Margaux and I are back, baby, and we’re talking True Detective!
Trevor: First things first: it’s great to be writing with you again! It’s been too long, and I can’t believe we’ve never gotten around to True Detective before.
Margaux: It’s just so nice to write about show we both like that’s not Better Call Saul!
Trevor: Let’s dive right in, and I’ll start by skipping to the end: I liked “The Great War and Modern Memory.” I’ve read a lot about Nic Pizzolatto trying to “return to form” after the lukewarm reception to this show’s second season, and much of “Great War” was reminiscent of that first brilliant season: the long car rides, the circular conversations around a table where it seems that everyone is hiding something. But I think – an hour into the show, at least – there’s a singular identity being cultivated here, with more surety than season two’s (I’m softer on that season than most people seem to be, but California never looked or felt like California; Pizzolatto’s milieu is unquestionably the bayou and the Midwest). There’s an eeriness and a charm to TD’s depiction of small-town Arkansas; at times I was reminded of the great Paradise Lost documentaries. I give a lot of credit to director Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room, Hold the Dark), whose style seems nicely complimentary to Pizzolatto’s.
Whew, that was a lot. Sorry. How did this episode work for you?
Margaux: First of all, I think “lukewarm reception to the second season” is generous. The second season of True Detective was rightfully mocked within an inch of its life, and it really deserved it. I still think about Colin Farrell doing a bunch of coke and shadow boxing to death metal and laugh and laugh and laugh. That was the best moment of that season, that and when Colin Farrell verbally berates an actual child. Stunning.
Trevor: I think about his mustache every single day.
Margaux: Even though it’s still very early in the season to be making wide sweeping proclamations, I really really like where this season is going so far, and I completely reserve the right to mock this show if it takes any stupid, Vince Vaughn is a mobster turn. The first two episodes are written by The ‘Za Man (Nic Pizzolatto’s nickname I am insisting make happen), so we haven’t gotten the David Milch touch quite yet, and I hesitate to echo the “return to form” soundbite critics keep reusing, but I thought did a solid job of establishing the tone, framework, and characters we’ll be spending the next six episodes with (this season is only 8 episodes long, and I think it might be for the best). Mostly I think he realized what works for him: backwoods conspiracy theories and philosophizing cops. And I’m not saying anything revolutionary here when I say Mahershala Ali is a fantastic actor who conveys so much with just his eyes, he carries many of the scenes of him tracking/wandering in the fields, looking for Scoot McNairy’s kids. Just fuckin’ haunting.
Trevor: Ali is one of the most compelling and empathetic actors of his generation, and if this is the last we’ll be seeing of him for a while (he’s taking a break from acting so his wife can focus on her career), it looks to be a pretty good send-off. Especially considering he has three versions of the same character to play, in 1980, ‘90, and 2015. And I think “version” is the word I want to go with here, because the ‘Za Man seems very fixated on memory, and questioning its reliability. What struck me was when Detective Hays (Ali) is asked for “[his] timeline” – the possessiveness implied there suggests that other timelines belong to other people, and are just as valid. It’s like it says on the chalkboard: What is the name of the world?
Also, thank Christ we have Scoot McNairy on TV again. His mustache is even better here than it was in Halt and Catch Fire.
Margaux: Everyone is acting their asses off. When Mamie Gummer comes in – NO MAKE UP – a drunk, angry mess and starts chiding Scoot for being a dumbass who can never it get right, it took several minutes to remember it was Mamie Gummer.
I am a sucker for an examination of memory AND smartly incorporating true crime reportage (whether it be a podcast, doc, or tv show), I think the framework The ‘Za Man uses to tell the different stories in each timeline is well paced and builds a lot of tension for the whole of the show, and individually as we check in in the 80s, 90s, and 2015. It all feels very deliberate, like there isn’t much filler here since we have so much to bounce around between. And the…I suppose I’ll call it a twist, at the end of the “The Great War and Modern Memory,” is some Netflix level type cliffhanger I didn’t see coming, but I think upon re-watches, there might been clue scattered throughout the timelines.
Trevor: I asked myself the same question, and maybe upon a rewatch I’ll pick up on something, but I think Pizzolatto wants us to be just as shocked as Hays is in that moment (which Ali plays beautifully, obviously). There are so many interesting dangling threads here – the kids in the VW Beetle, the cousin we haven’t met who might have drilled a peephole into his niece’s bedroom, the little brides made of corn husks. There’s so much great world-building going on in “Great War,” and not to sound like a broken record, but I think it really helps that Saulnier is extremely adept at building a sense of inescapable dread. I don’t want him to make a horror film, because I think his films are already horrific, stories that examine the role of evil in the world and in the hearts of men. Normally I’d say something like “I wish he were directing the whole season,” but I really want to see what David Milch brings to the table.
Margaux: Okay, back to the teens with excellent music taste (I think they’re playing X in their VW and then listening to the Stooges at the park), they’re very clearly a telegraph of the West Memphis Three, what with the Dorff-ster (Stephen Dorff’s nickname I also insist make happen) becoming visibly uncomfortable when he realizes the band Black Sabbath is also a satanic mask. I knew this season would channel the satanic panic of the 80s, and even though those creepy ass, faceless straw dolls evoke more of an Amish vibe (don’t ask, but sometimes I watch those Amish reality shows on TLC), it would be too simple if it was just teens into casual devil worship. Although cousin Dan continues to insist he was only there for a few weeks in May, someone really needs to question him about the jizz peephole cause even if he has nothing to do with the missing kids, he is definitely up to nothing good.
Trevor: I feel like Pizzolatto is being very up-front about these red herrings; at this point, it would be such a letdown if the kids, or even cousin Dan, were responsible. But I’ve also seen enough True Detective to know that their involvement is likely, that we’re only looking at a small corner of a tapestry, that Pizzolatto wants us looking at the trees so we don’t realize we’re lost in the woods. I’m excited to delve deeper into this – and to hear some theories from you – because this has always been the cop show you watch for the conversations. Season two forgot much of that; well, to be more specific, it just made the conversations pretentious and laughable. Season three looks to be getting some of that mojo back. Probably doesn’t hurt that it’s anchored by a terrific performance from one of the best actors alive.
Margaux: This season of True Detective reminds me of season one in the sense that every single performance is a standout. Maybe it’s because I spent yesterday watching Fifty Shades Freed, where the best performance was an extra who gave Jamie Dornan some paperwork. There are so many characters I want to talk at length about, like Carmen Ejogo’s sweet school teacher who is also a badass investigator that eventually becomes Michelle McNamara (author of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark). I look forward to seeing her develop the most because she clearly holds a key to unlocking the mystery around the Purcell kids.
Mostly, what I wanna know is, do you think Julie – who we discover at the end is maybe alive, and robbing Walmart – is really Julie?
Trevor: I would have given Ejogo an Oscar for her performance in Selma, and I doubt she would have signed on for this if it weren’t a great role. And as for Julie, it says a lot about how invested I am in the story even at this early stage that, even though we only see Julie briefly as a child, I am so wrapped up in her fate. HBO was smart to make this premiere a two-parter, with that revelation at the end.
Margaux: I actually gasped at the end when it was revealed, probably because I pictured Julie as Jodie Foster in Nell, if she is still in fact not dead. My only hope is we get more of a glimpse into the lives of the Purcell kids beyond,“their parents hate each other and they have an unsettling cousin.” The most interesting thing about a dead character(s) shouldn’t be that they’re dead.
Last thing, and I should have brought up earlier, the best part of the true crime series storyline of present-day Detective Hays is how it bleeds over into this memory. I loved the shot of Hays discovering tire prints in the mud, his voice waxing rhapsodically about the moon that night, when suddenly, it all goes dark. You think it’s the moon, but really it’s a bulb burning out on set, and we’re snapped back to 2015. I want more of that please (but not too much!).
Trevor: I loved those fourth-wall breaks. It’s not something this show has done before, and the way Ali looks into the camera has the desired effect: it makes the audience feel as though we aren’t watching a story, but peering into someone’s memories. It’s eerie and incredibly effective. And part of this season’s larger theme, which is all about memory (I could be wrong; this is just the first episode).
I’m sure there’s a ton more we could touch on – and we will, over the next seven reviews – but do you want to put a star count on this sucker?
I’d like to throw in my own personal, welcome back, ‘Za Man and True Detective! This is exactly what people mean when they say they want the same thing, but a little different. And I know that sounds like shade, but I do mean it as a compliment. “The Great War and Modern Memory” does everything the first episode of a satisfying drama should, and it’s elevated to an extreme thanks to this cast. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
4.5/5
About Author
