True Detective Season 3

[escapegoat]

will have to mull on this for a day or two.. immediate reaction is underwhelmed.

[xbignick]

My short review....

Overall season: B

Just too much Hays-Amelia for me. This could have been told in 4 episodes. The budget for this must have been low, perhaps after Season 2 they stayed safe there.

The mystery itself was figured out by midseason just about, even the lawn guy being the kid who had a crush on her grown up (Ardoin on side of truck, season 1 lawnmower being important). Some of the things still don't make a ton of sense like Will looking for his sister, and things like Roland going into a bar to get beat up is amateur hour.

I think people are going to say it was amazing simply because the True Detective name.

[Athey49]

Originally Posted by xbignick

My short review....

Overall season: B

Just too much Hays-Amelia for me. This could have been told in 4 episodes. The budget for this must have been low, perhaps after Season 2 they stayed safe there.

The mystery itself was figured out by midseason just about, even the lawn guy being the kid who had a crush on her grown up (Ardoin on side of truck, season 1 lawnmower being important). Some of the things still don't mke a ton of sense like Will looking for his sister, and things like Roland going into a bar to get beat up is amateur hour.

I think people are going to say it was amazing simply because the True Detective name.

Agreed. I still enjoyed it, and I liked the "surprise" ending, but it seemed there was a lot of forgettable scenes in this season

[rmw10]

While I do wish there was a little more of a twist at the end, I still really enjoyed this season, largely because we had Ali, Dorff, and McNairy really sell their roles. The storyline certainly had its issues, but they were masked by great performances. It just lacked the wow factor and surprise of season 1, but it was seriously a step up from season 2 and was really good TV overall.

Some of my highlights:

1. The Wayne and Roland hug after Roland says he'll stay a few nights a week. I'm not going to lie - I got a little teary-eyed. They just worked so well together and that was a fitting path for 2 partners who quibbled and fought, but also saw their way back.

2. The Wayne scene where Amelia "revealed" the truth. Ali's face just sold everything about that reveal which is why I'm not so down on it as I've seen some are. The mystery is part of the story but so is the character building, and this scene exemplified that to me.

3. Roland getting beat up in a bar was questionable but the dog scene was a nice touch.


And my final thought - Wayne played up his dementia in the scene at Mike and Julie's place. I think he had a bout of dementia, but came back to earth and realized what he was doing. He saw Julie was living in peace and decided to leave her be.

Overall, I'll give it a B+. A better story would have pushed this higher, but the world of characters they built was stellar.

[Siberian13]

This show started as a 6 out of 10 for me then ticked up to about 8 out of 10. Just watched the finale and went back down to a 6 out of 10. Just meh like others have said. Could of been so much better. Feel like they just wasted Ali and Dorff’s performances.

[escapegoat]

Originally Posted by rmw10

And my final thought - Wayne played up his dementia in the scene at Mike and Julie's place. I think he had a bout of dementia, but came back to earth and realized what he was doing. He saw Julie was living in peace and decided to leave her be.

yeah i kinda caught that too, at least that’s how i choose to interpret it lol.


what is everyone’s thoughts about his son keeping the paper at the end? any significance to anything for the future?

[Peties Army]

Originally Posted by Siberian13

This show started as a 6 out of 10 for me then ticked up to about 8 out of 10. Just watched the finale and went back down to a 6 out of 10. Just meh like others have said. Could of been so much better. Feel like they just wasted Ali and Dorff’s performances.

I agree with this.

It just got a tad messy towards the end.

Are we really supposed to believe that the little girl and Julie didn’t know who that man was?

The acting was great. That’s how I will remember this year

[jdandns]

Originally Posted by rmw10

And my final thought - Wayne played up his dementia in the scene at Mike and Julie's place. I think he had a bout of dementia, but came back to earth and realized what he was doing. He saw Julie was living in peace and decided to leave her be.

I agree with your assessment pretty much completely, but I think the bolded above was true at first, and then he actually did forget. If he hadn't, he would've torn up the paper with the address so as to ensure the mystery would be preserved. Instead, he forgot about it, and his son found it, and tellingly, did not himself throw it away, which I took that to mean he might very well provide that information to the woman he'd been having an affair with, exposing the whole thing after all.

Roland's bar fight has indeed been done before, but his digs at the biker's girlfriend provided the episode with a bit of much needed levity. Bravo, Stephen Dorff. He was fantastic in this role that, much like Ali's, required him to deliver three very different versions of the same man.

I liked finding out the reason Purple finally did let it go in 1990 was for the protection of his own family. I can think of nothing else that would've made up give up the fight to learn the truth.

Finally, I think the device that the detectives were essentially barking up the wrong tree, and while crimes were committed, nothing so monstrous as it appeared to be turned out to be effective. Sometimes, we see things that aren't there in effort to make up for all the things that were there that we didn't see. This was used in a 1991 film by David Mamet called "Homicide" starring Joe Mantegna. In it, a detective finds a clue, that for personal reasons sets him on a relentless quest to solve a crime that turns out to be not at all what he thought it was.

I just saw "Destroyer" starring Nicole Kidman as a detective haunted by an event from her past that also traversed a couple of different timelines. Expanded from its 2 hour length, I think that would've made for a very satisfying season of "True Detective". I recommend it for those underwhelmed by the lack of a big "surprise" at the end of this season of "True Detective", as the movie "Destroyer" does have a somewhat unexpected resolution (and Kidman has never been better).

[Peties Army]

Originally Posted by escapegoat

yeah i kinda caught that too, at least that’s how i choose to interpret it lol.


what is everyone’s thoughts about his son keeping the paper at the end? any significance to anything for the future?

That was odd. Like maybe he knows?

Also the whole Becca story we were lead to believe it had some big payoff and nothin? Same with the tv lady

Honestly I watched it I thought “these seems rushed”. They left so much to do in the last episode that we expected so many big payoffs and with only getting one it seems like a let down

[trmpetyjo]

Originally Posted by Peties Army

I agree with this.

It just got a tad messy towards the end.

Are we really supposed to believe that the little girl and Julie didn’t know who that man was?

The acting was great. That’s how I will remember this year

That was the first thing I thought too, How can Julie not know who that man is? She must have seen him on the news or in the paper so many times. Then the little girl saw him so recently she would have known him too.

My question is was the scene with Amelia where she gives him the what if Julie was still alive talk a flashback? a vision? was it a visual representation of the conclusion of the book she wrote that he was finally reading?

And what happened to the tv crew that kept interviewing him? That lady looked so much like Julie, I thought for sure she was going to come back into the story somehow

[Peties Army]

Originally Posted by trmpetyjo

That was the first thing I thought too, How can Julie not know who that man is? She must have seen him on the news or in the paper so many times. Then the little girl saw him so recently she would have known him too.

My question is was the scene with Amelia where she gives him the what if Julie was still alive talk a flashback? a vision? was it a visual representation of the conclusion of the book she wrote that he was finally reading?

And what happened to the tv crew that kept interviewing him? That lady looked so much like Julie, I thought for sure she was going to come back into the story somehow

The Amelia part was odd. Maybe if she had all along been talking to him but it happened just once before.

Again felt rushed.

[Peties Army]

Originally Posted by jdandns

I agree with your assessment pretty much completely, but I think the bolded above was true at first, and then he actually did forget. If he hadn't, he would've torn up the paper with the address so as to ensure the mystery would be preserved. Instead, he forgot about it, and his son found it, and tellingly, did not himself throw it away, which I took that to mean he might very well provide that information to the woman he'd been having an affair with, exposing the whole thing after all.

Roland's bar fight has indeed been done before, but his digs at the biker's girlfriend provided the episode with a bit of much needed levity. Bravo, Stephen Dorff. He was fantastic in this role that, much like Ali's, required him to deliver three very different versions of the same man.

I liked finding out the reason Purple finally did let it go in 1990 was for the protection of his own family. I can think of nothing else that would've made up give up the fight to learn the truth.

Finally, I think the device that the detectives were essentially barking up the wrong tree, and while crimes were committed, nothing so monstrous as it appeared to be turned out to be effective. Sometimes, we see things that aren't there in effort to make up for all the things that were there that we didn't see. This was used in a 1991 film by David Mamet called "Homicide" starring Joe Mantegna. In it, a detective finds a clue, that for personal reasons sets him on a relentless quest to solve a crime that turns out to be not at all what he thought it was.

I just saw "Destroyer" starring Nicole Kidman as a detective haunted by an event from her past that also traversed a couple of different timelines. Expanded from its 2 hour length, I think that would've made for a very satisfying season of "True Detective". I recommend it for those underwhelmed by the lack of a big "surprise" at the end of this season of "True Detective", as the movie "Destroyer" does have a somewhat unexpected resolution (and Kidman has never been better).

I agree. I think he knew and then forgot. 100%

[lamiwe21]

With reading all of Nics comments in interviews this is how I view the story:

1. Wayne never expected to come back from Vietnam.

2. The case is the only thing making him remember that last scene with his wife: the day she forgave him and he wanted to her marry her.

3. Wayne realizes at the end he got the closure needed from the case, Julie is safe and healthy and thriving and she will have no memory of being abducted, and her childhood....

4. The ending scene is us realizing that he is going into the unknown with full case dementia. Wayne went into the unknown when he went into the jungle on reconciliation and came out okay. Wayne is going to be okay now because he is with his family and best friend Roland.

There are a ton of sub plots about social issues, race, and time. When I re-watch the season, this is how I will view it. My wife hated the finale, my brother in law hated the finale.

[rmw10]

Originally Posted by jdandns

I agree with your assessment pretty much completely, but I think the bolded above was true at first, and then he actually did forget. If he hadn't, he would've torn up the paper with the address so as to ensure the mystery would be preserved. Instead, he forgot about it, and his son found it, and tellingly, did not himself throw it away, which I took that to mean he might very well provide that information to the woman he'd been having an affair with, exposing the whole thing after all..

Definitely agreed on the above. In that moment after getting that water, he realized what was going on, and then forgot again.

[rmw10]

One other scene I totally forgot to mention...

Wayne's grandchildren riding their bikes down the street was chill-inducing.

[lamiwe21]

Originally Posted by rmw10

One other scene I totally forgot to mention...

Wayne's grandchildren riding their bikes down the street was chill-inducing.

Nic said that scene is the "time is a continuous circle" moment.

[Ray27Ray52]

Haven't watched the finale yet but I read the synopsis. Spoilers don't bother me, I'm still going to watch it. From what I understand there is no real payoff for the whole Amelia conspiracy camp of viewers. That's disappointing for me.

[Siberian13]

Originally Posted by Ray27Ray52

Haven't watched the finale yet but I read the synopsis. Spoilers don't bother me, I'm still going to watch it. From what I understand there is no real payoff for the whole Amelia conspiracy camp of viewers. That's disappointing for me.

Yeah I thought of you watching the last episode with her scenes. Just thinking poor RayRay

[rmw10]

I was reading an article earlier today where Nic said he had more plans for the finale, but HBO cut what he wanted to do by 20+ minutes.

Missing scenes, according to him:

1. Scene of Amelia's death. Nothing sinister - natural causes.

2. A larger scene fleshing out the relationship between Wayne and his daughter.

3. A longer tell-all with Junius. I kind of rushed through reading this part, but from my understanding, he envisioned it being intertwined throughout the episode, but since certain things had to be cut for time and they had to do it all at once.

[briscogun]

Originally Posted by xbignick

My short review....

Just too much Hays-Amelia for me

My wife felt the same way. Hated the Amelia character, actually. That whole relationship seemed... forced.

Originally Posted by trmpetyjo

That was the first thing I thought too, How can Julie not know who that man is? She must have seen him on the news or in the paper so many times. Then the little girl saw him so recently she would have known him too.

Wayne wasn't really ever on TV, it was that DA all the time. I thought the girl was going to recognize him as well...

Originally Posted by trmpetyjo

My question is was the scene with Amelia where she gives him the what if Julie was still alive talk a flashback? a vision? was it a visual representation of the conclusion of the book she wrote that he was finally reading?

I think it was his own deductive reasoning being embodied in the memory of Amelia. "What if it was like this...?" He used her as his own internal voice of reason.

Originally Posted by trmpetyjo

And what happened to the tv crew that kept interviewing him? That lady looked so much like Julie, I thought for sure she was going to come back into the story somehow

I think the whole interview was just a plot device to go back through memory lane with Hayes.

[rmw10]

Originally Posted by briscogun

My wife felt the same way. Hated the Amelia character, actually. That whole relationship seemed... forced.

Wayne wasn't really ever on TV, it was that DA all the time. I thought the girl was going to recognize him as well...

I think it was his own deductive reasoning being embodied in the memory of Amelia. "What if it was like this...?" He used her as his own internal voice of reason.

I think the whole interview was just a plot device to go back through memory lane with Hayes.

I was iffy on the Amelia/Wayne relationship. In some instances, it made sense. In others, not so much. Their conversations this episode really said everything we'd be seeing though. Amelia, somewhat unknowingly, used Wayne. Wayne was a guy that always shut off how he was really feeling. Kind of the law of opposites attract.

Yeah with Julie kept in a pink room, there's a very strong chance that she never knew who Wayne was and never saw him on TV once she escaped either. No one ever sees the detectives on TV.

Agreed on point 3. Maybe it was a little unbelievable that the book fell right to the reveal, but everything after that was just a visual representation of Wayne putting everything together.

I think it was a plot device, but also a manifestation of the viewer on all of these types of mystery shows. Someone that digs and digs and comes to a conclusion that was false.



I think one of the important things to remember about this show is that it's not all about the mystery. It's about the relationships formed and how this one accident ended up affecting the lives of so many people around them, and even the whole town. There was a bigger thematic element than just the detective angle. They were just the leads to tell us the whole story.

[pingbling23]

I enjoyed it all. Much better then season 2. I’m glad that there wasn’t some huge sinister thing going on. This is true detective, most cases aren’t as sinister as Hollywood would have it. Excellent performances from Ali and dorff.

[jdandns]

Purple Hayes got game.
Here's some footage from his college days when he was Hershal Gilmore:



Who knew?