The four main actors in the second season are all big names
The three stars are Mahsala Ali, Carmen Aichogo and Stephen Dorff
Two detectives launch an investigation into the father of the missing child
The first season style is gloomy and cold
Screenwriter Nick said the show's ending was set early on
The third season's opening credits are full of literary style
Female characters also played a key role in the third season
His wife, Emilia, was a great help to Wayne
The plot begins with two children running away from home and disappearing
Black detective Wayne (left) and partner Roland
After three and a half years, the third season of HBO's crime drama "True Detective" has finally returned. It can be seen that the main creator is grumpy about the failure of the second season, so the production of the third season can be described as a slow work, and the style also returns to the tone of the first season. Some fans commented: "The lens language of "True Detective" is really slow out of the realm, and the third season completely returns to the style of the first season, which is both cold and stable, telling the story, the mood is gradually progressing, and the staying power is getting stronger and stronger." ”
Just from the perspective of ratings, the start of the third season of "True Detective" is not a success, the first 1.32 million viewers, far lower than the first season (2.3 million) and the second season (3.2 million), fortunately, the word of mouth is very strong, Rotten Tomatoes freshness is 85%, imdb score of 9.0 points, basically the same as the first season; Douban score of 9.3 points, but also slightly more than the first season of 9.2 points, which shows the love of domestic drama fans for the show.
Season 1: Fengshen
In 2014, the first season of "True Detective" turned out to be a "divine drama" and was immediately named a "divine drama". The story tells that Louisiana State Police Officer Rust and Marty began investigating a serial murder case in 1995, and it wasn't until 17 years later, in 2012, that they found out. Compared with ordinary crime dramas, "True Detective" can be described as "slow" enough: it took 8 episodes to catch the real murderer, the investigation time spanned 17 years, and the two detectives spent and aged in a long life, which made people sigh. This kind of high-cold style makes watching "True Detective" a matter with a threshold. Nick Pizzolato, the series's helmsman and screenwriter, also said that if viewers don't like the story after watching three episodes, it's not your thing.
The cold tones, the slow advance, the exquisite shots, the dense details, the complex psychology... "True Detective" creates a cooling and difficult to extract the viewing experience, so it is known as the "serious literature" in film and television works. Director Kerry Fowon won the Emmy Award for Best Director in a Drama series that year, and the two lead actors, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrison, were both nominated for multiple acting awards.
Season 2: Beat
A year later, HBO took advantage of the victory in 2015 to launch the second season of "True Detective". The production is still well-made, and the cast is also not lacking in big names, with Vince Vaughan, Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, and Taylor Ketch, all of whom are hollywood number ones, and the show also invited Lin Yibin, who became famous for his "Fast and Furious" series, to direct. Unexpectedly, the reputation of the second season fell sharply, and the metacritic media evaluation was only 61 points, far less than the 87 points of the first season.
There are many reasons why the second season has attracted bad reviews, but the most important is the change of style. Different from the cold style of the first season, Lin Yibin is more adept at fierce gun battles and action scenes, and the excavation of human nature is superficial. As one commentator said: "The first season carries a reflective temperament, with a realistic story, urging people to reflect on the value of human existence." The melancholy sullen unhappiness of the second season is only a vain form, which can only make the audience lift their spirits from beginning to end, and even feel boring. ”
Season 3: Return
In January this year, HBO finally released the third season of "True Detective". The story is set in the small town of Ozark, Arkansas, in 1980. The 12-year-old Will and 10-year-old Julie told their father to go to the same school to play, but both mysteriously disappeared. After receiving the report, the police quickly launched an investigation and found Will's body in the cave, and the life and death of his sister Julie became an unsolved mystery. Black Detective Wayne and partner Roland take over the case, and as the investigation unfolds, more and more mysteries emerge.
The plot of the first season is constantly switching between the two timelines of 1985 and 2012, the third season is more complex, spanning up to 35 years, divided into three timelines to unfold the narrative: the 1980 case, the 1990 case restart investigation, the 2015 media launched a news investigation, the elderly Wayne has suffered from some kind of amnesia at this time, and in interviews with the media, many forgotten fragments gradually emerge... Fans of the show's return to the gloomy and cold style of the first season are simply overjoyed: "The southern scenery, the nagging in the car, the bar reminiscing, full of the feeling of the first season." ”
"Double Male" mode
Similar to the first season, the third season of True Detective also adopted a "double detective" model, but the two are not the same. The two detectives in the first season, the philosopher-like Rust and the layman Marty, who rolls in lust, maintain a delicate balance at between the two ends of the scale. In the third season, The black detective Wayne, played by Mahershala Ali, is obviously heavier than his partner Roland. As a black man, he often has to face the outside world when he investigates cases, and his ideas are not valued within the police station, which directly leads to the investigation of the case going astray; his status as a Vietnam War veteran gives him excellent evidence search ability, but also makes it difficult for him to integrate into daily life after returning home...
By comparison, white Detective Roland, although also a Vietnam War veteran, has a political mind, so when Wayne was ostracized and transferred to a casual post, he was successfully promoted to superintendent. To some extent, Roland is equivalent to a needle in the sea, ensuring that the partner does not derail, but also ensuring that the series will not go astray.
It is worth mentioning that although the first season of "True Detective" is highly praised, the portrayal of female characters has been accused of being too flat and functional. The third season features a richer number of female characters: Wayne's wife, Emilia, is a writer and teacher of missing children, and plays a fairly important role in investigating the case; another important woman is Elsa, a female journalist from the TV show "True Crime", who interviewed Wayne and brought the old case back into the public eye.
Protagonist Mahsalla Ali: Purely telling the story of a man
The addition of Mahershala Ali is a highlight of the third season. He previously won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Moonlight Boy", and this year contributed to his outstanding performance in "Green Book", with which he has won the Best Supporting Actor Award in the Film Category at the 76th Golden Globe Awards for Film and Television and the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards, and has become a big hit at this year's Oscars.
Executive producer Scott Stephens revealed that in the original script, Wayne was a white detective. After reading the script, Mahershala Ali offered to play the role. Scott said: "Ali said he had acted in a lot of works on racial themes, and this time he wanted to tell a man's story more purely. He persuaded the screenwriter, Nick, to make several drafts, including changing Wayne to a black detective, and it worked out very well. ”
Mahershala Ali said: "'True Detective' requires the audience to watch intently, follow the characters to solve the mystery, and feel more engaged. ”
Screenwriter Nick Pizzoratto: What I care most about is the humanity of the characters
From the first season to the third season, the helmsman of the True Detective series was undoubtedly screenwriter Nick Pizzolatto. Nick was critical of the general american way of making dramas: "I like stories with endings. The most unpleasant thing about the series is that there is no ending, and when the series is filmed until the last year, I have to rush into the finale, but this is not something that is well thought out at the beginning. ”
Nick's True Detective is not the case: "It's a story that has already conceived the ending from the beginning." "Unlike crime dramas in general, True Detective doesn't focus on reasoning about the facts of the case. Nick has said that the facts of the case are simply the "macguffin" (film term) of the whole story, referring to the objects, characters, or goals that drive the plot in the film, necessary but not the most important. Rather than solving the case, he pays more attention to the exploration of human nature: "No matter what the subject matter, science fiction, romance novels, serious literature... All I care about most is the humanity of the characters. I'm just using the crime investigation to let the two protagonists explore a variety of characters. ”
Nick also said: "As long as the script is good enough, we can attract talent from the film industry." Sure enough, the main actors of the three seasons of "True Detective" are all big names in the film industry. Nick said: "In the film industry, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to play good serious works, and if they are not interested in playing superheroes, here I can play roles that they are really interested in and improve their acting skills." (Reporter Shao Ziheng)