TRUE DETECTIVE season 3

hi, i watched the first two episodes last night. i liked it.

discuss

who is the true detective

mahershalalhashbaz ali

...or stephen dorff.

remains to be seen

at one point, old ali mumbles something to the filmmaker lady that makes his son react off to the side. i rewound three times but couldn't understand it. what was it? anyone catch it?

have a couple of friends who were on the crew for this. props and set dressing. my bud matthew is now the proud owner of the yellow chair from the sex shop guy's office. dorff wanted it (big collector of stuff, apparently) but matthew got to it first once filming wrapped.

in yr face, deacon frost

did a lot of squinting once I realized that was stephen dorff

but *how* is that stephen dorff? occasionally a shot would be at an angle where i'd think "hmm, that guy does look a little like him"

at one point, old ali mumbles something to the filmmaker lady that makes his son react off to the side. i rewound three times but couldn't understand it. what was it? anyone catch it?

― andrew m., Tuesday, January 15, 2019 6:51 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can't remember well but i think it was just something that showed his senility

i'm thinking (hoping?) that the child abduction plus suspicious totems angle is a red herring and not the full season direction. or they're replaying elements of a successful first season

I really like the conceit of having the different timelines literally intersect with each other in (as in the light going off in 2015 and seen in 1980, or Ali saying "I don't want to be here anymore" in 1980 into the camera but speaking from 2015...)

I guess there's some sense that this is gonna also intersect in some way with Season 1? Intriguing.

xp. i would be surprised if the season moves away from the murder/abduction

Like, a literal sense of dislocation, temporally and spatially, seems to be at play, as in Woodard's saying something like "ever want to be somewhere, and not be somewhere, at the same time?"

agree that the triple-timeline thing was surprisingly well-executed

oh wow i fucked that up: "“You ever been some place you couldn’t leave and you couldn’t stay?”

that line gave me a strong sense of melancholy

It's a good line.

Is this a recommendation, then? Too much actual family dementia has made me leery of seeing it in my entertainments. But I loved Ali in Moonlight (the only thing I loved in Moonlight) and want to see more.

If it's worth it, more than happy to pretend S2 never happened.

almost too early to say, chuck, re your leeriness. imo.

“You ever been some place you couldn’t leave and you couldn’t stay?”

def reminded me of the depths of my worst depression episodes (before seeking treatment). (tmi.)

I guess there's some sense that this is gonna also intersect in some way with Season 1? Intriguing.

who is the true pig bodine???

I like a good police procedural, and if this is a solid police procedural with good plotting and solid acting that is well-shot, I'm in. If it rehashes or reuses some of the things from the first season, I'm good with that, too. I suspect that any perceived connections at this point are red herrings, though.

Hays is a certified badass, isn't he?

^

Ali is good and the show is probably worth watching for that alone

this year is great. so far possibly surpasses season 1 IMO.

loving it. it's like --man brushes teeth /OMINOUS MUSIC PLAY IN BACKGROUND/ but it works

i didn't even recognize the sober father at first. dude looks like he lost a ton of weight between the timelines; but I think it was just a shave and a haircut.

scoot mcnairy very underrated in general imo

that might be my love of the last couple seasons of "halt and catch fire" talking

its ok, not a patch on season 1

not sure. I have a feeling that this story will resolve in a more satisfying way than season 1. there's still time for it to go tits up I suppose.

I've enjoyed this season so far too, seems like they've managed to refine what was good about the first season (the interplay between different time periods, the complex relationship between the two cops) while omitting the stuff that didn't really work, like the adolescent nihilist philosophising or the horror-flavoured hints that ultimately amounted to nothing. I also like how they avoid season 1's misstep of making the women insignificant by having the main female character have an interest of her own in the case, thus giving her proper agency.

So I'm hoping with this season TD finally lives up to promise of the first handful of episodes of season, before it fell flat. (I never watched season 2 because I was so disappointed how season 1 concluded, but based on what I've heard I guess I didn't miss much?)

oh I wouldn't put it that way exactly lol

there was a lot going on in season 2

perhaps too much

"time is a flat circle" and the yellow king and "making flowers" were why people watched s1. they are not "what didn't work"

They are what lured people in, but ultimately they were also what made the first season disappointing, cos they turned out to nothing superficial texture and nothing more. So far this season has been quite enjoyable without stuff like that.

the very end was a little too rote gross family/incest/texas chainsaw massacre for sure

I think s1 could have made good on all those creepy promises. that ending/finale was one of the all time TV letdowns

yeah all those gret things about season 1, in the end, didn't amount to jack shit from what I recall.

Season 2: had two great scenes, one was at that house (sex party? brothel? can't remember) and the other was watching fucking Vince Vaughn bleed to death in the desert (just wish fulfillment for me) and the rest of it was .... I can't remember a single thing. Bird heads that meant nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vF8GVXj9jw&

that entire subplot w/Velcoro recording notes to his son was... something

My lesson from S2 was that Vince Vaughan is a terrible fucking actor when he's not doing comedy.

The primary appeal of season 1 (for me) was watching two famous-ass charismatic movie stars being fun as hell to watch. So I didn't mind so much that the story puttered at the end because the focus was still on Woody and Matt being fucking weird and fun. I rewatched the famous long take scene recently and couldn't figure what the fuss was about.

(Which is to say, S2's big problem wasn't the dumb convoluted story but the boring leads. Even Rachel McAdams was a misfire.)

the entire season one shtick where Harrelson is a cheater gets really close to derailing into the "HBO means we can be graphic" trap when he ends up hooking up with the woman he helped out as a child

I think that understates the terrible/insane choices made at every level of production on Season 2, Chuck

I mean 50% of the dialogue is not of this earth

I've come around on Colin Farrell and he could've been great but yeah he had *nothing* to work with

Colin Farrell is a good actor. I forgot he was even in season 2.

Oh god, you're right, I forgot about Colin Farrell's school bully subplot. He did his best in th circumstances. They should've just had Danny mcbride in the role.

To me Farrell seems like a charismatic actor who's never well cast. Fright Night's the only thing that sticks out that I can recall.

fiend for mojitos

iirc

otm

I guess his personal life went off the rails at some point and it’s been a rocky comeback for his career

he's great in the Lobster

iirc the question was whether there was a homoerotic subcontext between Tom and West in season 3

I mean, maybe something jumps out later that makes it a definitive no, but given what we've seen you could definitely interpret that

it reads more like empathy from a long-term alcoholic for a closeted gay man who has drinking problems. but hey, ambiguous subtext

― mh, Tuesday, February 19, 2019 11:16 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i guess this isn't the most unreasonable fan theory I've heard

it's a really great example of a possible subtext that changes how you could perceive aspects of the show differently without really affecting the overall plot

this looks shipped. i can tell from some of the pixels and from seeing quite a few ships in my time.

I don't know what that means.

i have a theory that the room is fuchsia

and the man with one eye has two eyes, one of which is cloudy

going back and reading things I realize I can't remember about 1/2 of season 1. maybe I should revisit it.

A couple episodes behind atm but in case y'all were wondering, it seems the true detective is me because from the second they showed the cop pulling the backpack out of the goddamn enormous hole left in the floor by a goddamn landmine explosion I asked 'why tf isn't that thing at least a little singed around the edges?'. Which I believe puts me about a decade ahead of the investigators on the actual case.

always gotta be the smartest guy in the room dontcha

Somebody's gotta be, goddamnit! (throws case file across the room, stalks out to punch the dash of his squad car between pulls on a flask of cheap whiskey)

[]iirc the question was whether there was a homoerotic subcontext between Tom and West in season 3

I mean, maybe something jumps out later that makes it a definitive no, but given what we've seen you could definitely interpret that

it reads more like empathy from a long-term alcoholic for a closeted gay man who has drinking problems. but hey, ambiguous subtext

― mh, Tuesday, February 19, 2019 1:16 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink[]

Woke up this morning thinking about the ep I watched last night (still one behind) and I'm now about 93% sure West is gay. His particular affection for Tom, the comments he's made about Hays's allusions to prison rape, the thing about never having been married even though we saw a scene which seemed to suggest otherwise (church lady was a friend/beard, perhaps helping him to pray the gay away). And I'm guessing this revelation is what led to the partners falling out. Probably should ask Pizzolatto and see how pissed off he gets.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/02/true-detective-roland-gay-tom-theory-daniel-sackheim

the article I was alluding to

Why tf is Pizzaman actively debunking theories about his show as it airs, does he not know how TV works? That really bugs me a lot for some reason. Like an author standing over your shoulder as you read and ponder the meaning of his words.

death of the author can’t come soon enough sometimes

SPOILERS!
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That was... quite good for a season finale, I thought. Definitely better than the Season 1 ending. It was a bit disappointing that the solution to the mystery was exactly what you'd expect it be, based on the hints last week, but the mystery was never the biggest thing here, so it's okay. Some of it felt overwrought and over-explainy, like those soap-operaish flashback scenes showing exactly what happened to Julie, or Amelia's ghost tying the loose ends for Wayne (and for the viewer I guess, but at that point it was already pretty obvious what had happened even without all the exposition), but I did like her explanation that "sometimes the story goes long enough that you become unbroken". And the way Wayne's memory issues tied to the final closure/non-closure was a nice touch. So yeah, good season, decent ending, nothing mind-blowing but I wouldn't mind seeing more of this, if the quality stays up.

There were a couple of weird dramatic choices, though. Like, what was the point of having some creepy/suspenseful music play when Wayne drives to see whether Julie's still out there? We know Hoyt and her daughter are dead, and Junius Watts proved to be harmless, so was there really anyone threatening them anymore? Also, I'm sure someone smarter me can explain the meaning of the very last scene of Wayne in the jungle... The scene before was played like it would fade to the end titles, so I didn't really get what purpose that one extra bit served?

RESPOSE TO SPOILERS!
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I liked the ending too, but kinda wish the final reveal had been built up more – more earned, instead of it fed to Hays in that weird dream/hallucination (it was sort of hinted at with "does this feel over?" remark). the grounds keeper over-explaining his family history with maintaining properties was a little eye roll-y with what went down in the first season. and maybe i'm thick, but i didn't see the happy(ish) ending coming.

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so - the very very, last scene ending. i think a parallel was being drawn between Hays walking off into the jungle and walking off into his future with Amelia. smarter me might know what those parallels are... both probably terrify him.

That last shot was sort of mystifying. Initially, it felt pretty dark, but current feeling is that it's more compassionate: it represents the way trauma works...it will stay with him, it was *always* there, and that this doesn't make moving forward into the future possible. Or something. There's something important about how his "forgetting" Julie allows his own daughter to return into the picture.

Enjoyed this season (maybe the first half of it a bit more than the second), and hoping there's more.

Guys he’s in a *metaphorical* jungle, y’see?

ya, i think a 4th season is in the works.

that shot in the car where they were different ages and shit was truly horrible. so fuckin corny.

dorff was definitely the true detective in this one, ali spent the whole time acting real hard and those endless conversations with the wife were brutal. stoked for the stephen dorff renaissance

I really liked Dorff in this!

I liked the dynamic between the two leads but this was a slog, overall, compared to the precious two seasons. Too much relationship/feelings bla bla and not enough creepy Murrica pulpy stuff.

*previous not "precious"

Carmen Ejogo is probably great, but her american accent got to me in this.

https://i.imgur.com/7Jbpy6H.jpg

lol

we are the true detectives!

wayne and becca had differing opinions about which song should be removed from sgt pepper's to make the album better. amelia was always a ghost. hoping they're deleted scenes on the DVD. but that's the answer.

someone could make fake pizzolatto comments and it’d be the same

Pizzalatte maybe needs to stfu imho. Put it up on the fucken screen and then step away, good sir.

This finale was very Return of the King/A.I. in its 'oh guess that's the end...whoops no here's the actual ending I suppose...oh wait it appears that another ending is manifesting as I speak'-ness.

I mean he put pretty much everything on screen in that finale. Could have done with stepping away a bit earlier

I was insanely tired when I watched so I didn't backtrack -- was the woman with the child the same as the woman in the pictures the nun was showing the detectives?

either way, I thought the implication was that her story was better left ended

and Hays "solving the case" by actually finding her was the resolution he wasn't going to get -- he gets there, but his memory fails, so he's out there forever stuck on a mission. literally, back in the jungle

honestly can't tell if pizzolatto's trolling there but he doesn't seem the type

if these are the things he originally felt the show needed or clarifications that have had, we should be congratulating the editors

Mh—- uh, yes. She is The missing girl

A twin peaks fb group
Posted some of ghost Amelia’s speech with the image of Cooper at Laura-not-Laura’s door from the finale and I thought it was an interesting parallel:

What if there's another story?
What if something went unbroken?
All this life, all this loss, what if it was really one long story that just kept going and going until it healed itself?

(From True Detective Season 3)

i thought this ended well...i nearly bailed after the milch ep, the season lowpoint imo, but it picked up after that; still, i found the tone overall a lil too staid/lifeless, & despite some of the flaws of s1, i much preferred that season

yeah i know what you mean--it's the difference between Fukunaga and the rotating cast of directors for this season. Fukunaga managed to inject a bit of supernatural horror into the overall atmosphere that was missing here. S3 was more a straight-ahead mystery/crime story, albeit with weird chronology

Halfway through, liking it fine. Definitely more than 2, and within range at least of 1. Very convincing aging job on the three Ali's. He's great as always (although, as seems to be standard with this show, maybe a little too grim and monosyllabic--but they at least let him lighten up when courting Carmen Ejogo), Dorff is surprisingly good, Ejogo better yet. Deft handling of race--not the focus but there.

Found the resolution to the Purcell story a little far-fetched, to say the least. (The pink room was left intact for 20 or 30 years? Really? I would think Mr. June might have gotten in there and destroyed it.) As someone points out above, though, that's just one part among many, and overall I found it all pretty absorbing. Not sure if would hold up to a second viewing, as the first season did for me.

There were some shots of Hays (both younger and older) on the street at night that I thought might have been meant to evoke the opening scene of Get Out.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/ali.jpg

(The pink room was left intact for 20 or 30 years? Really? I would think Mr. June might have gotten in there and destroyed it.)

The room was in Edward Hoyt's mansion, and we don't know when exactly died, but West does mention his estate, so presumably the death was fairly recent, and the mansion hasn't been sold yet. So Mr. June probably didn't have the chance to destroy it. But yeah, it doesn't make much sense Hoyt would keep it intact, given that it ties him to well-known crime. Maybe he felt it was a memento of her dead daughter?

my assumption was that after his death, he left no clear instructions for anyone to deal with the room. June might have just assumed it was someone else's problem, or that it wasn't worth the trouble?

June also subconsciously (well, consciously) wanted to be punished for his crimes, so there's a possibility he wanted it to lead back to him/the Hoyt family.

it's possible the estate would be wrapped up in legal crap for years and everyone would be dead by the time someone found a secret room in the basement of a sprawling mansion

kind of fits with the series theme of buildings in disrepair sitting empty for decades

Yeah, those are all plausible explanations--especially the idea of wanting to be caught.

Didn't know Michael Rooker would show up, recognized him almost immediately (but took a few seconds to place him--I was thinking, "JFK, JFK..."). Solid actor.

Michael Rooker fits so well in the world of TD. I'm rooting for him to be one of the leads in the next season, or at least a Dorff-level supporting character.

this was rather lovely.

mr june exposition scene was painful af but allowed the last episode to focus on the relationship and a happy ending, which i was fine with

dorff character is gay for sure but im glad they left it unsaid

plot meh characters good performances good looked great more like this

really liked this, pl complaining about the dialogue are taking themselves too seriously imho, s3 > s1 > s2