True Detective

50 years of the detective genre shrunk and sculpted into one eight-part series that masterly combines the psychology of Se7en with the atmosphere of the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Especially in the interaction between the two protagonists, so different and at the same time inseparable, True Detective trumps all TV competition, not to mention the brilliantly constructed script and, of course, the performances, which in the case of Harrelson and especially McConaughey are at times unbelievable. And the brilliant opening credits and the superb theme song, HBO knows how to do it. (14/07/2016)

Yeah, the first season was better, it was more interesting schematically, more consistent in terms of direction and its atmosphere of lost human souls in the American backwaters was more absorbing. The second season treads its own thematic path, and treads it so surely and unpredictably that I think only words of praise are fit to describe it. Bringing together so many interesting and (like in the first season) lost characters with heavy souls, so many potentially negative or ambiguous characters from high politics, the mafia or the police, and one mysterious murder into a voluminous web of intrigue, violence, corruption and relationships present or long past, without a single one of them getting lost and each of the title characters not given enough space to be fully fleshed out, call it what you will, I call it orgasmic television mastery. And as far as the actors are concerned, I would build not a Hollywood star, but a temple to all of them, especially to Farrell, who definitely belongs to the highest acting league, and McAdams, who’s rather untypical in her rough-and-fragile role, but handles it fantastically. (18/07/2016)