True Detective Season 3: 8 Ways It's Saved The Show

Purple Hays’ story is clearly much better than anything in Season 2, but why?

True Detective
HBO

True Detective Season 1 is among the finest television seasons of the century, if not all time. Season 2, however, couldn’t even seriously claim to be good. It was okay at best, and a lot of the time not even that.

Such a fall from grace has put tremendous pressure on Season 3. Also, having loaded the previous seasons with A-list stars, Mahershala Ali is the only real household name attached this time, and despite being an Oscar winner he’s not in the same echelon of fame as Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrel,l or Rachel McAdams.

Despite this though, the season has roared into life and dragged True Detective back to the pinnacle of television. Provided writer and creator Nic Pizzolatto wants to return, HBO will surely greenlight Season 4 and beyond.

But how, exactly, has Season 3 done it? What’s changed between the flop of the second season and the tense narrative currently unfolding before us? By borrowing some successful tropes from the debut offering and spinning off new ideas in its own way, Season 3 has put True Detective back on the map.

8. Mahershala Ali

True Detective
HBO

Arguably this should top the list, given that Ali’s powerhouse performance in all three timelines has done the lion’s share of the work in dragging the show back from the brink. However, his contribution to the show is so obviously instrumental, it’s work exploring the finer points of the show’s revival too.

Before that though, testament needs to be paid to Ali’s great work here. His convincingly confused and tragic depiction of a detective with Alzheimer’s is understandably getting most of the plaudits, but the subtle differences between the gritty idealist he plays during the original investigation and the beat down, worn out cop he’s become by the time the case is reopened is fascinating to watch.

We’re sympathetic with him to a point, rooting for him to solve the crime, but we can sense the darkness within him. Scenes around his family are electric with tension too.

Matthew McConaughey’s career was rebuilt by his turn in the show and the other phenomenal roles he kept picking up at Gatling gun speed in the early 2010s. For Ali, this might have solidified him as one of the best character actors of the generation.

 
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