesting to see how they treat each other after their long hiatus.
Heading into Season 2
Season two of True Detective premieres on HBO this Sunday (June 21) and will star Taylor Kitsch, Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams and Vince Vaughn. It appears that they’ll all somehow be connected to a crime scene in California as well as the herculean task of following McConaughey and Harrelson.
