Netflix has me so spoiled with consuming as little or as much of a series at one time that I’m actually pissed I’m gonna have to watch this season over a two month spaN.

One....miserable.....week...at...a...time.. I’m just too hyped for this shit!,

Any chance HBO will get with the times and start to release full seasons at once through their HBO GO platform???

Gave the web time to dig into some of the references of each episode. That concept didn't really apply to Season 2.

Part of the fun was having to wait and guess for a week. Sweet sweet torture

the storytelling and narrative line up so well and so precisely when you do it all in one hit. made me appreciate it a bit more.

V.

I didn't give Game of Thrones a shot (and somehow missed ALL the spoilers) until I think right around the start of season 4, and I really enjoyed how intimately familiar I was with all the plots in motion but then that season was a great year for the suspense that comes with waiting a week.

Same with True Detective, I shrugged it off for whatever reason until right before the season finale when hype was at an all-time high all over the internet, so I binged the full season right up to the broadcast time for the finale...which was awesome since I didn't have to wait two months to be kinda let down by how it all ended.

I watched Succession week by week though and I have to say it was a great pleasure to see that show get better and better and better right up to the finale, it was like a fantastic dessert after a long week every time.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

This early theme that the women in Hays life - if not people he’s close to generally, like his partner - have used his suffering and memory issues to their own personal gain. The Ringer’s recaps point to a lot of references to works involving yellow kings, unspeakable evils, Carcossa and other things that defined lots of season one. Will be curious to see how that develops, hopefully subverting several of those allusions as it goes.

Ali is awesome, loving Dorff and Scoot as well. I never saw Halt and catch fire but every little role I’ve seen him in had me wanting more.

One theory that caught my eye skimming the reddit reaction thread was the idea that Hays’ daughter may have died and he can’t remember / has blocked that out, which is what frustrates his son so much about that moment at dinner. It’s definitely track with what it’s like to deal with parents fighting dimentia. Adding to that, what if his wife isn’t dead but simply left him due to his obsession with the case and inability to move on once he retired and she found her own success?

I want more. Now!

Obviously Prince Ali is owning this shit. But they're doing a very good job at setting the tone, creating an atmosphere, and not crowding shit too much.

made it seem better than it was.

and correct. one of the best TV series of all time, no question.

I never know about that cat but seems like they found a good role for him here

The inevitable scene where he has to kill a bunch of bad guys is gonna rule

wife and I first noticed him on that show 'The 4400', dug him on that show first and he's obviously been KILLIN it ever since. Dude ALLWAYs brings that 'something extra' to ANY project.... not in an overt 'look at ME!' kinda way, but rather in an understated/subtle yet still profound/powerful/memorable way. Still my favorite part of Luke Cage season 1....

so yeah, we're all-in on True Detective 3 so far...

Damn I think I remember who his character would have been, but I can't even register it being him back then. I really liked that show too, might have to crack out the box set, seems so long ago.

I'm very much digging the deliberate pace and letting things unfold slowly. And the performances are great all around.

So, it's the cousin, right? The one the director said they recently discovered the remains of?

I'm also guessing West's limp has to do with whatever goes down at the Native American scanvenger's home. I'm going to guess that lead to the future state Attorney General pinning the whole thing on the scavenger, screwing Hays, and promoting West. But we'll see, I guess.

Guess we see if West is gonna react the same with a white mob like he did with the Black one.

That trip wire probably wiped out at least half of them

>Guess we see if West is gonna react the same with a white mob
>like he did with the Black one.

i quit watching about 70% thru ep2... ill give it another try but damn what a let down.

I think anybody that perceives a drop-off in quality from the Saulnier to the Sackheim/Pizzo episodes is doing it to themselves, but I can see why somebody would be falling off this show in general. If you're here trying to figure out the mystery/crime and that's it, there isn't a lot there on the surface. Me personally, I could be reading Reddit theories on why Amelia is the killer for hours, but the show doesn't give you much of that on its own.


The acting, directing and writing for me is really, really awesome, though. The only thing I've really been let down by so far is that the C4 explosion was the kicker for episode 4; this series usually doesn't shy away from doing the damn thing and episode 4 has been the episode where they do it, so I found it kind of cheap to use that expectation as an ellipses this time around. Watching Greyeyes (the actor that plays Woodard) sprint barefoot was almost enough on its own, though.


That dinner scene between Amelia and Hays was WILD if you're in on the various sub-conspiracies flying around the internet.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/01/true-detective-who-is-the-killer-amelia-season-3-episode-3-the-big-never/amp

A good summary through episode 3. Additional markers from 4 include Amelia’s disinterest in Hays actually pursuing the case compared to when it was a game for her to play and particularly how cagey she is during their dinner in 1980. If you’re not suspecting her it’s mostly a cute, well acted awkward dinner. But if you are, it’s kind of incredible how little she says about herself and how often she redirects Hays to open himself up more while she stays closed off.

She’s also more than once made reference to pretending she’s other people and having a messy past on the coast. It’s also a little hard to ignore how villainous her one “appearance” so far in 2015 was. I’m not all in on this or anything, and Pizzolatto is on record as not trying to do an unreliable narrator/mental illness thing here, but it’s been one of the more fun aspects of the show for me so far.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

I don't buy the motive at all. She did all this so she could write a bestseller? That she hasn't finished 10 years later? That's pretty thin, honestly.

Truthfully, I don't even really care about the mystery this time around. I'm just enjoying watching the actors act.

she knew the girl was getting abused and tried to help her get away and things got out of hand. but I think the uncle had already moved by then? could still be the mother or father who drilled the hole too.

when his wife comes to him in a vision in his room, she asks him is he afraid they will find what he left in the woods? I wonder if it has to do with the murder or something in Vietnam? He also mentions that he doesn't want it to "come back on him" when he is talking to her in the car. I don't think he did it or anything but he must have done something wrong. also, I wonder if he son gets frustrated with him just because of his condition or is there something more going on there?

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

There isn't that hook that caught me like The Yellow King in S.1.

I'm enjoying it though. Ali is a great actor.
I'm falling in love with his wife.

Episode 5 is pretty dope.

Definitely not as stellar as the first season, but a tremendous improvement on the second season. While I'm fully locked and loaded with this season for the most part, I can understand folks thinking this is too slow, especially if they aren't huge fans of Mahershala Ali.

It should be interesting to see how quickly things will unravel these last three episodes.

I don't think I realized until last night that they had pinned Will's murder on John Redcorn/Woodard.

I wasn't at first because it all seemed to be building up to something great but now with only 3 eps left I'm wondering if the build will ever be built

There have been 0 authentic "oh shit!" moments to get me excited about. When it's all said and done, I bet this story could have been told in 4 or 5 episodes.

>When it's all said and done, I bet this story
>could have been told in 4 or 5 episodes.

Not a single big reveal...even the developments in the case are super boring. The most interesting stuff has been between Ali and his wife but even that is feeling repetitive.

its hard to keep people interested solely on strong performances with a barebones plot.

even the online conspiracies are boring lol.

even tho season 2 was a disjointed mess...it was a lot more rewarding to follow along. this season is a chore to get through.

in how these last two episodes will be paced rather than how much of the story will get resolved at this point. This season has been so slow, so I'll be somewhat disappointed if everything gets resolved with these last two episodes. It feels as if everything could have gotten wrapped up in four episodes if the show didn't meander and re-tell the plot points for the characters over and over again. The actors and actresses have been knocking this out the park with the material they've been given.

Was that the same "dead eye" guy from before 10 years later? Or a different guy? Or did they purposely make it ambiguous? My first impression was it's a completely different guy, but I'm not 100%

>

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueDetective/comments/aphnou/spoiler_theorythe_man_with_the_glassy_eye_from/

so Im assuming he is the actual guy the witnesses said they saw around town with a white woman.

new guy was the guy from Leftovers and 21 Jump Street (tv)

x-files

I could watch Ali, Dorff and McNeary do this dance between decades forever. I immediately turned my attention to them as soon as Hoyt Foods came up. What else was going to happen? I care way more about peeling back the layers on the characters than the crime itself. Dan was great this week, Amelia remains good, Harris James is a great new wrinkle. Everyone with a substantial role on this show is turning in a career defining performance.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

I can't think of any other examples on the bus right now, but I wasn't watching The Wire to find out whether or not McNulty was gonna catch Stringer or not. True Detective Season 3 isn't the first genre show/film to be about something other than that genre is known for.


In a season that's playing off the first season in so many less than subtle ways from inside jokes to specifically including Rust/Marty in a future scene I think it's cool that the detectives' personal lives have taken a significantly larger chunk of the screen time than the mystery, especially since the characterization and acting is so upper echelon.


I think True Detective 2 made it clear Piz is more interested in the characters than the mystery, too, it's just that Cohle was such a mysterious character it made the whole thing feel more sinister and perplexing than it ultimately was. Not sure that's a trick he can pull twice.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

As fine as i was with McNulty never catching Stringer it was fun watching them play chess with one another...and there were stories upon stories upon stories to engage with along with incredible character dev moments.

This True Detective season ain't giving us none of that...all we're really getting is good acting.

it’s chess but it’s pretty much dude playing chess against himself and whoever the hell is in the car.

The end of episode 7 was epic.

seems like we are starting to get into the hoyts kinda late compared to past seasons.

Or somebody was from some line of somebodys.

Most of what I remember from that season is McAdams had a nice haircut and Farrell looked like he knew his way around some blow.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Can't front, started laughing when she showed Cohle and Marty on the computer screen.

But I think this episode makes it clear that this isn't about another pedophile ring.

Yondu as Hoyt in the final episode should be pretty interesting.

So is the director his granddaughter/great-granddaughter or something?

I've got a hunch that the car that keeps on turning up at Hays' house is Julie.

And yes, the acting remains amazing in this episode.

However, I’ve had a few oh shit moments.

That Nam scene was amazing.

I can appreciate how Detectives deal with cases that are closed but unsolved.

in the dropping off daughter at college timeline which would have to be early to mid 2000s, it seemed that Amelia was already be gone. I don't think they've ever said when she went, but we don't see any pictures of her older (though Carmen Ejogo is 45 and looks 30), so she may have gone not long before this new time line.

Also, possibility Julie being Hoyt's daughter?

>in the dropping off daughter at college timeline which would
>have to be early to mid 2000s, it seemed that Amelia was
>already be gone. I don't think they've ever said when she
>went, but we don't see any pictures of her older (though
>Carmen Ejogo is 45 and looks 30), so she may have gone not
>long before this new time line.

My thoughts too. I think she's already dead in the "new" timeline. I'd guess suicide. I'd imagine that they have to get into the reasons why Hays and his daughter aren't speaking anymore. They still haven't addressed why his son and son's family kept giving him funny looks when he asked about her at that one dinner.

>Also, possibility Julie being Hoyt's daughter?

I'd say this is almost a complete certainty. Probably the motive for why Ms. Isabel and Watts aka Mr. June took her.

>My thoughts too. I think she's already dead in the "new"
>timeline. I'd guess suicide.

I was thinking murder ever since "Watts" showed up at her book thing. And I figured someone wouldn't appreciate how much dirt she dug up about the case.

especially since he admitted she talked to him in the room.

Didn’t think about her being murdered but given how much she is digging and how the last scene played out.. it could definitely be possible.

For one, Roland wouldn't have given him so much shit for not "apologizing" for why the two of them fell out.

>For one, Roland wouldn't have given him so much shit for not
>"apologizing" for why the two of them fell out.

That Hoyt has her killed either while he's meeting with Hays or immediately after. And Hays thinks that Roland is the one who ratted them out to Hoyt in the first place.

But... I'm not sure I buy that. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure 2015 tells people (maybe his son) that him and Amelia came to an agreement about the case, which they haven't shown happen yet.

In general, I think the whole dynamic would be different in how all the characters dealt with Hays if his wife was murdered. You'd think the director would've said something about it to Hays by now during one of the interviews, even it's is just "Your wife also died under mysterious circumstances."If it happened, everyone involved is dancing around it quite a bit.

its not that she does not want to see/speak to him, but that she is dead. And because Hays constantly forgets, the family decided to go with that story instead of him having to relive her death over and over.

You see it once or twice in the scenes with Roland in 2015. Wayne will discover something new that they missed and share it. Roland will say that's right, but you u can tell it was just shit Wayne forgot. he's also likely read the book multiple times

What if Hoyt had already gotten to Roland?

I doubt it would be from the beginning, because otherwise, why would Roland bring Hays back onto the case? He knows how good of a detective Hays is, so he wouldn't put him on the task force unless he at least in the beginning figures he can help them find the girl.

But it is weird that Hoyt knows almost immediately that Hays and Roland killed Harris. I mean, he could have had someone following them, but it's a possibility that Hoyt "got to" Roland after Tom gets killed.

It would certainly explain the rift between the two of them that Hays can't remember the cause of. Hoyt could have threatened Hays during that car ride: tells him he has to drop the whole thing or he'll kill his family. Then Hays figures that only Roland could have told him and... big fight. Even if Hoyt didn't actually get to Roland, Hays probably assumes he does, and quits the police in disgust.

...appear on screen until the finale: Hoyt, Ms. Isabel, and Julie. Ms. Isabel wasn't even mentioned until this last episode.

That's a lot of character "reveals" for the finale. Besides Hoyt, I'm guessing that they've "showed" Isabel and possibly Julie at some point during the season as some other minor character. Like, is Isabel the reporter who they show following people around? Has Julie showed up as some other rando in the background that they maybe lingered a second or two longer on?

One of the most genuinely unnerving, terrifying, skin crawling scenes the series has accomplished. Well done.

but they have been different levels each time.

binging be damned

I know, I'm the guy in here saying "but the acting!!" over and over...mainly because I didn't expect to have a single episode try to tie up so many loose ends.

I like that they tried to end this season on a happy note, but it just felt ham-fisted to me like the final scenes of season one did. Unfortunately this time it was about half the episode that felt off for me. The two moments that really pulled me out were the book falling on the floor to the page Wayne needed to see right then - classic children's adventure story stuff - and then his memory loss kicking in right as he solved the case.

Thematically, I get it. This story was always about Wayne and Amelia and once he met her he was never the ace detective he imagined himself to be ever again, and in some ways this episode was about him recognizing that job and the Purcell case ruined his idyllic life. Not that any of that explains why Ghost Amelia is the scariest character in the entire season, and Mr. July is actually one of the friendliest.

The problem for me is that the show doesn't really act like that's the point. The case is always, always front and center, which is why audiences kept complaining about how much time was spent on their relationship instead of pushing the plot forward. And even in this episode when the script hammers home that Wayne's family is really what matters, Wayne doesn't get to recognize robbing Julie of her happy ending isn't a good thing on his own, instead he just has to magically amnesia his way out of the situation. His son doesn't toss the address away, he puts it in his pocket. There's not going to be a second season of this story arc, so what's the point? And why is it OK that the Purcell family ultimately just a bunch of dumped bodies? Because they were poor and fucked up?

I really enjoyed this season but it seems clear to me it needed at least one more episode to get out everything it wanted to get out. The flashback sequence with Mr. July kind of bummed me out too (maybe just because I'd read too much Reddit this year), as did Michael Rooker's whiskey swilling bad guy act. During a season of television that really took its time and let everything breath, this episode asked me to choke down a whole lot of information real quick.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

The flashback explanation was horrendous

Whether the shifting timeline narrative was actually effective and added value. I say not really, save for maybe a couple moments the entire season? Mostly it just killed any moment of suspense, which is always the biggest drawback. The entire season felt anticlimactic.

I agree, I think some of the other timelines made parts of the other timelines' mysteries a little too on the nose when they were finally exposed. If episodes 1-3 had been about Woodard, 4-5 about re-opening the case and 6-8 about old men trying to figure their past out the ending might've come a little more naturally, or had the extra time I wish it had to not lean on so many crutches.


In the moment I didn't have a problem with it, but so many things needed to come to a head with this episode that the time jumps were insane (those sweeping car shots were neat but MAN) and I just found myself disappointed how quickly we were just asked to walk away from everything.


I get why Hays and West should, they're old fools by their own admission, but the show CLEARLY set up a bigger conspiracy here and then cloaked this deeply nihilistic ending behind a surprise happy ending for Julie and...what happened to Hoyt?!


Ugh, I'm struggling to come up with a weaker finale to an otherwise great season of TV.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

seeing Amelia safe in the classroom was the dumbest thing they could have done. The Hoyt scene IMMEDIATELY after is supposed to accomplish...what exactly? I thought we were supposed to feel suspense that his family might not be safe?

Even though it's a dark opinion, I really wanted Amelia to be murdered, lol. Might have made the finale actually compelling.

>Even though it's a dark opinion, I really wanted Amelia to be
>murdered, lol. Might have made the finale actually
>compelling.

wanting her character to get murdered, having the character come back as a figment of Hays' imagination because she's so integral to the story but not even establish exactly when and how she died makes zero sense to me. All that would take is a 5-10 second acknowledgement/exposition from one of his children. That is a definite head scratcher.

I'm not sure I've ever ended a season of a show this confused by how pointless it all was. Why even link it to Season 1, why even have the Micheal Rooker cameo, why even have all the flash backs and time line jumping just to have such a simplistic ending?

What a jumbled mess. I really enjoyed the season but this finale was trash

Like they can do any old thing and any questions can be written off as just Wayne losing it.

like we dont even know if half the shit really even happened.

Only complaints were the limited use of Michael Rooker and then having the whole thing explained in a monologue by Junius. But the acting still reigned supreme and I was fine with the season really being centered around Hays' story with his wife. I don't really care how she died. They never promised any other mysteries beyond solving what happened to the kids. Which they delivered. And I thought the scene between the senile Hays and Julie(?) was lightweight-heartbreaking.

And all the complaining about Hays' dementia is pretty fucking weird to me. It's not like they ever in any of the episodes implied that any of his memories were false.

So, yeah, perfectly enjoyable season. To each their own.

by one single character in the last episode just to wrap things up...is pretty much an admission that the writers did a poor job.

thats some scooby doo shit.

every season of true detective revolves around a specific crime.

the single most important character in every season is the investigation itself. the show sinks or swims with the development of that character. how the investigation unfolds and reaches a conclusion/revelation. everything else is secondary.

the last episode proved just how underdeveloped that character was over the previous 7 episodes. you could have skipped from episode 1 to episode 8 and not needed much of anything in between (i cant recall off top but i believe they found out julie was still alive in episode 1 too).

i cant remember specifics. they walked into a house an every single thing they were looking for was in it. lol

it wasnt really the same imo.

season 2...the investigation over a span of time and fitting puzzle pieces eventually leads them to the son of the diamond heist folks. the diamond heist itself even took some time to discover and flesh out.

the last episode revolved around the actual evidence...diamonds, hard drive, documents, etc (if i recall correctly). they already investigated and discovered the actions that evidence was necessary to prove.

in season 3 you basically had the who, how, and why all revealed in one single sitting. the investigation didnt lead them to the conclusion. it just lead them to a person that had to reveal the reason for the entire investigation to them lol. it took them 7.5 episodes just to find *him* lol.

anyone feel free to correct me if im wrong and things played out different than i remember.

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12776673&mesg_id=12776673&listing_type=search#12877497

Why does every season of the show need to center around the "who done it and why?" part of the equation? That makes it like every other season of every other crime show. I appreciated the idea of making a "True Detective" story where the plot wasn't as important as the detectives themselves and how they related to each other and those close to them. It was about Wayne's love for Amelia and how for a decade it was tied to the Purcell case, and they found a way to move beyond that. And once he lost her, he went right back searching in a place that brought him to her in the first place.

I'd rather that than have it all be about Satanic Cults or Pedophile Rings are whatever. Execution wasn't always perfect, but it did what it needed to do.

the characters and relationships in season 1 were 1000000000000x more interesting too, not just the plot.

for me. i was completely checked out on the dynamic of their relationship. i wanted to know what happened to her, not another talk.

i found the whole ep awful and surreal in a bad way

the only useful scene was finding out how Roland learned to love dogs.

It was completely one-note (you're using me to write your book/you're keeping secrets!!!), and we got bludgeoned over the head with it repeatedly as if it was that fascinating.

and how sort of easy/calm she handled it all?

he was basically talking to his wife like some lightskin thot/golddigger he didnt have much of a deep sentimental attachment to.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

...is he dead?

Were they implying that Hays sits on the porch surrounded by family and his closest friend, has visions of the two things that shaped who he is and how he got there (his decision to marry Amelia and then his time as ranger), and then dies? Hence, the repeat use of "Death Letter."

>...is he dead?
>
>Were they implying that Hays sits on the porch surrounded by
>family and his closest friend, has visions of the two things
>that shaped who he is and how he got there (his decision to
>marry Amelia and then his time as ranger), and then dies?
>Hence, the repeat use of "Death Letter."

my wife came up with that theory last night, thinking that he died at some point there during that last Ep (when his eyes get big and we zoom in?).

Personally, I enjoyed this season (I was really into the Hays/Roland relationship more than anything else. There was a level of partitioned honestly there that I loved...thought was very well written and supremely acted by both. So that was my favorite element, that was what I was most focused on & invested in. I was into, to a much lesser degree, the Hays/Amelia relationship...if I'm being completely honest, the main reason I might have stuck with their relationship is because the actress playing Ameila is SO damn easy on the eyes.... good lord! Especially when they'd flash back to the 80's and she'd have that '80's Flip Hairstyle? Cmon! FOOine!! :)

I wanted more Rooker (but really, cant everything use just a little more Rooker? Love that dude!)

what happened to Amelia? did I miss it? the great things about
this show was the chemistry between Mahershala Ali and Carmen Ejogo,
the makeup, and to some extent the pacing. that scene in the bar when
she came back to him and he 'proposed' was sexy. can't wait to see
what he's in next.

HUGE copout imo.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueDetective/comments/aun8vp/a_little_more_closure_on_amelia_and_the/

of him to still communicate with the fans via social media since I'm almost certain he was resoundingly trashed for that basura season two.

Good grief that was terrible.

I would choose s2. Because at least it was more entertaining and had more memorable scenes.