HBO has given us a procedural with an interesting subject--The Yellow King... http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/02/27/true-detective-nic-pizzolatto-season-1/ A little spoiler to help you catch up http://kinginyellow.wikia.com/wiki/True_Detective
I so love this show. I just recently watched episodes 1 to 6 all back to back on my iPad. I was awake till 2am to do so. This show is incredibly engaging, Matthew McConaughey is simply amazing in this.
It's the best thing on TV, and I am delighted it's intended to be an anthology with a different cast each season.
Its really good, but after years of fast paced shows designed for ADHD I sometimes find myself nodding off. :/
The thing I love about this show is that it's an hour long but feels like its two hours, in a good way. There is something about this writer/show creator and these two actors that makes this show intoxicating. Woody Harelson was great in last nights episode, his reaction to the video tape is killer.
Matthew walks away with the Golden Globe and the Emmy and everything else that he's nominated for next awards season, no matter what category he is in. Woody is going to get nominations in everything too. The one director/one writer combo really works and I don't understand why more TV shows don't do this in order to maintain a consistent tone. I haven't looked at fan theories and screenshots since Lost went off the air. This show has completely captivated me. And I don't even give a crap who the Yellow King is/are. The atmosphere has been top notch.
I just spent last night and tonight getting caught up on this show. Just when Breaking Bad ends I wonder what will fill the void? This is it. Mathew M. is so great, I want him as Batman instead of Affleck. This is what Batman would be if he were a cop. This show is awesome. Woody also does a great job as always, but MM steals it. I think it sucks that they won't return for another season, but I like that we don't have to sit through season after season trying to figure out what's going on like with the X-Files or "who is future guy?" I like this a little better because we get a whole story in one season and I can safely say the characters are fleshed out. It just feels like an eight hour movie to me, which is basically what it is. Like I said, I think Woody and Mathew work well together, and I'd like to see more of them, but I do like that each season will be different. I will definitely keep this show on my radar.
The show feels like a really good book that keeps getting better as everything comes together. As much as I want the show to last, I really want to see how it ends.
I kind of wish they would do this with Star Trek, that way, we could give TNG crew and Enterprise crew a proper send off. We could also explore the TOS timeline more. There's so much you can do with an anthology series. It'd be great if they explored Marty and Cohle at a later date.
I agree with Starbreaker. I think this may be the first time that I can say that I actually don't care who the killer is. I am enjoying the character study of these 2 men so much that the mystery seems secondary. I am thrilled to just be along for the ride.
"True Blood" is an example of something supernatural that (to me at least) is not in the least horrific. "True Detective" is an example of something (not yet) supernatural that is horrific. The closest we have to an actual play like "The King in Yellow" comes from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," or "No Country For Old Men"--where the off screen Phantom of truth is Anton Chigurh . His ghost seems to follow Woody Harrelson, who is really still Carson Wells in this series--the same character. Here Hastur is not some rubber monster of tentacles--that's too Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and scares no one. Hastur is despair Carcosa seems to be the towers of petrochemical refineries, near a lake. I even remember some talk about the M-brane theory that is a little familiar--a nice name for a membrane screen smart phone maybe? I thought I had guessed how all of this ends, if they keep the Hastur cycle just as a way to add a sense of dread. The phantom of truth will be an old mafia don type corpse they wheel about, Jeremy Bentham style--after locking a poor sap into a closet suffering from a bad trip. In the end, an invisible force rises from the lake. Mud and scum frothing to the surface--where the cloud waves break--the clouds being from a gas blow-out due to fracking? They drilled too deep. The cultists will be caught and incinerated, and everything ends like the Texas City disaster--or WHITE HEAT. We see the head cult leader in a burn suit thrashing about....the real King in Yellow. But I think it will be even more dismal than that.
I love this show so much that I wrote an article about it. I don't think there's a show that's hit me in this emotional and intellectual spot this consistently since The Sopranos. I'm thrilled to see the ending, but hate that we'll have to wait another year to see where the next story will take us.
It ended up being the simplest explanation. I feel sorry for those who wasted 8 weeks of their life doing symbolism analysis. I really enjoyed the show, overall!
Great article! I had a short story called A Christmas Gift that I posted here: http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/viewtopic.php?t=93117 The climax is familiar to people here--we went through something similar: http://www.wtvm.com/story/11209496/deputys-hand-severed-by-axe In an attempt to defend himself, Sgt. Freeman deployed his taser. Although effectively striking Mr. Watts with the taser, Watts continued his assault towards Sgt. Freeman. In the first set of swings, Watts severed Sgt. Freeman's right hand. The only thing that saved the deputy was that the huge bush axe became impaled in the wooden porch. The man was huge. Alabama is a spooky place all its own. Vile funnels tear at our land in the spring, and pain from the past bled through to the songs of Muscle Shoalsto American Idol. The town of Vernon was home to a man named Try Woffard, who was so obese rumor had it he burst and died on the street. The killer liked to walk around in front of the TV, as if he had a relationship to it. I am very like that at times
There's a NY Times article on a case similar to the one in True Detective but I can't find it at the moment. Fascinating read, though. Edit: And thank you for the praise.
The Hosanna Church scandal in Louisiana in 2005. This isn't the NYT article, but it discusses the case and is written by a local reporter who covered the original story. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...se-that-may-have-inspired-true-detective.html