True Detective

Ein sehr guter Krimi mit zwei tollen Schauspielern und einer unbezahlbar düsteren Stimmung. Es hat mir gefallen, wie die Autoren mit verschiedenen Details gespielt haben, z. B. mit dem Altern der beiden Helden (obwohl Harrelson und seine "junge“ Perücke wie die Faust aufs Auge gepasst haben; es war noch schlimmer als sein Akzent, der wie die Faust aufs Ohr war), und wie sie es geschafft haben, die Geschichte, welche nicht kontinuierlich erzählt wurde, zusammenzusetzen. Mir persönlich hat aber in True Detective irgendeine Überraschung gefehlt. Ich wollte keine schockierende Pointe, aber ein "Das hätte ich nicht erwartet!“ hätte nicht geschadet. Früher war es nur dunkel. Meiner Meinung nach gewinnt das Licht. (26.08.2015)

Der moralische Imperativ in mir und der Sternenhimmel über mir. Hierbei geht es um eine semi-ultimative dialektische existenzielle Detektivgeschichte (ungefähr bis zum 5. Teil), dann um einem prozeduralen metaphysischen Thriller / Horror, welcher sich bis irgendwohin auf die Tradition der Narren beruft, die im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert Geschichten erzählt haben. Der Schluss klingt wie eine Bromance nach Immanuel Kant. Insgesamt ist dies eines der interessantesten Projekte in der TV-Geschichte der Box, welche ein wenig unter dem unausgeglichenen Drehbuchs leidet, was jedoch mit perfekter Regie, Bühnenbild und schauspielerischen Leistungen wettgemacht wird. Sofern es denn irgendein konsequentes und aussagekräftiges Gegengewicht zu Scandinoir gibt, so ist es True Detective. Denn hiervon hat er sich die "nordische" Kombinatorik in Sachen Geradlinigkeit eine Scheibe abschneiden können. [90%] (12.03.2014)

After a very long time, I was able to downright enjoy a TV show. One season was enough to make me realize that you can still wonder about a story even despite the fact that the creators tell you a substantial part of it right from the start. True Detective’s selling points are its story and its atmosphere. Although the story itself seems like quite a classic plot at first glance, its narration is so perfect that it immediately etched itself in my mind. And not just because of the story itself, but, above all, because of the lead roles that Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson performed so perfectly. I haven’t ever seen them act better. In any case, thanks to them, this TV show has become one of the most intense show experiences I have ever had. (13.03.2014)

The Louisiana season: Or how existential crime series à la Dürrenmatt dealt with a Scandi overlap thriller à la Larsson in a Deep Southern (and thanks to Rusty, nihilistic, and thanks to Marty hypocritical) way, with the essence of Southern noire. Which resulted in a (pan)genre movie with inimitable genius loci which is extremely existential, very symbolic, not literally reading the unspoken between the lines, very dismal, very subliminally disturbing, very mosaic-like in terms of narrative and primarily very (but really very) good. The Arkansas season: After the second, conceptually boldly different (however not completely successful) season, the third “yellow-bellied" season returns to what worked first time. And it works again. Again we have an oppressive and disturbing atmosphere-oozing masterpiece of cinema where the genre plot takes the back seat and serves purely as a catalyst for in depth character study of ambiguous, unbalanced animate characters across time. For its casting, performances, camerawork, production design, easy to follow despite three timelines... All of this is worthy of one of the current flagships of quality TV. The bigtime problem storyline is the one connected with the present which, thanks to paper rustling games with a problematic memory, serves as a carrot on a stick leading us toward gradual and final (non)revelation. And to make it worse, this becomes the central storyline of the last episodes. It doesn’t help that the creators are constantly would-be mysteriously hinting “just wait, you’ll see". While, to the attentive viewer, it becomes immediately clear where things are headed. In a purely crime genre where the case and (not)solving it play first fiddle, this would probably work on a scale of a few episodes. But not as the connecting thread of an eight hour movie “about characters and relationships", which season three tries to be. P.S.: Even HBO itself jumped on the bandwagon with the creators by beating about the bush with the description “frightful case of child murders". But this is like saying that the Red Sox won, but when you look at the results you find out that not only did the Red Sox not play, but the game ended in a tie. | S1: 5/5 | S3: 3/5 | (28.01.2014)

Rather than a genre revolt, it’s more so a surgically precise analysis that dilutes the classic detective story with a metaphysical overlay and skillfully leads the viewer by the nose. This works in 1995, whereas the events of the new millennium follow established principles. My true detectives continue to swim against the tide of The Wire. (28.03.2014)