It's a cop show and while I generally tend to avoid or mock cop shows I really enjoy the good ones.
It's got elements of horror and, though recently I've been exceptionally disappointed in the genre especially when it comes to movies, I've long been a horror fan-boy.
It's got a supernatural vibe, which sort of goes hand-in-hand with horror but isn't exactly the same thing. Think The Killing Room for straight up psychological horror and almost anything by Stephen King as supernatural flavored horror.
It's set in Louisiana. Not just shot in the Louisiana. So many things are shot here that it's becoming almost commonplace to gaze at a screen and think, "Oh! I know exactly where that is!" But it's set in Louisiana and, in many ways, the Great State is a character.
It's almost like Nic Pizollatto sat down and gave some serious consideration to the question, "Ok, how can I write a perfect story for that guy with an obscure blog about Louisiana and its law?"
So, yeah, really what's there not to love?
Wellllll, here are a few -- admittedly exceptionally nit-picky -- things that just crawled under my skin and made my nerves stand on end.
There is no statutory rape in Louisiana -- or in most other states, for that matter. In Louisiana, that particular crime is called carnal knowledge of a juvenile and comes in felony and misdemeanor grades. The producers paid enough attention to make a rap sheet briefly shown on screen look fairly authentic, except for the statutory rape charge. (Sorry, couldn't find a screenshot of it.) I get that it's a convenient shorthand but couldn't the difference be easily explained?
"Yeah, he was charged with felony carnal knowledge," Hart could say.
"What's that?" asks the long-time Texan Cohle.
"It's like statutory rape."
Problem solved and authenticity maintained. Unfortunately nobody asked me.
Then there are, at least from my perspective, waaaaayyyyy too many Protestants -- and fundamental Protestants, at that -- in True Detective's southwest Louisiana. I don't doubt that fundamentalist Protestants are in southwest Louisiana, the main geographic location for True Detective. In fact, my father's family is mostly around Bayou Pigeon and has been for generations, with one of the first ancestors popping up in public records there in the late 1700s. And they are all hard-shell Baptists. But they are much more the exception than the rule. The Catholic Church essentially rules Cajun country and has for a very long time.
This isn't a huge issue because, like I've pointed out, I'm sure there are fundamentalist Protestants actively practicing in that area of the state, it just rings a little false to me.
Maybe the most, for me, jarring part of the series is the (I'm sure unintentional) altering of Louisiana's geography. The first time it happened was in Episode 4, I think, where Hart drives down Canal Street -- and I mean obviously down Canal Street toward downtown New Orleans -- then jump cut to his car on a lonely one lane dirt road with refineries in the background. My wife and I looked at each other and said, "Maybe he's going to Norco?"
Yeah, yeah, I know. That really wasn't enough to prevent the suspension of disbelief. Even this earlier in the series where Cohle is hallucinating while driving down Causeway near Airline Highway in Metairie wasn't enough to prevent me from suspending disbelief. I expect some things like that whenever something's set in Louisiana. Sort of like that scene in The Big Easy where there's a chase through downtown NOLA and straight into airboats.
But I had hoped that, economic realities notwithstanding, a bit more care would have been taken with places. Ok, I get it that the story required a strip mall with a cell phone store and an obvious bar and grill. Sure. Not a problem. I mean, otherwise how could Hart have met Beth who then sent him a non-naked selfie that Maggie found that led her to ruttin' with Rust that led her to telling Hart that led him to trying to kick Rust's ass that led them to being interviewed separately 10 years later? Without that dirty martini and bag o' feminine hygiene products we don't have a show.
I get that. But why did it have to be the Fox and Hound? There's only one location in Louisiana and it's in Elmwood, not Lafayette. Why not Hooters? Or some generic fern bar?
Maybe the A.V. Club is right. Maybe the whole point of this series is to turn us all into Rust Cohle. After all, I've spent much of the morning picking nits in a fictional show instead of working. The madness has infected me and the end is two weeks away.
