True Detective: The Locked Room (2014)
Season 1, Episode 3
A work of Art that wont be appreciated
27 January 2014
I have heard a lot of negative reviews about this show being too slow/boring since the first episode. For those who were expecting to see an action cop show like "Chicago PD" with some gun fire,profanity, dead body parts, then you have come to the wrong place. Just hearing these complaints about how slow the show is a sign of our times of how people's attention's span is so become less conditioned and more programmed to be entertained every minute of those 60 minutes with some kind of intense violence.

I am glad "True Detective" is not like those other shows, its slow for a reason, it takes its time; it is not so much about the crime as its about the characters and social commentary. It requires your attention, its for a mature thinking adults, so if you are bored then you are looking at this show the wrong way and expecting to be a typical cop show.

"Rust Cohle" is probably one of the most interesting written characters in a television/cable Police drama show I have ever seen as a Cop. He maybe viewed as misanthrope or even a sociopath yet he understands himself and knows who he is to a fault. He said once he is glad he is single and never remarried because he would have wear the other person down and its not fare to them, but that's what makes him right to fit the job. He may view and disdain the human species or human nature, yet a lot what he believes and says is true that for people like his partner "Martin Hart" who claims a family is what brings balance to a man's life, yet he cheats on his wife and lies to himself. Cohle summed up best that their difference as Hart to be a person who lives in "denial", people who deny of what they really want or and live a life of what is expected of them; yet according to Cohle people who are incapable of guilt have a better time in life.

Cohle sees the Merry Go 'Round of life and finds its pathetic, so he refuses to participate, to live this fiction that everyone creates in their head that place Rust calls " The Locked Room", what he views to be a fictions of lies to become a "Person". Listening to him one may think he is insane and detached but he is actually more human than most.

This third episode really took a turn when it came to reveal more about the conflict of Martin and Rust, every conversation these two have is the unraveling of what this show is about, not so much about the crime but who these two people are and how they live and view the world with the carnival of characters as a backdrop to the murder story. This show maybe hard for people want instant entertainment to sit through because they are so focused on the crime aspect of it and expect to see action, but this is not what the writer is trying to present to you here with these two detectives. Had this show been released in the 1970's I doubt it would be viewed as slow or boring, but this how far people's mind are conditioned to think that every show has to have the same pace, the same jump cuts to action, so its a challenge to just sit, listen and think, what an endeavor?.

I remember a film from the 80's by director David Lynch called "Blue Velvet" where the crime element was just a side show to what the film was about and it took years for people to understand Lynch's intention with that film. I think it will take years to look back on this show for people to realize its a masterpiece, a work of Art that wont be appreciated by the mundane minds of today's text/ipod generation who have been dummied down by watching the works and likes of "Tarantino"; the master of "puppet" theater.

So I say Bravo to creator Nic Pizzolatto for not being a conformist and be above the Puppet shows, by challenging his audience to sit up and pay attention and maybe reflect on something that they relate to; he has raised the bar way high with this show !
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