Okay everyone, let’s be clear here: there will be spoilers. Spoilers be here. People who haven’t watched the end of True Detective: I AM ABOUT TO DROP MAD SPOILER BOMBS!
[Okay, are we all good?]
How good is/was True Detective season 1? Oh man. Outside of a few bum moments in episode 7, I can’t think of a show with a more consistently jaw-dropping first season ever. After the disappointment of ploughing through Breaking Bad — a show I didn’t really ever enjoy, but watched because of of the hype — it was such a relief to watch a show I was actually fully in love with.
What are your thoughts on the ending?
I’ve had multiple friends run the gamut from absolutely loving it, to feeling icky about Rust’s redemption. I even had someone bitch about the whole off-camera shot thing near the end.
Personally, I loved the final episode. The final chase scene was spectacular, and that shot of Gus being lifted in mid-air by an axe-wielding maniac will stay with me forever.
Some folk baulked at Rust giving up his nihilism, but I found it poignant, and a perfect end to one of the most interesting character arcs I can remember.
Loved this show, can’t wait to see what they do with a completely new story in season 2.
Comments
25 responses to “Off Topic: True Detective”
I didn’t even know this was a thing until yesterday when I read people talking about the final. I guess that’s what I get for not having Foxtel.
Don’t worry, you’re not the only one, I’ve never heard of it either.
May or may not have started on ep one just last night and stayed up til 3am finishing it all. So so great. Having watched them all in a row, I can’t shake the feeling that the end strayed a tad from the grounded first half, but I’d be splitting hairs over easily one of the best shows I’ve seen and doing it an injustice complaining.
I have no idea what Rust’s last line was though – “once there was only dark”, aaand? “He asked and the lights went in?”. If that’s the case, I think it’s a little too much religion from rust too quickly :/Also, ep 4, with the whole bikie gang b&e bit – absolutely amazing. The way they shot that in particular blew me away.
Too much religion? Huh? I think you’ve completely misunderstood Rust’s comment there. It’s nothing to do with religion. He’s talking metaphorically.
He wasn’t being religious, he was talking about the fact he’s finally seeing hope.
Personally I felt the end was brilliant. Marty cracks the case, the brute force asshole finally using his brains, Rust, in the end, the brains of the operation, has to use brute force to overcome his obstacles… they both finally came full circle in the end to understand each other. Their friendship finally healed, they carry more scars than ever before, but they endured a major trial by fire, they walk away more bonded than ever despite their decade apart.
Ohhh, the lights winning. Ok. I did say ‘if thats the case’, based on what I thought he said.
It’s all good 🙂 everyone has their own opinion (I think I heard the internet gasping). I know people who didn’t like it, believe it or not.
It’s ok. We’ll burn their houses down later…
Hey dont worry Sughly you’re not alone; I seriously replayed that line about 6 times trying to understand what that last part was and finally gave up cause I couldnt understand it. It wasnt a very well delivered line and should have been reshot. It just wasnt clear in delivery.
Anyway, apart from that I loved the series. Easily my favourite new show in a couple of years. Both actors were superb and its a shame to see they wont be coming back. The second season has a lot to live up to thats for sure.
Ahhh I know right! I played it over and over, couldnt catch it. Pumped the volume, all I got was “hmmmer ask nngh lights errmmer in nggh”
Good show, though not the best thing I’ve ever seen like some are claiming, I found Rust so hard to understand through most of it and found I started switching off when he started rambling in the Interview room whilst making the beer-can cutouts, still 8/10.
I guess if you’re not digging on that then a lot of the show’s appeal may not be for you ^^
I definately enjoyed it, better than most shows out there.
I loved it!
You know what I loved about this show the most? In an age where we get anti-hero shows, where the good guys die at the end all the time, where the badguy quite often walks away with the prize etc etc etc… as much as I loved Breaking Bad, it was disappointing in a way to see Walt ‘win’ at the end (despite dying).
It was great to see a show where the goodguy wins. Where the goodguy in the end stands triumphant over evil. That kicked ass 🙂 made me feel really good at the end of it.
I don’t know about that. There wasn’t necessarily a “good” ending. Remember, the Tuttles (some of them) have gotten away scot free, off the hook.
Breaking bad wasn’t really black and white either. Walt lost a lot. Everything he originally claimed to care about. Sure, he got to go out in a blaze of glory and the Nazi’s died, but all he had in the end of that show was his cancer and a bullet in the gut.
Tuttle got away, but as they stated, they got theirs. Realistically, Tuttle was out of their reach with the amount of power they had. Breaking Bad had a lot of grey areas sure, but here’s undispitable facts:
Walt was a drug lord
Walt was a murderer
Walt was leaving a trail of bodies and misery in his path
We sympathise with Walt because they wanted us to. Had the story been told from Hank Schraeders point of view, we would’ve seen Walt as a complete asshole. Personally, I think Gus Fring wasn’t too bad a guy at all, but I’m aware he was just as bad as Walt. Infact all things considered, Gus wasn’t AS bad as Walt. Gus had some sort of ethics about him that Walt severely lacked.
Walt, in the end, got to die a free man. He escaped the cancer, he escaped the law, he escaped justice, hell, he freed Jesse and he ‘saved the day’. I love Breaking Bad and believe it or not I love the ending, but Walt ‘won’ in the end despite its downbeat style. That’s why I loved True Detective. Tuttle may have gotten away with his part, but he’s for the bigger fish to fry, no doubt the tape will turn up in their hands at some point (we’ll never know, it’s an anthology, new characters next season). But, as they said, they got their guy, so in the end, the good guys won this time.
Fantastic show. So well written, some of the dialogue was Cormac McCarthy-esque. Particularly loved the final scene in ep5. The single long-shot that went for 6 or 7 minutes, filled with so much action. Superb directing to pull that off.
The whole setting and characterization is top notch, HBO and the parties involved have created a high-quality series that fulfilled what they set out to achieve.
In regards to this episode, I particularly liked the scenery and camera work going into the ‘church’ of the Yellow King. That visual of Rust staring into the vortex was amazing, not to mention the supernatural strength of the Spaghetti Man.The quality of everything in this show was amazing – acting, directing, lighting, the dialogue in particular was a highlight. TV really has come a long way.
Sad to see the director will not return for Season 2, as he had an amazing ability to create the exact right mood throughout the whole season. Just the right amount of creepy.
Rust is the best new character on TV for sure.
It is a bit sad he won’t return. But, with the smash quality of series one, I hope, vainly, that it would attract directors like David Lynch and others to it? I know that’s not likely to happen, but people like Lynch have worked in TV before (Twin Peaks) and shows such as Twin Peaks laid solid groundwork so many years ago for shows such as True Detectives style to eventually come forth.
First of all, THANKYOU. I couldn’t stand breaking bad. Secondly, the ending strayed a little from the aesthetic of the show, but overall a 9.5 nearly perfect.
Character arcs were fantastic. I did find though some of the connections to close the case a little silly. The green paint connection was a little on the nose for me. One issue I did have though is the sex scenes. Anything with a nice set of breasts and arse was shown just for the sake of it. This was hammered home to me when they did not show a sex scene in the last episode. It was still super effective with nothing shown and the earlier scenes could also been dealt that way without gratuitous tits and arse. Still loved every minute of it though.
Edit- That last scene in the chase was perfect with the circle roof and the stars looking down. Perfect call back to the conversations throughout the series.
I didn’t find the sex scenes/nudity were just there for the sake of it all. It was part of the character development. Marty was a d*ck who cheated on his wife: they showed it.
It’s like saying the gratuitous violence was there for the sake of it. They didn’t have to show Rust’s stomach getting ripped up with a knife or Errol’s head getting blown off either. Pretty gratuitous, but that’s the story.
Rust didn’t exactly get a redemption, although I can see how people in love with his outlook would be disappointed by the implication of what he was saying at the end. He was denied his daughter again, and shoved back in to the world he despises when he wanted to leave even before he thought there was something better in death.
I liked it, but not as much as most people on the net, it was a little too slow for me.
I can agree with what you say about it being slow but I thought the dialogue was fantastic and both characters were interesting in their own way so I didn’t mind the pace so much.