Popular wisdom on narrative fiction suggests being concise, economical. Choose the right words and make them few. Say it fast. The world that is fascinating in your mind as a writer, that you can see so clearly, loses speed and intensity if you get too verbose. Know what it important, necessary, to tell your story,…
There is only one episode left in season three of True Detective, and I think, at last, I may understand the mania that compels Wayne Hays. He is seeing the Purcell case through, not because he wants to or takes any real pleasure in it at this point, but because he needs to see how…
The problem with a show being so close to great that you can reach out and touch it, catch the hint on the tip of your tongue, is that the metric used to measure its quality becomes much more rigorous; the less we expect, the happier we are when something merely clears the bar. True…
Let us address first the peculiarity of jumping into episodic reviews, five episodes into True Detective, season three, and then speak no more of it. I recognize that it is an odd and perhaps jarring decision, but to be fair, True Detective is an odd and often jarring show. Time’s a flat circle, so let’s…
Fans of the HBO crime show True Detective will be pleased to find out that Matthew McConaughey might return for the show’s third season. As most viewers of the show know, the Interstellar star was the leading man in season one of the drama as Detective Rust Cohle but was replaced as the lead in…
You know, sometimes I wish True Detective had more going on. I wish it were more complicated with more characters. I just feel like they don’t throw around the names of minor characters enough. And would they stop making everything so fun and happy. This has been an example of sarcasm. Now let’s try and…
Season one of True Detective revealed the killer to be a minor character nobody was really expecting. I’m starting to get the vibe that this season will see a big player be the guilty party. This week’s episode began to show signs that we are moving toward a conclusion. There are clues galore as we…
So we saw a big change this week on True Detective. After the epic shootout that capped off the previous episode, there was a time jump of a few months. Unfortunately that jump didn’t see Matthew McConaughey’s Detective Rust Cohle from last season take charge of the case. (What an awesome twist that would be.)…
True Detective ramped up the action this week. We expect brooding police officers and shady business deals, but not usually a full on firefight in the streets with tons of casualties. (Interestingly we got a shootout at the same point last season.) But this fight was just the last little while of the “Down Will…
So, long story short, not dead. The unthinkable cliff-hanger last week, with Ray Velcoro taking two shotgun blasts to the chest, had us all reeling about what this could mean for the rest of the True Detective season. But it turns out he was shot with riot shells meant to seriously slow you down in…
Just two weeks ago I was recapping the Game of Thrones season finale. Avoiding cross-series spoilers, we fans were questioning a pretty clear death scene. In a world with magic and zombies and stuff, this character couldn’t be dead. Could he? Well now we’re in a world without magic. True Detective just seemingly killed its…
True Detective is quite a beast of a TV show. It teaches us what it takes to be a detective. Firstly, you must be an incredibly screwed up individual. Once you have amassed a collection of inner demons, then you must grow a mustache like Matthew McConaughey’s character from season one of the show and…