There are times in life when you just want to disconnect with the world and don’t really know how to pour some sanity back into the head. So would you dare to even watch some crime series for a revival? I don’t think many would agree to that but then it’s not that simple to come out with a clear answer and generalize it for everyone. I may be a little odd at times for some generalization. When I finished The Mentalist and Sherlock, I almost formed an opinion that there’s always a certain way of storytelling. Bruno Hellar and Mark Gatiss have had almost convinced me of the opinion. But then there is a guy, Nic Pizzolatto, who would disagree with them on many fronts. What the brain feeds on doesn’t have to be fully cooked. The brain can realign its circuits when fed with dark and twisted tales haywire.
The first season had eight episodes with a single story. I thought that there would be eight stories which I now find absolutely ridiculous. I never realized that an entire season could very well be an eight-hour long movie. What I did right was to watch the entire season back to back. I cracked the formula for watching an anthology series there itself. The first season stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as true detectives who would do anything to solve a 17 years long pending case. Also, you could see Michael Potts and Tory Kittles as dumb detectives who would do anything to solve a 17 years long pending case. The analogy brought by Nic Pizzolatto is an interesting way to justify the title. Otherwise, who would dare to understand the title at the end of the season?
The entire story of the series is based on a hillbilly doing serial killings in the bay area. The cinematography is excellent. The locations were chosen to reflect the dark nature of the series and it blends very well with the actors’ performances. I got intrigued only after the fifth episode to fully watch the season. The first four episodes were little dull when compared to The Mentalist or Sherlock. But then they had four stories to tell and it had only one. Being an atheist (or, a rationalist rather), I quite liked the analogy of depicting theists as “one monkey looking at the sun and asking the other to give its share”. The Mentalist didn’t dare to do that although the lead actor, Simon Baker, was portrayed as a rationalist. Nic Pizzolatto is quite bold in depiction. Some scenes were crude and unnecessary and I think Nic was compelled to pull in stuff for the sake of darkness. However, I would still disagree with him here. It’s more to do with the direction than depiction.
The cast of the second season is almost done otherwise I would have suggested Nic to pull in Simon Baker as the true detective. However, he could still do that in season three.