Calm Down About The True Detective Finale

First of all, the finale wasn't bad. Second of all, plot-wise, the show was never tight enough to imply some mind-blowing ending. It had a lot of things going for it, but it was never that good. Listen, I always appreciate a rich, complex show--something fans can pore over and dissect. And True Detective had lots of details to pore through, but what happened in its eight episodes that made you think it would be anything more than it let on? Because of the fact that there were so many details of the Dora Lang/Yellow King case? It was a case spanning seventeen years, it involved lots of people and lots of victims, of course there are going to be files upon files. But what made anyone think every single piece would be relevant? That doesn't happen in real life. And it certainly didn't happen on True Detective at any point to warrant this expectation. The show was only eight episodes but there was never once a moment where dozens of things came together to blow our minds at the sheer ambition and genius of it all. There was never a point where the show proved capable of bringing multiple details together to make us think everything was linked and important. That's not to say it wasn't a rich show. Every scene was important and heavy, leaving us with much to absorb...but it was never about the crime. It was always about the detectives.

Evidently, I really have no idea why everyone was raising the stakes of the final episode because the show was clearly about Rust and Marty all along. It was about Rust's despair as he filled his heart with nihilism and philosophical thought to make sense of the trauma in his life. But he never really had a unique philosophy of his own. I was always under the impression that when he went off on his spiral loops of pontification, that he was working something out for himself. That he was obviously well read and that he had made sense of these ideas, but that he was still applying them to his life, still trying to build a personal outlook of his own as he drowned in a half empty glass of pessimism. Like an eye exam, he was sliding one lens after the next over his eyes, comparing them and going back and forth until he found a flat circle suitable enough to perceive the cruel world around him. We all try to make sense of our lives, but Rust lived through a unique trauma of his own. And lacking the constitution for suicide, he had to learn to carry on living. Meanwhile Marty was living his life like most of us live our lives, delusional and hypocritical, but within a certain set of standards and expectations. Being a man meant boozing and banging, but being a family man meant loving your wife and children. We all contain multitudes, but sometimes those 'tudes aren't in sync. Marty thought he had a grasp on what his life was supposed to be, but his actions told a different story.

Thus, going into Sunday's episode I wasn't expecting an amazing Yellow King realization, I was expecting some character work. And I honestly didn't even care too much about the crime because the show never asked us to care. We didn't know anything about Dora Lang to provoke our sympathies or need for justice. The other victims were just names with some blurry circumstances tacked on. Terrible things were done to them, a monster was absolutely on the loose and needed to be caught, but from an emotional standpoint I wasn't too invested in justice for the victims (which some people have fairly consider a drawback of the show). I was invested in Rust getting his man, but not because of Justice. Because Rust needed it to happen so he could move on. And that was essentially what we got, only with a bit of the unexpected. Rust ended the show an optimist, something I honestly never saw coming. Which is a twist in itself, but also a realization and a character journey I absolutely believed. For anyone who thought the answers in the finale were weak and that there was no payoff, I argue that there was a payoff. You were just looking at the wrong clues.

In terms of overall general impressions of True Detective, my biggest criticism would be that it meandered a lot in plot threads that seemed important but led nowhere. For example, I really loved the six minute tracking shot as much as the next person, but it really had nothing to do with anything. It had such a minuscule impact on the plot that putting that much effort into that scene is actually a bit of overkill. But the technique was absolutely impressive and it definitely succeeded in producing one hell of an astoundingly tense sequence. And in a similar vein, I loved the craft and quality of this show. I loved the direction by Cary Fukunaga, who directed a great and underrated adaptation of Jane Eyre in 2011. The lead performances were amazing and we'll definitely be seeing more of the Matthew/Woody bromance come award season. The set pieces, locations, and art direction were so lush that you felt immersed in this secluded world. And what really made it all was the cinematography--cinematographer Adam Arkapaw also worked on last year's Top of the Lake, which I loved for similar reasons but also because it was really good...like probably better than True Detective (depending on your taste, of course) and it's a damn shame it didn't get the same sort of attention. But I digress.

I realize there are a lot of issues with True Detective's portrayal of women. Some of it I agree with and some of it I don't. The lack of attention on women is actually why I lacked interest in the case itself. But there was also criticism concerning the scene where Maggie and the girls visit Marty in the hospital. Many saw this moment as redemption for a schmuck of a character. I didn't see it that way. I mean yeah, Marty is a schmuck, but Maggie didn't forgive him or offer him any sense of redemption. Maggie could have been more solid of a character, but I knew enough about her to know she's a decent human being. And the father of her children just nearly died quite brutally while doing a very brave thing. So yes, she's going to pay him a visit. But it by no means implied all was forgiven or that things would even change. Her wedding ring was so prominent in the scene for a reason. Instead, that moment was actually about Marty's facade and self-delusion fading. I agree with critics who feel True Detective's women are only used to inform the male characters. But I chose to see that moment as a supporting character informing a main character. Gender had nothing to do with it. But I agree women should/could have been used differently on True Detective. That instead of focusing so much on dead ends like the random prisoner who killed himself in his cell after an unknown phone call, maybe we could have flushed out those females a bit more.

But hey, nothing is perfect. Certainly no television show is. You have to accept things for what they are, flaws and all. And it may seem like I look at True Detective and see a whole lot of dark. But I actually choose to focus on its bright spots of brilliance. And what I really see is the light winning.