Turn off the Lights

True Detective – Down Will Come Review

"More of the Same Ridiculousness"
There's a good story present within this season's True Detective. Whenever we get the chance to spend time with Colin Ferrell's Ray and Rachel McAdams's Ani, the show is a pretty good crime drama. Not great, but it's something I wouldn't mind watching. Unfortunately, Nic Pizzolatto and his staff have opted to mire the show down so completely in other business (from Vince Vaughn's dull Frank, Taylor Kitsch's awful Paul, the myriad of other one-note characters, and the atrocious writing and plot), this season is just a complete mess when McAdams and Ferrell aren't its focus.

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Luckily, the bulk of the heavy lifting for "Down Will Come" was handed to McAdams and Ferrell, so most of the episode was worth watching. But man, when those two weren't on the screen, things took a turn for the worse. And that is why this will be the last weekly review of True Detective this season. As my mother would tell me, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. I will keep watching the show through its final four episodes, but I just can't see myself having enough good to justify these weekly reviews. And I don't have the time or energy to turn this into a hate-watching review. When the season is through, I'll pop back in with a final season wrap-up review, just to bring things full circle (time, after all, is a flat circle, as we learned from True Detective last season). But, I just can't deal with writing about Kitsch's awful acting (I don't recall him being nearly this bad during his Friday Night Lights days, but then again, Tim Riggins was the master of the scowl, so perhaps this is just all Kitsch is capable of), or Vaughn's inability to deliver Pizzolatto's stilted dialogue. Heck, even the plot itself is a maze of characters and links I still can't keep straight after four episodes (and, as someone who has successfully navigated both The Wire and Deadwood, I'm declaring this a problem of Pizzolatto's poor plotting, not of my own personal understanding of the show). However, the real last straw was the shootout with magical bullets- those special kind of movie/television bullets that kill everyone and everything in sight except for the leads. The next four episodes should (but won't) involve each of those three detectives losing their job from their sheer incompetence. So, I'll see you all back here in a month to rehash the remainder of the season and see if things got any better.
Rating
5.0
Pros
  • McAdams and Ferrell kept the show afloat
Cons
  • Kitsch is a mess
  • Poor writing
  • Vaughn still struggling

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Meet the Author

About / Bio
TV critic based in Chicago. When not watching and writing about awesome television shows, I can be found lamenting over the latest disappointing performance by any of the various Chicago sports teams or my beloved Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Follow me @JeanHenegan on Twitter.

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