Matt Smith reviews the seventh episode of True Detective…
True Detective, the first show where I’ve had to actively avoid spoilers, is also probably the only show where if I just watch it progress, I can’t tell if it’s going to carry on after a first season or if the show will end next week. The show’s also an expert at keeping you guessing as to whether the case will ever end, or if it’ll end with the right bad guy being caught. Considering I know the final episode is on TV in under a week, it’s fitting that such a good show won’t let viewers know if or how it’ll end, in any way, shape or form.
Since last week, with the interviews concerning past events ending, the story from present time is emerging and taking precedence. Cohle and Hart are back together, working on the case Cohle’s been driving himself crazy over. There’s a feeling of getting the old gang together as two men, perhaps broken in their own ways and despite everything we’ve seen of their past, are back working on what they do best.
There’s also a feeling that the answer to them figuring out the case is there amongst everything, if only they could just see it. With the secrets revealed, with a neat twist on a villain hiding in plain sight, the episode’s full of nail biting, creeping atmosphere as we watch our flawed heroes get closer to the answer. But what will happen to them if they find it? The classic, almost Hitchcock way the show presents it’s audience with more information than any one character has, is where the tension comes from.
The villain on offer is a little conventional, however. His twisted nature is given away by the scars on his face, something that Cohle and Hart can cling to as a piece of evidence as well as giving him something visual an audience can easily remember and rally against. He does fit in with the landscape though, and the way he’s revealed now compared to his casual introduction earlier on in the series lets us all in on the confidence True Detective has, giving us clues we only figure out once it’s all laid out in front of our eyes.
True Detective, this week, shows us how perhaps making things more real doesn’t mean the drama is lacking in any way. In real life, a suspect may hide in plain sight. Police officers ignore him as he actively engages them in conversation. He casually tends to the garden outside his creepy lair. He is one of the townsfolk. This show started out with such promise and it’s remarkable that it’s managed to keep up the quality to this late stage. All that’s left now is to wait for the finale and hope it’s as tense, as well paced, well written and fantastically performed as the first seven episodes.
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Originally published April 9, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
