True Detective

[Totenkindly]

Ha, I guess in a way he's kind of like Sean Penn, starting out as Spicolli. But revisiting some of the silly movies after watching something like A Time to Kill, I have a greater appreciation for those roles.

What, like seeing John and Joan Cusack in "Sixteen Candles"?

 

[EJCC]

Cross-post from my blog.

Finished True Detective. Might post something longer about it in the True Detective thread -- IS there a True Detective thread? -- but the general gist is that I loved everything about it that was dark and intellectual and trope-breaking. I found myself relating a lot to Rust, regarding

1) dual life: inner, intellectual world and small-talky anti-intellectual outside world
2) contradiction between acknowledging the damage caused by too much introspection, and looking down on people who don't introspect at all
3) commitment to ideals that tragically can never exist in the real world

My main pet peeve was the plotline with Marty's wife. Was anticlimactic and overall a total letdown. My favorite part was the ending, which was so beautiful that I almost cried.

Notable themes that I appreciated:
- dark/light
- knowing the self/escaping the self
- knowledge as power and as curse
- duality in general

And elaboration on the Marty's wife plotline:

- They should have done more with that actress. In the end, all she did as a character was illuminate more details re: Marty's and Rust's character. She was a plot device, more than a person. Same with every other woman in the plot, sadly. But that's the nature of a plotline that, in the end, is about the entirety of humanity as it relates to three men -- two heroes and a villain.

- After all that foreshadowing, the thing that tore Rust and Marty apart was AN AFFAIR? Most cliched and stereotypical plot device ever. So disappointing.

 

[EJCC]

TIME IS A FLAT CIRCUS

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<3

 

[Totenkindly]

I always loved Michelle Monaghan ever since I saw her in MI3 with Tom Cruise.
Anything that gives her more and deeper screen time is fine with me.
I was disappointed she wasn't more prominent.

 

[EJCC]

I always loved Michelle Monaghan ever since I saw her in MI3 with Tom Cruise.
Anything that gives her more and deeper screen time is fine with me.
I was disappointed she wasn't more prominent.

Agreed! Can we also note that she was INCREDIBLY beautiful for the entire series. (And Matthew McConaughey, who I usually don't think is attractive, was pretty amazing looking in all the flashback sequences as well. )

Other side notes:

- McConaughey better win some awards. Holy shit.

- For the first two episodes, I mistook Rust's flash-foward work uniform outfit for prison garb? So I thought he was in jail in the future! Which would have been interesting enough that I was kind of disappointed when the real truth of the matter came out.

- I was CONVINCED that Rust was going to die. In retrospect, that would have been too easy. The near-death hopeful experience thing was very surprising to me. And his describing it to Marty was just so beautifully done that I was almost in tears.

- THAT SIX MINUTE SHOT OH MY GOD THAT WAS AMAZING AND NEEDS TO GO DOWN IN TELEVISION HISTORY

 

[Totenkindly]

lol -- totally, on the six minute shot. I saw it on my small screen and ended up rewatching it on youTube. I want to get the season on Bluray and watch it again there. I mean, it's just a particular action shot that isn't like an epic battle or anything, but it's more the technical proficiency that was involved is just rather stunning -- that they managed to just have the choreography and timing down perfectly. It was a logistical/positioning nightmare and making sure the action was locked and focused appropriately.

TBH, I remember wrestling with the ending. I'll have to watch it again to recall why.

As far as awards, it looks like BB vs TD all the way. Who knows where that will go? They definitely opted to play in the big leagues, as I think if they had stayed in miniseries categories, they would have beaten AHS hands-down.

 

[EJCC]

Finally going through this thread all the way.

The One Literary Reference You Must Know to Appreciate

Wow.

Explains yet another level of why I love this show -- it's Lovecraftian horror. And I've always loved that.

Never even thought to make that connection.

Haven't you heard? It's called "the McConaissance". Yes, it's actually a thing.

It's a whole new era! I still remember when one of my good friends only referred to him as "Matthew MygodIhatehim".

"Every time I think you hit the ceiling, you keep raising the bar. you're the michael jordan of being a son o' a bitch."

God, this show has some of the greatest lines and deliveries I've ever heard. I can't even remember them all.

.....

I really appreciated the dialogue. Not just for the funny banter, but for when the really intellectual characters -- mostly Rust, but also some characters later -- alternate between that sort of language and SAT-word vocab. Compartmentalizing the academic language. It's a real thing in middle-of-nowhere America (like where I grew up) and it was validating to finally see it represented well on television.

Great tracking shot in Episode 4. What a bitch to choreograph and orchestrate.

FOR REALS THOUGH. I still can't figure out how they managed that camera work. Closest thing to that scene that I ever saw was the 360-degree car-interior shot from "Children of Men" -- which was scarier, yes, but also a lot shorter.

And I agree with one reviewer who said it was less about the crime investigation and more about the toll it took on the two men doing the investigating. They both took a lot of serious damage emotionally and relationally along the way, and for me it was more compelling to see how that resolved than whether the crime was solved and/or both men survived the season. They both had some pretty dark journeys... and both were very human and in some ways difficult to like at times... yet I was still rooting for them and wanted to see them succeed.

I'm glad the show preserved a lot of that good stuff to the very end.

Same. They didn't preserve as much as I would like -- seems like the best psychological stuff was all in the first two or three episodes -- but the finale made up for it.

Oh, and about this plot point (big spoiler):

Maggie goes to Rust's apartment and seduces him, although it didn't take a lot, resulting in Rust kicking her out and never interacting with her again really, and Marty and Rust having that huge brawl in the parking lot and Rust quitting.

One of the reviewers was complaining about it at the time, saying they found it non-believable because Rust was so strong-willed.

At the time, after I saw that episode, I disagreed.

- I had thought I had detected some level of attraction between Rust and Maggie before, but Rust is very disciplined and Maggie faithful, so neither really responded. But they had a way that they interacted and a kind of "shared bonding" because both had to deal with Marty's bullshit. In fact, Rust was the only person who really grasped what Marty was doing to his marriage, who Maggie could talk to. So the seeds were there.

- Rust was obsessed with the case and had been suspended and locked up in his apartment, his isolation managed to INCREASE despite being so bad already. He was very very disciplined but very very hurting -- at this point, he had already lost two marriages.

- Rust had some disdain for Marty for cheating on his wife and not controlling himself, so "it was Marty's fault" that he was even in this predicament and he deserved whatever he got. (Note a later conversation where Marty and Rust are discussing "judging people" and Marty insists that Rust is always judging him even when Rust doesn't say anything, and Rust says people judge others all the time, that's what we do in order to make decisions, so if you want to be human you need to accept that.) Rust also had lost his wives + a daughter, while Marty seems to be taking them for granted.

- Note that Maggie might be trying to understand Marty a bit when she goes out to hook up (to put herself in his shoes) but is also trying to HURT him, IMO -- if he can sleep around, so can she, and he shouldn't take their relationship for granted. This is very obvious when Marty comes home and she's full of barely restained anger, leading her to throw her encounter with Rust in his face, triggering Marty to almost choke her (and when he restrains himself after she goads him on to hurt her and says at least then she would have some reason to explain to her daughters for their breakup, she calls him a coward... )

- I think this is what Rust picks up on right after they have sex... he realizes she was using him at least in strong part to get back at Marty / be a bartering point in their marriage problems, and this infuriates him... he's mad at himself for giving into desire and breaking his own standards, he's mad at being momentarily fooled by another human being, he's mad because what Maggie did was wrong and unfair to him (dehumanized him)... and this is why he flips out, screams at her, and tosses her out the door. (Note that Maggie's intent HAS to have been at least partly calculating, as instead of feeling wounded by Rust, she goes straight home and uses the encounter as ammo in her marriage fight; an "innocent" would have handled Rust's abuse differently, believing it to be unfair.) Rust feels so betrayed by her and mad at himself, in fact, that he pretty much avoids Maggie ever after.

That's what I got out of that episode. Of course, I think in the finale, Marty and Rust address the issue on the nose, and Marty tries to excuse Rust's sleeping with Maggie ("She said she seduced you, you really didn't want to") and Rust is like, "Everyone has a choice, Marty. We all can make our own decisions" -- refusing to be exonerated. He still blames himself for giving in and will likely never let himself off the hook.) I felt like it justified my reading of Episode 6.

What did y'all think?

I'm also scanning Rust as an Enneagram One moralist type (rigid self-discipline, stringent moral judgment of himself and others), probably an SP variant, and probably an INFJ in a harsh Ni-Ti loop where he can just reinforce his intuitions with a hard-ass Thinking process. Note his Fe use is typically utilitarian, he uses it to achieve goals especially when interrogating or interviewing people, but he never really uses it to truly connect in a personal way until 2012 -- he actually asks Marty how he is and what he's been up to, and Marty says, "I don't think you've ever asked me that before." The 2012 Rust is a bit softer, older, more open, more accepting of his humanity and the humanity of others.

I'd thought he might be INTP, but any Ti type would make sense to me. Ni-Ti loop is a good explanation. No doubt in my mind that he's 1w9 .

 

[Totenkindly]

It's a whole new era! I still remember when one of my good friends only referred to him as "Matthew MygodIhatehim".

Yeah, pardon my french, but i felt like the first chapter in his acting career, he was just fucking around. About the only thing I liked him in was "Contact," and that was more because I liked the movie, and he came off better in the extended cut.

Then he disappeared for some years, and then I saw him in "Killer Joe" a few years back and was like, "WTF? That's MMc??" He totally stepped up his game and finally figured out what he was doing. (And yeah, I'm not an actor, just an observer -- but from the outside, I saw such a huge leap in his quality of work.)

FOR REALS THOUGH. I still can't figure out how they managed that camera work. Closest thing to that scene that I ever saw was the 360-degree car-interior shot from "Children of Men" -- which was scarier, yes, but also a lot shorter.

I gotta finish that movie.

GoT tried what amounted to a 360 tracking shot in S4E9 (the Wall battle), but it wasn't nearly as long and IMO was easier since the camera stays so distant and the cameraman really doesn't have to move, just spin. The Avengers movie had a long one as well (30 seconds? 40?) but it involved computer imagery so it wasn't a real tracking shot IMO... it took different skills to set up. It's different when you have a single camera guy standing there who has to nail the entire shot (framing and focus) and meanwhile stay out of everyone's way.

 

[Totenkindly]

List of winners from the 66th Emmy Awards - Yahoo News

Well, the competition did get exposure for the series, but in terms of walkaway awards, "True Detective" lost almost every race against BB. BB had a ton of wins:

— Drama Series: "Breaking Bad," AMC

— Actor, Drama Series: Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad," AMC

— Supporting Actor, Drama Series: Aaron Paul, "Breaking Bad," AMC

— Supporting Actress, Drama Series: Anna Gunn, "Breaking Bad," AMC

— Writing, Drama Series: Moira Walley-Beckett, "Breaking Bad," AMC [For "Ozymandias," of course.]



However, TD got one Emmy for directing:

— Directing, Drama Series: Cary Joji Fukunaga, "True Detective," HBO [for "Who Goes There" -- the one with the six-minute tracking shot, booya!!!]

It did beat out Gilligan's directing on the last episode of BB in this case... which is no mean feat, because BB's last episode was tight and paced very well (especially the last ten minutes). Sometimes I've thought, "Oh, I wish they would have paced this or framed that <this way>" but I have trouble thinking of anything in "Felina" that I would have changed.

That tracking shot was just a helluva closer.

 

[EJCC]

I was expecting TD to not get anything, so I'm pleasantly surprised that the tracking shot got some recognition, at the very least!

They really should have kept it in the miniseries category. I have no idea what they were thinking. McConaughey for SURE would have beat Benedict Cumberbatch. Easily.

 

[Totenkindly]

I was expecting TD to not get anything, so I'm pleasantly surprised that the tracking shot got some recognition, at the very least!

They really should have kept it in the miniseries category. I have no idea what they were thinking. McConaughey for SURE would have beat Benedict Cumberbatch. Easily.

I guess they wanted the exposure and buzz... and if they actually WON against BB, well....

But I feel bad that the performances by McConaughey and Harrelson could not be rewarded more tangibly. They were that good. And yeah, Cumberbatch is good, but this was a step beyond.

 

[ceecee]

I guess they wanted the exposure and buzz... and if they actually WON against BB, well....

But I feel bad that the performances by McConaughey and Harrelson could not be rewarded more tangibly. They were that good. And yeah, Cumberbatch is good, but this was a step beyond.

Way beyond. It wasn't even close. I was mildly miffed and I usually don't care about awards shows but they were amazing.

 

[Totenkindly]

Ellen Page and Kate Mara Parody True Detective | Out Magazine

 

[Nicodemus]

Die, then, because that is not funny.

 

[Totenkindly]

Found this, don't know if it's been posted before.
Very interesting.

The Deeper Meaning of "True Detective" - Season One - The Vigilant Citizen

 

[Totenkindly]

June 21

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/nic-pizzolatto-gets-real-about-season-2-of-true-118462710390.html

Those characters include a world-weary detective (Farrell), a dogged sheriff (McAdams), a soldier-turned-cop (Kitsch) and a veteran crook (Vaughn). Pizzolatto says that having a four-person, as opposed a two-person, ensemble necessitated a shift in the show’s structure.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

June 21

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/nic-pizzolatto-gets-real-about-season-2-of-true-118462710390.html

Haven't watched this show yet, but I like that tagline.

 

[Totenkindly]

Haven't watched this show yet, but I like that tagline.

Since each seasons is its own storyline, you can just watch this season from scratch without missing anything. Season 1 is self-contained.

 

[EJCC]

1/3 excited, 1/3 wary, 1/3 pessimistic. Not sure how it can surpass season 1, but keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Totenkindly]

Season 2 has started

Anyone watch the opener yet? (It just aired last night.)

Reactions have been mixed but extreme - either you like it or you don't. Since I had already come to the realization it was not going to be like last season, I've been taking it on its own terms and so far have enjoyed it.

I like the tone, the grit, the anchoring shots (lots of views to get a sense of the wide open and sometimes barren landscape). I also like the music choices + the opening credits sequence. The whole show feels satisfyingly bleak. I think the actors are all fine; Vaughn might be the least believable performance, but again, I was expecting him to be the weakest link. He's acceptable in his role so far. Farrell and McAdams seem to be nailing things; Kitsch hasn't had a lot to work with yet.

"This is my least-favorite life..." is pretty haunting.

I keep forgetting how tall David Morse is. I hope he gets more air time, he's a favorite character actor of mine. I just did a height check on him and Vaughn, Vaughn edges him out (he's 6'4", Vaughn is 6'5"). Then it's fun to see them around Rachel McAdams, who is 5'4".