HBO has had a fantastic track record when it comes to dramatic storytelling. Few other networks have been able to churn out as much consistent quality when it comes to content, not to mention the fact it is the network behind two of arguably the biggest shows of all time: “The Sopranos” and “Game of Thrones.” In 2014, HBO decided to hop on a bandwagon and follow a trend that had been started by one of their biggest cable competitors, FX, with the anthology format. FX had previous success with both “American Horror Story” and “Fargo,” so HBO decided to green light its own anthology show, “True Detective.” 

Developed and written by Nic Pizzolatto, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, the show is a dark twist on the typical buddy-cop genre. It tells a story much more focused on how certain character flaws could perhaps prevent the greater good from being accomplished, as well as other themes such as southern gothic horror, multiple timelines and, of course, something that HBO has become famous for in recent years, incest.

The first season was a tremendous hit commercially and critically, so naturally, HBO immediately green lit a second season that premiered a year later in 2015. This season changed location and cast, this time set in Los Angeles and dealing with themes of power struggle and corruption within systems. The cast this time consisted of Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch and Vince Vaughn, and it was met with very mixed reviews. Criticisms were lobbied at the casting choices, the location shift, the overall change in feel of the show, etc. Whatever the case was, audiences were just not having the new season, so needless to say, the show went on hiatus.

Rumors of a third season started to pile up in late 2017, when Pizzolato announced that he was indeed continuing work on a third season, but he simply needed time to finish the story before he started looking for talent. This was verified when HBO announced that the show would officially be returning sometime between late 2018 and early 2019. This time, Pizzolato recruited Jeremy Saulnier to direct the first three episodes while “Deadwood” creator David Milch would help write the script for episode four. The show would return to the familiar southern location, this time taking up residence in the Ozarks of Missouri, and the cast this time around consisted of Mahershala Ali, Stephen Dorff, Carmen Ejogo, Scoot McNairy, Mamie Gummer and Ray Fisher.

Any apprehension viewers may have had going in had it immediately erased with the premiere of the third season. The story, similar to season one, is set over three different time periods, 1980, 1990 and 2015. Unlike the first season, the timelines do not build progressively into one another as one big linear story, but rather all exist parallel to each other, creating yet another interesting framework for what seems like a typical story. The story itself follows two detectives, Wayne Hays (Ali) and his partner Roland West (Dorff) in their investigations into the disappearance of local child Julie Purcell, whose brother turns up dead in the woods. The show takes place from Hays’ perspective over the three timelines, as a young Vietnam veteran on the case when it first popped up; as an older, more experienced father when the case rears up again; and as a confused old man suffering from some form of dementia who is seemingly providing a nuisance for his adult son Henry (Fisher). At the same time, he is trying to remember things from his past that just keep slipping from him.

Ali has given incredible performances before, but he truly disappears into the character of Wayne Hays, combining a large sense of insecurity and unfamiliarity with residual post-traumatic stress disorder. The performance resembles that of a true character actor, the likes of which television has not seen in a while. Dorff as his partner also turns out a showstopper performance, providing a lot of the humanity to Hays’ more reserved character. The show itself does a magnificent job of balancing out its long, entangled story with its many twists and turns. Cleverly able to subvert where people may think the story is going, the third season of “True Detective” is one that people should definitely watch, sooner rather than later.

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