True Detective (Television Series); Created by Nic Pizzolatto; HBO; First episode date: January 13, 2019
Television Shorts
...is some Bull Shit for several reasons while being an excellent presentation. It confirmed its fuckery when in episode 7, a corrupt former white cop who is being beaten fakes being near death with pleas of I CAN’T BREATHE...twice.
Up until that point, I kept making excuses that this wasn’t some anti-black tripe masquerading as great art, and I still will not attach that label to this season. The third season of TRUE DETECTIVE matches the first one’s philosophical bent. Where it falls short is in its inability to let black people be the same fictional characters that white ones have been in previous seasons.
Mahershala Ali puts on a spectacular performance, a Morgan Freeman-like Magical Negro interpretation of a brooding man who is in a "Purcell" - purgatory cell, somewhat caused by his fading memory, never looking back at his past and the symbolic role he’s played since the Vietnam War: LRRP: Iong-range reconnaissance patrol.
There are so many brilliant moments in this season, especially the dialogue exposing the tension in Ali’s marriage to Carmen Ejogo, analogous to black male - black female relationships. TRUE DETECTIVE Season 3 eventually falls short because it pulls so many punches when it comes to white culpability in examining racial dynamics.
It’s unfortunate that writers feel they need black people present to examine racism, thereby limiting the scope of black characters.
Recommendation: NONE
Totally your call if you’re already invested in the series.
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Reviewed by Guichard Cadet