True Detective, And The Toxicity Of Testosterone

by Luv Mehta

There's been a bit of a backlash against True Detective because of the recent lackluster second season (which itself deserves a whole other article), but as a result, people have started doubting whether the first season itself was worth it. Did Nic Pizzolato pull the wool over our eyes, with McConaughey's drawling, Cary Joji Fukunaga's expert direction and the tantalizing Twin Peaks-y promise of a lurking supernatural blinding us to bad dialogue and an absence of thematic focus?

Hopefully, by the end of this article, I'll be able to put those fears to rest. Not only does True Detective Season 1 (hereafter referred to as True Detective, because it's the true True Detective) have a couple of proper themes encircling the plot and the characters, one in particular (and I'm not talking about the one dealing with the constant nature of plots either) grows organically from the characters and the plot.

​Full spoilers follow.

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