Is The New Season Of 'True Detective' Any Good? Here's What The Reviews Say
True Detective made an impressive debut in 2014, but has been on a long hiatus after its disappointing second season. With the new season premiering on January 13th, can Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Luke Cage) prove time is a flat circle by bringing the show back to its former glory? Here's what the reviews1 have to say about True Detective season 3:
Once Again, 'True Detective' Is Looking At A Single Mystery Through Splintered Time
Some things haven't changed: Yes, the third season restlessly jumps through time. (It moves between 1980, 1990 and 2015, to be exact.) And as Det. Wayne Hays, a cop investigating the disappearance of two children in small-town Arkansas, Mahershala Ali lends gutsy commitment and a willingness to be shrouded in old-age makeup, just as Matthew McConaughey had done in Season 1.
[Variety]
Did a gang of metal-obsessed teens kill Will Purcell and kidnap his sister Julie? Was it their uncle? A local pedophile? Or was there something darker at play in West Fingers, something that — decades later — is still spinning its web of evil?
[Polygon]
It's Far From A Repeat Of Season Two's Mistakes
Within the first five minutes, any fears that this might be another second season catastrophe are quelled by the confident swagger of its framing. There's this palpable notion that its creators know what the fuck they're doing again, which was hardly the case in its second season, which seemed to veer left and right in a weak attempt to keep you glued to the screen each week. Hell, that's probably why David Cronenberg balked at the script.
To be clear, Season 3 is very good. Structurally, it uses the same reopened case conceit as Season 1, where a detective is talking to investigators about a long-ago mystery that still haunts him, but it adds a third timeline to great effect.
[TV Guide]
The Central Mystery Pulls Inspiration From Some Real Cases While Injecting Some Additional Eeriness
Season 1 dabbled in satanic panic with its Light of the Way preschool cult, and it looks like season 3 is on a similar route. In addition to the West Memphis Three allusions, the episodes also pepper in references to the "Franklin case" — another real-life conspiracy theory about an alleged child prostitution ring in Omaha, Nebraska, that's commonly associated with the satanic panic craze.
[Polygon]
Unlike Season 1, there isn't an overarching mythology to the potential perpetrator in this new season, and yet, there are creepy elements (like straw dolls) and some hints to a larger conspiracy peppered throughout the first five episodes (out of eight) available for review.
[Collider]
Mahershala Ali's Performance Is Definitely Emmy-Worthy
Ali's performance deserves all praises. He's a master of stoicism that lets just enough pain through. He's alternately intimidating and tender, a good man haunted by demons. No disrespect to McConaughey, but it might be the best performance on any season of True Detective. It's certainly the most authentic. And a special shoutout also goes to the makeup team, which gives him uncommonly good old age makeup in the 2015 scenes.
[TV Guide]
He completely disappears into his age, wearing the years with so much lived-in authenticity, which is paramount for a story that places such an emphasis on the passage of time.
The Show Has Style (And Knows When To Deploy It)
Director Jeremy Saulnier creates a hypnotic, almost otherworldly atmosphere in his introductory episodes. The air carries the faintest bit of haze, growing thicker at night, and the actors are blocked with a bit of extra space between them. It knocks viewers just a smidgen off-kilter, but it also helps distinguish the '80s storyline as Wayne's memories instead of an absolute reality.
Stylistic touches, like the aged Hays being visited by the ghosts of his past, are carefully chosen. And the show fits a surprising volume of ideas into its narrative, embedding well-drawn racial tensions and questions of journalistic ethics into a framework — the detective serial — that feels, finally, fully realized rather than self-indulgently pulpy.
[Variety]
Pizzolatto's Still Got Some Learning To Do When It Comes To Crafting Characters For Women
The season also spends a lot of time showing us how Wayne's marriage to school teacher Amelia (Carmen Ejogo) ebbed and flowed with the case. Rectifying a few of the issues Pizzolatto has had in the past with writing fully-developed female characters, the emotionally intuitive Amelia is presented as a woman who rightfully pushes back against her husband's desire to control her and minimize her work on a popular book based on the case, one that is a flashpoint between them. And yet, she also falls into too many noir cliches, including a constant assertion that sex solves just about anything.
[Collider]
Pizzolatto's struggle with female characters remains a point of real frustration[…] Ejogo does her best reconciling Amelia's couple of thin characteristics and at least forges moderate heat with Ali, while Gummer deserves some sort of award, or at least extra credit, for finding the frayed intensity of a woman who implausibly wails things like, "I've got the soul of a whore!"
TL;DR
While it has much more in common with Season 1 than Season 2, it seemingly by design lacks the swing-for-the-fences excess of Season 1. It's just a well-made, well-acted, intelligently plotted, thematically rich mystery show. In 2019, that's both plenty and not enough.
[TV Guide]
