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

2. Quotable Lines

True Detective
HBO

True, there’s still nothing that’s topped Rust Cohle’s ‘Time is a flat circle’ in Season 3; in fact the top five quotes in the show’s history would probably all be from McConaughey’s Cohle. However, Purple Hays is giving him a run for his money, something no one even got close to the second time around.

Season 2 felt a little like a parody of itself when it came to dialogue; the lines either lacked the weight of Season 1's, landed with a thud or felt hideously forced.

Vince Vaughn’s ‘that’s one off the list; a Mexican standoff with actual Mexicans’ sounded much more like it was someone impersonating Pizzolatto than it was Pizzolatto himself.

Mahershala Ali’s delivery as Hays not only has much more emotion than Vaughn’s (and nuance than Farrell’s, Season 2's other big hitter), the dialogue is tighter too. Pizzolatto’s complicated take on religion is back once again too, adding to the richness of the show’s themes.

Hays' pithy putdown that God should’ve took the whole week to create Earth and not half ass it by resting is hugely reminiscent of Rust Cohle in Season 1. With the writing such a key part of the show, quotable lines are a must.

 
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