Since my childhood days I have been attracted to crime series on TV. There were The Avengers (with Emma Peel and John Steed), there was even mainstream stuff I liked, 77 Sunset Strip, Rockford and many others. Then Peter Falk entered the scene with his dirty old automobile.
Many years later, David Lynch extended the limits of crime and mystery with the glorious first season of Twin Peaks. Unforgettable: Angelo Badalamenti’s soundtrack. And several scenes (the dream with the dwarf) that burned deep into the unconscious. With HBO and the hard core suspense counter terrorist dramas of 24 a new period of television started. Homeland, for example.
During the last two years, other outstanding crime stories wrote TV history: Broadchurch, Sherlock Holmes, Top of the Lake, Die Brücke revealing that Scandinavia, New Zealand and England could contribute to top notch crime dramas. Germany is a wasteland in this field. I was thrilled by them all. But, nothing matched the quality of TRUE DETECTIVE. Sometimes it was really dangerous to dive into the story, cause I easily forgot breathing. And this is for fans of great soundtracks: the way T Bone Burnett provided the musical score with original instrumentals and a bunch of songs from the Americana genre (oldtimey folk, gospel etc.) added another layer – a perfect mix of sounds and sceneries!
Right to the end, True Detective danced around cop drama tropes and transcended them. It was pitch black, philosophical (the spirit of Albert Camus!), unabashedly entertaining, thoughtful and ultimately hopeful and human storytelling that trusted its audience’s intelligence and their capacity to be challenged. And the last song is a real closer: „The Angry River“, with Father John Misty.
(Remix from June 2014)