True Detective Season 3 [spoiler free]

Season 3 of True Detective.

Over the last two weeks, I've watched Season 3 of True Detective, which returns from California to the South. Set in the Ozarks in Arkansas, the landscape and setting is almost a character in the story.

There are really strong performances from Mahershala Ali (Wayne Hays) and Stephen Dorff (Roland West) as two detectives and ex-Vietnam veterans in the state police investigating the disappearance of two children. The story operates across three time periods; 1980 (the original investigation), 1990 (the reopened investigation) and 2015 (the 'now' of the story, when both main characters are retired). The story focuses upon the cost that Ali (and to a lesser extent Dorff) pay as they follow through an investigation that has been with them through much of their life.

Carmen Ejogo plays Amelia, a teacher and writer who becomes Hay's wife. The case brings them together and threatens to pull them apart again. The acting between the two is excellent. By the 1990s, Amelia has written a book on the case and is as much an investigator as Hays.

Parts of the story are dark, but the series does have upbeat moments. I really enjoyed it; it does take its time though. The pacing put Jill off the first series, and if you don't like a slow exploration of a case and its impact on the people involved, then maybe this won't be the series for you. Otherwise, recommended.

17 November 2019