Tuesday, May 19, 2015

#002 - True Detective (Season One, Episode Two)

I never watched True Detective when it was originally airing, nor have I seen it up until now. All I knew about the series prior to beginning was that it starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in critically acclaimed roles for both of them and that it was about detectives solving a murder. Little did I know that by taking the plunge and firing up the first episode of this show would start me down the path of creating this column. Spoilers ahead.




While not as visceral or explosively emotional as the first episode, “Seeing Things” takes the bits about Hart and Cohle that we already know and expounds upon them while the duo investigates the church tied to the murder.

This second episode spends too much time in the current-day. The shocking end to “The Long Bright Dark” isn’t even mentioned, and much of what these interviewing detectives discuss with Hart and Cohle seems purposely written to bring more personal information to the surface. It’s subtle, but Pizzolatto’s characterization suffers a bit by feeling more forced this time around. Learning that Cohle’s daughter died in a car accident should have been enough to propel a character arc for a single episode, but Pizzolatto opts instead to lay all the cards out and offer more details about the event as the episode continues. True Detective is a show that offers as much narrative by what’s not said as what is, and adding more and more to Cohle’s daughter’s death actually detracts from the overall effect.

Hart is a man who lies to himself about everything in his life. I was actually hesitant about my initial analysis of Hart as a man who’s happiness is defined by his worldview, desires to understand his world more, yet doesn’t have anything on which to base said desire. “Seeing Things” makes it clear that Hart has a definition of what happiness is supposed to be, and he’s found a comfortable station in which to live out that definition. Cohle’s very presence challenges Hart’s concrete framework, eroding the foundations that Hart has spent his entire life learning to accept and value.

The scene between Hart and his mistress (Alexandra Daddario) is tragic, but not because Hart is cheating on his wife – that was a given. Hart’s response to Lisa's pragmatic point that their fun little affair won’t last forever -- and that she’ll eventually find a man she can marry and start a new chapter in her life -- is emotionally stunted and a little pathetic. In Hart’s world, he and Lisa continue to secretly rendezvous indefinitely; he’d rather continue living in an unrealistic paradigm than ask himself the hard questions.


Cohle has seemingly become more steadfast in his patterns. His smoking habit is a tell that shows when the man without emotion is nervous or faced with a difficult question, usually one he can’t answer right away. Seeing as this entire show is about a giant question that can’t be answered immediately, Cohle spends much of his onscreen time with a Camel between his lips. As a smoker, seeing a more realistic portrayal of the habits of a pack-a-day smoker adds a level of authenticity that doesn’t come around often. It’s a small element in a massive tapestry of symbolism and hidden meanings, but everything about True Detective feels purposeful, so why not Cohle’s addictions?

#001 - True Detective (Season One, Episode One)

I never watched True Detective when it was originally airing, nor have I seen it up until now. All I knew about the series prior to beginning was that it starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in critically acclaimed roles for both of them and that it was about detectives solving a murder. Little did I know that by taking the plunge and firing up the first episode of this show would start me down the path of creating this column.



"The Long Bright Dark"

Character development is a serious problem for modern television dramas. Too often, essential roles are atrociously characterized, leading viewers to rely on the story alone to carry a show. True Detective not only disregards this unfortunate trend, it spits in the face of the very idea. In one episode, both Detectives Hart and Cohle are incredibly and astonishingly fleshed out without show creator and writer Nick Pizzolatto losing any of the core depth that frames the story structure.

The story itself – a murder case involving a ritualized killing and occult display – moves at a snails pace because it must. Real murder investigations take a lot of time, and Pizzolatto does a phenomenal job of making a little bit of information feel as important and necessary to the case as any new piece of evidence would in real life. Crimes of this magnitude aren't solved in 45 minutes.

Matthew McConaughey’s Rustin Cohle is a paradox that acknowledges and accepts his own duality. He doesn’t care what others believe about the world because his personal philosophy points to a universal truth that precludes opinions and emotions; Cohle's an asshole because he doesn’t care. It’s this same “flaw” that makes him such an incredibly observant detective. At the beginning of "The Long Bright Dark", Hart (Woody Harrelson) warns Cohle of adding his own narrative to the case, something that quickly becomes a moot point as viewers are shown how Cohle sees the world; he could never attach emotion to a case because he doesn’t believe in emotional nuance. This doesn’t mean he can’t feel anything, only that he usually disregards those feelings.

Harrelson as Detective Martin Hart is a testament to the man’s acting chops. Hart is a Louisiana man through and through, but his good, Christian, country boy persuasions are coming under scrutiny by a man he doesn’t even like. Hart is an everyman that doesn’t yet understand that he wants to understand more. Hart has convinced himself that he’s happy, when in reality, the weight of his job crushes him far more than he wants to admit, and Cohle’s unique worldview challenges everything Hart has ever known.


The dialogue, especially, is what makes “The Long Bright Dark” such an effective and engrossing first episode. Clever, witty dialogue and comedy aren’t mutually exclusive, and Pizzolatto knows this very basic concept. Cohle’s lines are meant to seemingly refined, only rough when examined closely. Hart wears his heart on his sleeve because it isn’t incredibly vivid anyway. The interactions between these two characters foreshadows a long case that pits their ideological differences against each other.

Monday, May 18, 2015

#000 - RE:Analysis


Welcome to RE:Analyze, a column about revisiting past television shows, music, and films. My previous solo endeavor, The Comic Book Revue, was a ton of fun to write and maintain. I had a great audience and was able to talk about comic books as much as I wanted. Over the past few years, I've worked on a few different sites leading to my current position as Editor-in-Chief of Infinite Comix. There, I not only get to write about comic books, I also get to tell other people to write about comic books.

RE:Analyze is designed to be my column for everything else. I watch a fair amount of television, a good share of films, and I listen to a lot of music. Some of the content featured in the column is material I'm experiencing for the first time, while others I'll be revisiting for the first (or second or third or millionth) time.



To kick things off, I'll be covering HBO's seminal True Detective Season One, created and written by Nick Pizzolatto, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. After season one of True Detective, I'll be covering various episodes of Dan Harmon's Community, my favorite television show and one that begs repeat viewings. 

Beyond that, I'll cover NewsRadio (Various), Black Mountain's In The Future, Fargo, Happy Endings (Various), Rise of the Planet of the Apes, TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain, Mulaney (Season One), On the Road, Broad City (Season One), Wet Hot American Summer, The Mars Volta's De-Loused in the Comatorium, The Blacklist (Season One), and so on.