'True Detective,' Flat Circles And The Eternal Search For Meaning

  

Maureen Ryan :

"And ultimately, the show is not about Reggie Ladoux or the Yellow King or a serial killer -- it's about a sickness despoiling something beautiful. Sin enters the garden.

These religious themes crop up not just in the tent revival scenes or in Cohle's pontifications, they're also a cornerstone of the show's visual motifs. Refineries loom over delicate wetlands, fading towns lose their grip on the landscape, bounteous overgrowth reclaims spoiled territory, birds fly in foreboding patterns, schools are abandoned by humans. These visuals represent brief moments in the grand scheme of "True Detective," but this is the kind of show in which nothing happens by accident.

To me, "True Detective" has emerged as a bayou "Blade Runner": Both depict technology and mechanical interventions as having separated us from our souls or even from reality itself. "Blade Runner," a dreamscape of lights, patterns and metal, was also obsessed with questions of what's real, what's synthetic and whether the distinction matters. Both it and "True Detective" constantly return to this juxtaposition of the natural and the mechanical."


'True Detective,' Flat Circles And The Eternal Search For Meaning | Maureen Ryan