Why True Detective Only Had One Good Season

There are some shows that have an incredible run, and get better and better each season. And then there are shows that only have one really good season before falling off hard. True Detective is one of those shows. Created by Nic Pizzolatto, True Detective is a crime anthology series, with each season focusing on a different team of investigators working to solve a case, usually involving non-linear storytelling and taking place over many years.

However, among fans of the show, only the first season is really considered a masterpiece. Seasons 2 and 4 are considered garbage by most of the community, and while Season 3 is liked, it doesn’t quite stand up to the incredible first season of the show.

So in this video, we’ll examine what made this first season so incredible, and why none of the other seasons were able to live up to its legacy. This is True Detective.

The first season of the show follows a pair of Louisiana State Detectives: Marty Hart and Rust Cohle, who are investigating the ritualistic murder of a young woman. Rust is a highly competent but deeply pessimistic detective, too wrapped up in his work and his hopelessness for any kind of real relationship with people. Marty is a much more normal guy on the surface, but his infidelity and disregard for the important things in his life drive a wedge between him and his family.

The season follows the investigation and the relationship between Marty and Rust over the years. The series uses non-linear storytelling, with the investigators being interviewed in the present and jumping backwards and forwards in time to tell the story. As they dig deeper, they realize that the case not only involves a conspiracy with the local church and government, but also lovecraftian horror from beyond the plane of space and time.

The first season of True Detective was written entirely by Nic Pizzolatto. Nic was a literature professor and had previously worked on The Killing, but left after being dissatisfied with the creative direction of the show. Originally intending True Detective to be a novel, he eventually secured a development deal for the first season of the show. He wrote all episodes himself, and had the scripts basically done before the show even started filming. All of the episodes would be directed by one director as well, Cary Joji Fukunaga, who we will talk about later.

The most obvious thing that set this season apart and made it a hit show from the first episode is the character Rust Cohle. Played by Matthew McConaughey, Rust grabs our attention from his first scene. His philosophical monologues are a window into the show's themes of pessimism and redemption, and he’s the character most actively driving the plot forward. It’s incredible to think at one point Matthew McConaughey was considered a joke of an actor, only fit to star in romcoms. He’s managed to reinvent himself as an actor, and it’s roles like this that really showed off what he’s capable of.

However as great as McConaughey is, I also want to give an equal shoutout to Woody Harrelson as Marty. His character is often overshadowed by Rust, both in the story and by the audience, but to me he is the absolute heart of the show, no pun intended. His story, the story of a man who let his family slip through his grasp, is a much more relatable story than any serial killer plot. He’s the character that we the audience can relate to the most, and he serves as the bridge between us and the story.

The bond between these two characters is the real meat of the show. Despite being polar opposites, they come to really respect and rely on one another. Their relationship is fractured over the years, but in the end it takes the two of them working together in order to finally solve the case. And after it’s over, they are still the only people in each other’s lives. In the end, they did it. They became… True Detectives.

However, now we need to talk about the actual case, and I think I’m going to offend some of you when I say that the horror plot of True Detective makes no sense. It’s revealed that Dora Lange was killed by Errol Childress, a member of the Tuttle Cult. The Tuttle’s are the most powerful family in Louisiana, being involved in government and the church network. However the Tuttles also worship a Lovecraftian entity called “The Yellow King”, and perform human sacrifices and other terrible things in order to appease their god.

However what exactly the Cult’s motives or beliefs are isn’t really explained. Like are these people crazy because an eldritch god is corrupting their minds, or are they just a bunch of creepy Southern weirdos? Are they trying to accomplish anything with all these sick crimes, or is the religion just a made up justification for their degeneracy? I don’t know, and the show doesn’t either. Nic Pizzalotto wrote in all the horror stuff, which is ripped straight from Robert Chambers by the way, because it was cool and it gave the show a creepy Lovecraftian vibe. And don’t get me wrong, it is cool, and I’m not knocking the show for its use. I’m just saying that when looked at objectively, the plot of what’s actually happening doesn’t actually make much sense.

And I know there are Reddit threads which go through and headcanon all the lore and explanations of the series, but I doubt Nic really thought through any of this. Mainly because Carcosa is never brought up again in the other seasons that Nic wrote. It’s not a mythology that Nic developed for the worldbuilding of his universe. It’s just set dressing to make the investigation seem grander than just a normal serial killer show.

But since we brought it up, let’s examine the show’s other seasons and why they never reached the level of the first season. Season Two takes place in California, and involves 3 different police officers investigating the murder of a corrupt city official. It features an ensemble cast of Colin Ferrel, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch, and Vince Vaughn.

Like the first season, Pizzalotto wrote all of the episodes of the series, though this time with help from author Scott Lasser. However missing from this season was Fukunaga, who departed over rumors of creative differences and personal feuds with Pizzolatto.

The second season of the show was significantly less well-received than the first, holding a score of 47% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the first season’s 92%. Audiences criticized the show’s pacing, the absurd plot, and even the acting. In fact Vince Vaugn’s delivery of the at time cringe dialogue even became a meme at one point.

I’m not going to do a whole deep dive into the season as a whole. If you’re interested in that, I recommend this video by Macabre Storytelling which goes into detail about the problems of the season. Either way though, this season destroyed Pizzalotto’s reputation. People started to believe that his auteur persona was overstated, and that he wasn’t as responsible for the first season’s success as they originally thought. Many began to think that Fukunaga being the other creative half behind the first season was instrumental to its success. I tend to agree, especially when you look at how awful Season 2 looks in comparison to one. Seriously it looks like a CBS procedural instead of the moody, atmospheric masterpiece that was Season 1.

Either way though it was decided by HBO that moving forward Pizzolotto would have to work with a writer’s room, and potentially even have to accept a new showrunner. Pizzalotto pushed back against this, and in the end he only brought on two writers to help out: Graham Gordy and David Milch, a television veteran who you’ll remember created Deadwood. I talked about this in my Deadwood video, but Pizzolatto helped Milch write the Deadwood movie script, because at the time he was suffering from Alzheimers. Milch in turn helped Pizzolatto with the third season of True Detective, which is probably why HBO was ok with Pizzolatto maintaining creative control of the series.

The third season follows two detectives over a 30 year timespan as they investigate a case involving two missing children in the Ozark mountains. The leads this time are played by Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff.

Overall season 3 was better received than the second season by fans, and holds 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. For many, it felt like a return to form of the first season, which is what a lot of fans were hoping for.

The acting is also incredible this season. Both leads manage to do a great job presenting their characters as they go from being young detectives to old men. Mahershala Ali gets all the attention and marketing for the season, but I think Stephen Dorff does a great job with his role as well, which just like Marty in the first season is much more understated.

However I think the similarities to Season 1 are what ultimately hold this season back from being truly great. It feels like after the terrible reception to Season 2, Pizzolatto went back to the well and just repeated the same beats as Season 1. Two detectives being questioned about a past case, a creepy mystery plot, and a southern setting. They even have a direct reference to the events of the first season, as if the season is saying hey remember when you like the show?

The only difference is that this time the narrative bounces around 3 different time periods instead of two, which actually makes the plot even harder to follow than the first season. The twist at the end, if we can even call it that, is also underwhelming. Again not a terrible season, but uninspired compared to the first.

The fourth season of True Detective premiered 5 years after the last season, and for the first time would feature a new showrunner, Issa Lopez. Pizzolatto would remain an executive producer, but it seems like he had nothing to do with this season. This season, titled Night Country, is set in a remote town in Alaska, with two police officers investigating the disappearance of a group of scientists from a research station. The season featured actresses Jodie Foster and Kali Reis in the leads.

I’m not going to beat around the bush. This season is terrible. Like I didn’t think it could get this bad. It’s a jumbled mess of half baked ideas. The acting is wooden, the plot is completely nonsensical, and it somehow feels the least like True Detective while at the same time being filled to the brim with references to Season One. Like you thought the news clip of Marty and Rust in Season 3 was fan service? Wait until you see Rust’s dad’s ghost in this season. Or hear repeat lines from the first season without even understanding what it even means.

Now there is a reason why this season is such a mess. The story of Night Country was actually something Issa Lopez was working on before she was selected as the showrunner of the series. When she got the role, she ended up adapting her story about a small Alaskan town being poisoned by a mine into the framework of True Detective. The end result of this is the mess we get this season.

Now it can be tempting given how bad this season was to go back and glamorize Pizzolatto’s reign over the show. That’s what he’d like us to do anyway, which is why when the show came out he took to the internet to bitch about the new direction of the show. But like we’ve just discussed, the show really hasn't been good since season one. Sure Night Country sucked, but so did Season 2, and Season 3 was kind of forgettable. Season 4 is definitely the worst entry so far, but it’s still just a continuation of the show’s failure to live up to its first incredible season.

And that’s where we leave the True Detective for now. There is going to be a fifth season, again under Issa Lopez. Given the history of how we got here, I wouldn’t hold my breath for anything special. But even though the legacy of True Detective is one of declining quality, we can still look back and be appreciative of just how good that first season truly was.

Maybe we’ll never get that level of writing again. Maybe it’s impossible, even for Pizzolatto, to every recreate the lighting in a bottle that was Marty and Rust’s story. But at least we got one good season, and for that alone we can be grateful. Thank you all for watching. Let me know your thoughts on True Detective in the comments, and stay tuned for more content coming soon!