With the prevalence of cop shows on television, it takes something special to get us to watch one. This one was chosen upon the recommendation of our cinephile friend and because due to its first-class Hollywood acting talent, it’s clearly something outside of the norm. What we especially liked about it was it purported to tell a completely self-contained story in eight episodes. No need to commit to watching future seasons to find out what happened. No need to worry if quality will be maintained beyond the first season.
Obviously we already knew that Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConnaughey are in it and that these two Hollywood A-listers wouldn’t commit to a television series for the long-term. And it stands to reason that a one-shot story like would be written by a single writer, Nic Pizzolatto, who also acts as the show-runner. What we didn’t know was that all eight episodes were also directed by a single director Cary Joji Fukunaga, which is highly unusual in a television show.
What this buys us is a show with superb production values, an incredible focus on detail and remarkable episode to episode consistency. Harrelson and most especially McConnaughey are naturally amazing here. Wacky detectives and feuding police partners are nothing new. But the dynamic here of Marty actively detesting Rusty for his nihilism and Rusty in turn being contemptuous of the other’s hypocrisy while at the same time having both acknowledge the usefulness and effectiveness of the other is refreshing and interesting.
It rather boggles my mind that the primary hero here. McConnaughey’s Rusty, is unreservedly portrayed as a complete atheist and nihilist. It takes a great of courage to have your protagonist proclaim that parents commit a terrible crime by letting children into such a miserable world. It takes even greater courage to have this person be the leading moral crusader of your dark world while his partner, who being married with two children, fits in with his co-workers and is generally well-liked by everyone, turns out to have feet of clay.
Of course, this show wouldn’t be nearly so impressive if it weren’t for its gorgeous and atmospheric setting. The vine-choked trees, desolate towns, steaming swamps, run-down trailer parks, ruined churches etc. of Louisiana make for the perfect locale for a story of horrific murders perpetrated by evil cultists. It also doesn’t hurt that the writing is so poetic and jibes so well with the setting, with lines like “This place is like someone’s memory of a town, and the memory’s fading.”
The story itself is simple, perhaps too simple, since it’s a by-the-numbers adaptation of the kind of murder mystery that used to fill the pages of the pulp detective magazines from which this series takes its name. At the same time, it is completely honest with the viewer and does not rely on audience misdirection or clever tricks. You could technically have solved the mystery by yourself before the show’s detectives did by connecting all of the clues given and indeed, reading the old thread on this show on Broken Forum, I found that a few posters did indeed succeed. It also doesn’t for a gaming geek like me that it is just filled to the brim with Cthulhu Mythos references. The series might as well be a Call of Cthulhu campaign set in modern times put on screen.
That said, there are some hiccups I’m not entirely happy about. The episode set in Texas features a extended long take that is technically impressive but the whole set-up feels like a sudden change of genre that I felt strayed from the tone and atmosphere of the rest of the show. The final scene veers dangerously close to schmaltz, not to mention lifting lines almost verbatim from Alan Moore. The series as a whole could probably be even better if it were edited down by a couple of episodes or so.
Still the final product is a television show of almost cinematic quality. I can’t imagine how Nic Pizzolatto could ever reproduce the magic here for a second season but I’m sure to be onboard with it. In the meantime, watch this series even if you normally never watch television shows. It’s really as good as everyone says it is.