True Detective Season 3

I prioritise the visual storytelling as it's a visual medium and extended cinema. The writing was mostly good, and the visual storytelling was so strong it made the simple story iconic. Cary Fukunaga did an amazing job.

If S2 was any indication though, that run was lightning in a bottle, and Nic Pizzolato is better off moving on.

[cannibal cop]

Quote Originally Posted by Ibrahim

Case in point, the final sequence outside the hospital: horribly cheesy dialogue about 'the light is winning,' camera pans up to...absolute darkness.

HAHAHA... no, no, it's the little sparkly lights, can't you see them? Keep looking. They are working hard at winning.

Nevertheless, I liked the first season, overall, and that initial excitement at hearing a sympathetic main character expressing a Ligottian, antinatalist worldview is still memorable to me.

[In A Dark Light]

Quote Originally Posted by Ibrahim

Quote Originally Posted by James I don't remember S2 enough to criticise, while the cinematography and performances of the initial episodes of the first season are clearly etched into my brain. It was derivative, but a TV buddy cop show is the last place I expect originality. It was involving, atmospheric and memorable. The cinamatography was good enough that it brought depth to an otherwise flat and derivative script, yes. Power of the image. Case in point, the final sequence outside the hospital: horribly cheesy dialogue about 'the light is winning,' camera pans up to...absolute darkness. It's filled with such moments, visuals working in great counterpoint to the text.

The fact the camera panned up to total darkness at that moment is what saved that scene for me.

[miguel1984]

In mi view, the bad aftertaste left by Nic Pizzolatto and his dismissal of weird fiction after season 1 is enough reason to not bother with the next two seasons. Also, he wrote the remake of The Magnificent Seven and it was a godawful experience and not even worth the free ticket I used; I realized he was behind it after the fact, because, if I knew that from the start, I wouldn't have watched it.

Also, some people pointed out online that part of season 2 was plagiarized from The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy, as he did with Alan Moore and Thomas Ligotti in the first one.

[cannibal cop]

I did not know he did that remake. Oh dear.

Still, this new season should be interesting if only because it should provide a clear indication whether his talent has blossomed any or whether he really was just a one-season wonder.

[paeng]

The first one was too short, with lots of details not developed.

I don't think you can judge writers by their screenplays for big budget Hollywood movies as there are so many fingers in so many pies meddling with everything. He wouldn't have had nearly as much control as he did with True Detective. He's not even the only writer credited for Magnificent Seven.

True Detective brought a lot of people to Ligotti and Barron, which I see as a positive. I doubt Pizzolatto will do anything as good as S1 seems like lightning in a bottle, but overall I have more positive thoughts about it than negative and think he's an above average screenwriter who seems to at least care about what he's doing. True Detective S2 didn't grab me, but it was clearly a labour of love.

[Revenant]

I own the first season on DVD. I watch it right up to the point they both go into the hospital. Then I stop. That ending was so disingenuous it almost killed all the prior episodes.