The Athenaeum

"True Detective," A socio-cultural review

 

"The second season has received generally positive reviews, however many critics feel it is not as strong as the first. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a rating of 65%, based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "True Detective‍ '​s second season stands on its own as a solid police drama, with memorable moments and resonant relationships outweighing predictable plot twists."^[42] On Metacritic, the season has a score of 61 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[43]

David Hinckley of the New York Daily News gave it a very positive review, and wrote "It's still the kind of show that makes TV viewers reach for phrases like 'golden age of television drama'" and that "the second installment of True Detective goes out of the way not to echo the first."^[44] Hank Stuever of The Washington Post gave it a generally positive review, praising the performances, and wrote, "There is something still lugubrious and overwrought about True Detective, but there's also a mesmerizing style to it — it's imperfect, but well made."^[45]

A more mixed review came from Brian Lowry of Variety, who wrote "Although generally watchable, the inspiration that turned the first [season] into an obsession for many seems to have drained out of writer Nic Pizzolatto's prose."^[46]" 

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IMO both seasons are evidence of an emerging Golden Age in American TV drama productions.  The quality of writing, production and direction were all superb.

These series exist at a number of artistic levels.  They can be seen as mere cop show extravaganzas.  At that level they work remarkably well.

More importantly, they are, IMO, powerful metaphors for the general disintegration of what were not long ago well accepted cultural norms involving personal behavior and expectations regarding the functions of government.

This is not to say that there was a utopian age in an America that worked well for all, but there were enough shared values in pre-60s America for it to have been possible to say without irony that there were such things as coherent national and regional cultures.  Such a thing as national or regional epic was possible based on shared values.  IMO and evidently in the collective mind of the "True Detective" crew such coherent, functioning cultures are no more.  They were systematically destroyed over the last fifty years by those who sought a brave new world disorganized on the basis of and excused by a drive for extreme forms of social justice and leveling. This drive has treated all tradition as enemy.  This brave new world has resulted, once again IMO, in a Hobbesian universe in which the juggernaut of "progress" rolls over and crushes American social institutions one by one.  The latest victims of this institutional destruction are the police, the guardians of social order.  In the new and wonderfully dystopian America, policemen who have done their duty in defense of life and property are persecuted and dismissed by politicians and police chiefs who are mere warriors in the struggle of all against all.  There are, of course policemen guilty of egregious misconduct as in the case of the fool in North Charleston, S.C. who shot a fleeing man in the back, but what is happening in the media is a general assault on the policing powers of the states and cities.

Season 1 of "True Detective" focused on this kind of descent into dystopia in Louisiana and East Texas.  My impression is that the writer and director simply are more familiar with that part of the country and were more comfortable with a regional format as an "opening gun."

Season 2 is set in California and more closely devoted to Southern California, a lurking abscess in the fabric of the America that once was.  In that world of the dark imaginings of the "True Detective" artists government is a cesspool of money corruption and selfish striving for personal gain that know no limits.

IMO this series will not live long.  In season 2 the bad guys win and consolidate their gains, ready to move on to new depths.  Americans, especially flyover Americans are unaccustomed to spectacles that do not end well in reward of virtue.  "Put a ribbon around it" is a common exhortation in US TV production.  This means that happy endings are expected and demanded.   "True Detective" puts paid to that distortion of reality.  In the "True Detective" world there are no Yellow Brick Roads, Lassie does not come home and Shirley Temple does not dance with Bojangles Robinson.

THE PEOPLE, the real people sense the decline of their way of life and its rejection by the Borgist elites.  The unhappiness of THE PEOPLE can be seen in the reaction to Trump and Sanders.  pl  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Detective_(season_2)

"Dig"

I am generally a fan of Jason Isaacs.  His portrayal of a Scottish private detective in "Case Files" was an outstanding piece of work.  Ann Heche is another actor that I favor.  In her present heterosexual incarnation she is quite convincing and attractive but the TV series  "Dig"  is just awful and a reminder of the reasons why we watch so much European TV.  

The main faults lie in both casting and writing.  Contrary to American expectations, there are not a lot of people who are Israeli who were born and raised in the US.  Those that exist are generally not in the government.  They are often settlers in the West Bank who live apart from government except for doing their conscripted service.  They live in those red tile roofed villas in towns springing up as a matter of policy among the Arab towns.   In spite of these factoids the Israeli officials and townspeople in "Dig" speak perfect American accented English.  What?  They could not find actual Israelis with real modern Hebrew accents in English?  These accents are a reality of life in Israel.  Most Israelis learned English in school and are from Eastern European,  east African and Middle Eastern roots.  To cast this series with Americans as Israelis is to reinforce American illusions about the origins of the Israeli population.  

The scripts seem to have been written by people who know nothing about US Government, the functioning of a US Embassy or history:

- US Marine Corps security guards are just that.  They function INSIDE the embassy to guard the facility and most especially the communications center with its sensitive equipment.  The marines DO NOT stand around outside the embassy looking picturesque as "greeters."  USMC non-commissioned officers assigned to legation guard duty do not stand a post as a sentry unless not enough privates or lance Corporals (E-3) are present for duty.  The USMC is understandably sensitive about misuse of their people as blue uniformed servants for the civilian staff of the embassy including the ambassador.  The USMC security guard is under the operational control of a civilian Regional Security official in the embassy but they do not do anything but security.  I was twice the Defense Attache in US embassies and then head of all the attaches in the world.  So, i probably understand this.

- The US Ambassador in this production is apparently resident at the consulate general in Jerusalem.  She seems to be there all the time. In fact the US Ambassador is resident at the embassy in Tel Aviv and generally stays away from the consulate in Jerusalem because it is the policy of the US Government to insist that Jerusalem is not recognized by the US as the capital of Israel.

- Isaacs' character is an emotionally unstable FBI agent stationed in Jerusalem as a "legal attache" (euphemism).  While there he is happily sc----ng his FBI superior, Ann Heche.  Now, I would certainly not claim that such a thing is not possible but it seems less likely among the rather straight laced FBI people than among the State Department folk where I have seen it happen.  The "Legal Attache" section in an embassy is usually a rather small time affair devoted to the task of liaison with the local police on FBI business world wide. In this potboiler the FBI conducts investigations in the host country, routinely carries guns and more or less defies the local police.  This is laughable.  Anyone doing this would be ejected from the country by the hosts.  

- The US Ambassador is portrayed as being a conspirator in a cultist plot.  Imagination is a great thing in writing plots but this is so absurd  as to also be laughable.  Cults?  No.  Likudnik operative?  Maybe.

- Finally, the level of ignorance of history is impressive.  In the last viewed episode, the ambassador's co-conspirator cultist visits some place in the Aegean to steal or buy something wanted by the cult.  His host lives in an old structure where his collection is housed.  The host remarks that the building is an 11th century crusader castle.  Well, the army of the First Crusade captured the Holy Land in 1099 AD. There were no crusader castles in the 11th Century AD.  One would think that a glance at wikipedia would have cleared that up. 

All in all a shoddy piece of work.  pl  

http://www.usanetwork.com/dig

MSNBC "bloodbath"

"Matthews, who has criticized politicians in both parties, drew less criticism for his convention role but became a divisive figure during the primaries when he described how he was inspired by Obama's speeches and made disparaging remarks about Hilary Clinton, for which he later apologized.

In May, MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in an interview that during live events Olbermann and Matthews "put on different hats. I think the audience gets it. . . . I see zero problem."

But NBC News journalists, who often appear on the cable channel, did see a problem, arguing behind the scenes that MSNBC's move to the left -- which includes a new show, debuting tonight, for Air America host Rachel Maddow -- was tarnishing their reputation for fairness. Tom Brokaw, the interim host of "Meet the Press" said that at times Olbermann and Matthews went too far."  Washpost

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OK.

Now MSNBC needs to get rid of Joe Scarborough.  His nasty bullying and rudeness to everyone on his morning program is a major obstacle to watching what would other wise be the best morning news discussion on 24/7 cable.  Pat Buchanan is a much more able spokesman for conservative views.  Give him the show and let him work with someone like Andrea Mitchell.  She is a "grown up" and can be relied on to hold her own in serious discussions.

And what's with canceling Dan Abrams again?  He is mildly to the left but nothing like Maddow.

Why not give Willie Geist (sp?) a show.  This is a young person with brains, charm and wit.

Olbermann stopped being a serious newsman when he "landed" a 35 million dollar contract with MSNBC.  Since then he has been a propagandist for the left, albeit a clever and often amusing propagandist. 

Matthews?  I have a problem with regional and cultural bigotry.  He exemplifies both.   In addition, his diatribes against Hilary Clinton were a factor in the outcome of the Democratic Party primary fight.  If the Democrats lose, he and whomever it was that persuaded Obama to pass HC over for the ticket will be responsible.

Gregory?  Well, at least he speaks French.

Brokaw?  Montana is calling you.  Go back there and write another greatest something or other book.  Maybe you could write a book about the men who fought the war you did not chose to fight in.

pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090800008.html?sub=AR