"You Ever Been Some Place You Couldn't Leave, You Couldn't Stay, Both At The Same Time..?"
First hitting the small screen a whole five years ago now, HBO's anthology flagship crime drama, True Detective, finally returns after a three year hiatus in which the critical and public divisiveness of the Colin Farrell/Vince Vaughn led second season threatened to derail the series into a complete dead end. Brought back from the dead by long-term showrunner Nic Pizzolatto, the third season of the American's hotly anticipated series once again offers a fresh new cast, story and setting, this time led by the superbly talented and now Academy Award winning graces of Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Luke Cage) in a bid to return to winning ways in the eyes of many, even when personally, Season Two really wasn't anywhere near as bad as many people made it out to be. With the opening two episodes dropping at the same time, what a relief it is to say that True Detective wonderfully returns to the atmospheric eeriness of the acclaimed first series with an entire new complex mystery to work with, and whilst at times the similarities may seem a little bit too uncanny, Pizzolatto does ultimately know how to create a world filled with substance and depth and rightfully seems unfazed in being able to write what he believes is the right path for his series to take. Set across three separate time periods, Season Three sees Ali as Detective Wayne David Hays as he recollects the events of the so-called Purcell case and its' impact within the years of 1980, 1990 and 2005, and with a familiar central setup to the first season, the storytelling delightfully jumps throughout each decade with enough space at a time to keep the tension building and the big questions rightfully unanswered.
With the 1980's Hays coming across as a young, broke, cocky detective with recent memories of his part in the Vietnam war, where his nickname "Purple Hays" followed a reputation for his skills as a ruthless tracker and hunter, we are soon taken by the hand into the disappearance of the Purcell children, the son and daughter of Scoot McNairy's (Gone Girl) Tom Purcell, a resident of the local Ozark community with a domestic-heavy marriage to his unfaithful and absent wife. With a familiar mystery-heavy setup in regards to the opening missing person search, it becomes abundantly clear quite quickly just how well True Detective manages to make even the most basic of storytelling matters so darn stylish and sharp, with the buildup of atmosphere and tension expertly handled thanks to some dark, brooding cinematography from Germain McMicking and a faint, eerie musical score featuring ghoulish howls, growls and the constant incision of a bass heavy heartbeat. Aided by Stephen Dorff's (The Iceman) equally growling and rugged, Roland West, whose saddened expression at the death of Steve McQueen naturally indicates a lightened respect for the strong, silent type of hero, the investigation swiftly results in the discovery of death, supposed cult-inspired worshipping and the potential for the small-town community to quickly implode in a similar manner which made the likes of Twin Peaks and Broadchurch so utterly compelling, and with a clear tonal approach which focuses on the grounded, dirty realism of the events at play, the intrigue and desolation of the South immediately reminds you why the series is loved so much by so many.
As we move away from the 1980's and into the year of 1990, we see a now desk-bound and family-tied Hays awkwardly the subject of a deposition after new evidence regarding the case comes to light, a particular narrative function which obviously pays homage to the show's first series, whilst the latter day and now retired 2015 version of Hays sees him being interviewed for the aptly named show, "True Criminal", led by Sarah Gadon's (Enemy) educated television director. Whilst the 1990's timeline supplies the intrigue from the central mystery sense, the 2015 timeline is undeniably the more crucial period regarding the series as a whole, with Hays' penchant for memory loss forming a The Great Gatsby inspired notion of unreliable narration as we look back on events as they happen, a particular idea emphasised by startling moments of fourth-wall interaction and most crucially, the second episode cliffhanger in which an entire scene is intercut by a lone and confused Hays wandering the darkened streets in his nightwear. With the first two episodes directed by the rather excellent hand of Blue Ruin and Green Room director, Jeremy Saulnier, the tonal similarities between the American's handling of the material and upcoming Bond director, Cary Joji Fukunaga's, work on the original series, is equally as impressive and makes a case for why Saulnier doesn't continue behind the character going forward, and with a clear subtext regarding the tension of race relations in an area dominated primarily by a white population, Season Three of True Detective begins in deep, intelligent fashion which demands a constant and keen eye throughout, and with Ali blessing the series with a trio of superb differing performances, HBO's most conflicted televisual baby finds its' mojo once again.
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