disturbed characters, bizarre murders and stunning cinematography

TELEVISION CULTURES
BLOG POST 1
‘TRUE DETECTIVE’ SCREENING + GENRE

true-detective-header‘True Detective’, an American anthology crime-drama television series, written by Nic Pizzolatto, is a show broadcasted on the HBO network. Season 1 tells viewers of both the work life and personal lives of detective partners, Rust Cohle and Martin Hart, whilst they work their first case together involving a serial killer in 1995.

The genre of the show is a mixture of crime, thriller, mystery and neo-noir.

The opening scene of the pilot episode immediately tells the audience that ‘True Detective’ is a crime show, (if the title hadn’t already given it away). As the camera zooms into the vast sugarcane field to reveal a not-so-sweet murder scene, where the young female victim is bound, blindfolded, with a crown of tree roots and antlers on her head and painting down her bare back. This view comes as a familiar, stereotypical scene to audience members who are used to crime shows, with many policemen, detectives and investigators gathered at the scene of the crime, in uniform, writing down evidence and taking photos. The fact that Cohle says “this will happen again”, indicating they have a serial killer on their hands, makes the show a thriller, because this then forces the audience to anticipate the next murder; keeping them on the edge of their seats.

Unlike shows such as Law and Order, Criminal Minds or CSI, ‘True Detective’ is not the type to give the audience a happy ending at the end of each episode – it will stretch out to the entire season. The show has much more depth and goals than simply finding out who killed who, such as delving deeply into the personal lives of the characters and discussing truths about the human condition.

Matthew-McConaughey The mystery genre of the show has less to do with the actual murder, and more to do with the mysteries into why Cohle and Hart are as troubled as they are, and more realistically, why the two have not spoken for over a decade and are now being questioned in the present day.

Rust Cohle in the pilot is set up to be the more enigmatic, hard-to-interpret half of the pair. He speaks in metaphors and philosophical expressions. What was frustrating though is that his partner, Martin Hart did not allow him to freely say what he wanted to say without shutting him down and belittling his thoughts. Describing the Texan town, Cohle says that “this place is like somebody’s memory of a town, and the memory is fading. It’s like there was never anything here but jungle.” Interesting, right? Tell me more, right? Yet his partner, without any subtlety or respect, retorts with “stop saying shit like that. It’s unprofessional”, even though he is the one who says Cohle can be too quiet.

The mystery continues to Hart’s character itself. Why is it that he is unable to listen or so quickly disregards in wanting to know about his partner’s personal life? This happens again, later in the episode, when Cohle comes over for dinner and Hart’s wife asks why he knows nothing about the person he is working with, yet she was able to know about his past within a couple of minutes of conversation.

Another way that Hart keeps his distance from Cohle, even to the present day as they are being questioned, is by describing him as a “good detective” – never a “good man”, a “good friend”, but only speaking about him as though he has no other life but to be a “good detective”.

matthew-mcconaughe_2827986c A scene that emphasises both the mystery genre of the show and the neo-noir/ Film Noir genre, is when Martin Hart comes home late at night from another disturbing day at work. As Hart leans on the door frame of his young daughter’s bedroom, watching over as she sleeps, he sips on his drink. The mystery here is that the scene involves a juxtaposition, Hart as a loving father with his innocent daughter, and Hart as a troubled criminal investigator who is trying to forget the horrors of his job. (Forgetting the horrors by allowing himself to see the most pure thing in his life? Or is this a way of showing his regret after doing something that would affect his family negatively.) Film Noir movies and shows often contain the element of an anti-hero with a conflicted past, trapped in difficult situations. This is both the characters in the show. Other elements of neo-noir/ Film Noir include low-key lighting to emphasise shadows, in which this scene clearly portrays.

Not much is revealed in the pilot episode of ‘True Detective’, but just enough to leave audiences who are interested in crime, thriller, mystery or neo-noir genre’d shows, craving more.

Looks-good-baby

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *