True Detective Season 3: 8 Ways To Fix The Show

3. More Writers

Nic Pizzolatto originally intended True Detective to be a novel, a follow-up to his 2010 book Galveston. However, when working on the initial idea he decided it would work better as a TV show, and secured a deal with HBO. Given the show aired in 2014, after around six months of filming, we can assume that he spent about three years writing it, and that idea had already been developing in his head for some time before that.

True Detective Season 2 was around just over a year after the first, and given Pizzolatto wasn't initially sure whether there'd be a second season, it means he had nowhere near as long to write it. The fact that he so successfully wrote the first eight episodes was a great feat, to do so again, in such a timeframe, was in hindsight asking far too much from him; it shouldn't be a surprise that it felt flat.

For the third season, it would be wise for him to hire a team of writers to work with him. Indeed, it looks like this is already happening, with the report of a potential third season including news that Deadwood's David Milch is on board to help write it. That's great news, because he's a well established and experienced writer with a proven track record on HBO, and can help lighten the burden, though really PIzzolatto could work with a whole writers room.

He could still serve as showrunner and control the overall direction of the story, but it would take a lot of pressure of his shoulders, and help freshen things up and bring a whole new dynamic to the show.