Right, I think we're seeing the real him right now, but I don't think he's being particularly honest about his beliefs in 1995 (I think he's coloring in the lines a bit of what he thinks now with how he wished he thought more like then), as I think a lot of it is too paradoxical. Hart definitely verifies that he said some strange stuff, but he hasn't really acted like Cohle was a constant bull**** man (something we are almost constantly witnessing now), if that makes sense. Think of Cohle as a pessimist in 1995, but then think of what he would be like today if he killed an innocent man for something he thought he did (regardless of how bad the man was), and didn't find out about it until x number of years later. To me, that's the Cohle we're seeing on screen now. All of this is still pure speculation for at least a little over another week.

when he says "We wanted to love True Detective. We really did." is the "we" he is referring to the collective homosexual community?

His heart is with Hart, but his soul is like Cohle.

The entire review is essentially "I really love all the antihero dramas on TV in the recent past and I don't know where this plot is going at all but it seems kind of radical so I'm going to assume it is in fact bland... and, hey, you can't make anything DARK in the post Breaking Bad era because... uhm..." and essentially vomits on his keyboard. It's like reviewing Game of Thrones after 3 episodes and declaring it has nothing to say about the fantasy genre and all of the characters are cliche.

Like, I'm sure Woody, MM, Fukunaga, etc, decided to "slum it" on television in spite of the part where they are radically advancing the medium for been-there-done-that material. Because if we know anything about HBO's history and these artists involved here it all points to retreading serial killer drama. Seems legit. And he ends with "hey maybe there is a reason.." with like zero self awareness.

Is it possible he's right? Sure.

Is it likely? Uhhh, lol.

This is funny. I don't know anything of Greenwald personally. I have read a couple of his Grantland pieces and that's it. When the True Detective premiere was approaching I was reading everything I could find on the show. Greenwald's review was one of them.

I read what his gripes were (women characters not developed enough, too much manly man stuff, it's a man's world, blah blah) and my immediate thought was, "Is this guy gay?"

I realize reasonable minds can disagree, but, man, it's going to be hard to take future reviews from him seriously.

BTW...Is he gay? I honestly have no idea.

I also got the impression the reviewer had some sort of feminist agenda. I have no idea who the reviewer is, know nothing of the grantland site, and won't take the time to find out by means outside of this thread.

Im not familiar with this guy either, but negative reviews for this show are a bit puzzling to me. This show seems like it was made for people who love good TV.

If this guys favorites shows are Chicago Fire and Blue Bloods(I enjoy BB!), then it makes a bit more sense.

You wanted it, you got it. Here was his top 10 from 2013.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prosp...shows-of-2013/

He put The Americans as his number 2 show (if we were talking about what ends up in a toilet, I'd agree), so I really wouldn't take this guy's opinion to mean anything. He's basically bashing a potentially ground breaking police drama for being too contrived, or basic, or not ground breaking, or something, and he makes The Americans, one of the most contrived, pat, and told from the winner's perspective TV shows I've ever seen his number 2 show.

A lot of his other stuff makes him just look like an "I'm Too Cool For You Hipster".

That's a big fail for Greenwald, no doubt. I assume Sepinwall likes it; I respect his opinion.

if you think about it he's probably just some whore trolling for pageviews by being purposely contrarian.

Not that many people watch the show, so that wouldn't do him any good.

reviewing a television show off of the first 3 episodes seems incredibly silly anyways especially given the history of HBO series, although not liking this one after the first 3 episodes is peculiar but hey it's one mans opinion

I don't read any Television critcs tho, er "recaps" they're kind of pointless assuming you are watching. the interaction on a forum like this is much better.

Most shows, and I really mean most, don't hit their stride until the around the 6th episode. The craftspeople (like me) often don't know exactly what they're trying to do until then (and not coincidentally, most shows have between 4 and 6 in the can before they air the first season, meaning we don't know how it's going to play until then, and typically make adjustments based on what we see and hear, while kind of guessing along the way as you get into a show). Most sitcoms have the technical pretty close right away (though there are tons of examples where it often takes the full 6 to get it right, generally the visual style is the biggest issue, which is typically alleviated by high skill directors), but the writing, chemistry, and acting is typically off until around that mark (a big reason why I generally watch 6 episodes of a sitcom before giving up on it, unless there's absolutely no advancement in the first 3). If you want some practical examples of this go back and compare the visual style of the early The Office and Parks and Rec episodes to what they were by the end. The Office started when TV wasn't required to be HD, so it's a little different case, but because that genre was so new for TV they had to really figure the show out at the start. By the end of its run, it was a gold standard for both visual style and sound for what it was (as is Parks now, though its visual and sound style was still pretty high in the beginning). When a show nails that stuff in the Pilot (or gets it close), it's really special.

This show is uncommonly special in how it's hit all the right notes right from the start. The biggest fear is that it has a late season crash like House of Cards did. I can maybe think of 10 shows in recent memory that have been out of the gate fast (meaning first three episodes). Almost all of them have been on HBO, Showtime, AMC, or FX. Showtime never maintains the momentum of their first episodes, HBO usually does, and it's hit or miss for AMC and FX. Those channels tend to put a lot of effort into their premiere episodes, and it shows. Most of the networks these days figure they have a little time to get it right, so if a show really grabs you at the first episode it's doing something right. All of the best ones give you the complete tone of the show at the Pilot, even if they're tweaking certain things on the fly. That's probably a big reason why The Blacklist is the only major new drama success on network TV this season (Sleepy Hollow and S.H.I.E.L.D. are lesser successes, but the latter has had major audience erosion since the beginning). They haven't really changed much from the start, and they knew exactly what the show was going to be in development. Other network shows that know that kind of stuff and don't toy with the audience tend to do pretty well (Grimm and Person of Interest are good examples of shows that knew what they were right away, as was Scandal and to a lesser extent Elementary).

After the second episode, I could easily see True Detective potentially being my favorite show of the year. Anyone heavily criticizing it is doing everything wrong. You can not like what it is, but it's a fantastic show for what it's trying to be, and to be really honest, it's not exactly clear what it's trying to be yet. That's what makes it even better, in my opinion.

This show barely qualifies as TV to me. Er, I mean, it's really pushing the creative bounds beyond anything I've ever seen... on my TV. Regardless of how it wrapa up its already made significant impact on the medium. Maybe I'm nuts.

Not sure if it has been said yet, but I believe that the green eared spaghetti monster that was referred to by the girl is Ledoux(or someone else) wearing that gas mask.

Something I didn't notice until I watched episode 1 again is near the end when MM says to the detectives something like "You guys want to hear about the hero shot, when we pulled out all those kids?"

Another thing I'm noticing (in terms of the bigger picture) is that for whatever flaws MM had in 1995, he was a driven, good detective, and a good-looking dude capable of some type of social success, whereas the present day character is a pale drunk that "knows who he is" and lives, at least by the standards of the average biological puppet in southern Louisiana, a sad life.

I don't think you're nuts. It plays like a high quality indie film (my guess is that the budget has to be around 7m per episode, which is far more than any network can spend).

What kind of TV are you watching on? On my big one (60"), with my pro studio monitors, the show plays magnificently. I wish the interrogations were shot differently, but I think the look is intended to be jarring. That could also be one of those things where the supreme artistry of the exterior shots isn't really intending to show us reality. I think this will be such a great show to go back and view again once we know what's up at the end of the season.

i mean i'm 100% on board with your assessment of how awesome it is, but have you watched much HBO lately?

GoT, and BoB both were/are equally absurdly superior to anything else on TV.

Out of 3 tremendous episodes this was the only thing MM said that didn't make sense to me.

The moment in the garden refers to adam eating from the tree at eve's beckoning after she herself was tempted by the snake.

the crucafiction took place much later and was jesus

am i missing something?

jesus and the disciples were in a garden of sorts after the last supper when judas led the romans to him.
i mean i could be wrong but that's my belief.

edit: according to wiki

Jesus was arrested by the Temple guards of the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane,

This. The night before his crucifixion/arrest he went to the garden of Gethsemane and prayed with his disciples. Jesus sweated blood, and prayed a super long time. Asked god multiple times to let this cup pass from me, but thy will, not mine be done.

Also believers think Jesus is all knowing and all powerful thus he knew what was coming and allowed it to happen. Or so the legend claims.

Hmm. Allowing his own crucifixion = allowing his own arrest for the new murder?

Seattle could be up 4 points with Peyton driving with 1:20 left in teh 4th and i'm gonna be like MF'er where's my TRUE DETECTIVE goddamnit!

Don't want to religitard up this thread, but given the content of the show, it's not really off topic, sooo..

Man, the story of Jesus, and the overall Christian canon has to be one of the most contrived stories ever written.

Can an omnipotent god create a story so contrived that, even in all of his glorious omnipotence, he himself cannot fill all the resulting plot holes?