Comments on: ‘True Detective’ Creator Nic Pizzolatto Reveals Alternate Endings & Shares Season 2 Story Details

By: jerry

jerry — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

I posted this comment, as best I can recall it, in March, 2014, and am wondering why it was removed. In response to Crabpaws:
Same here, read \’em all, saw \’em all. Pizzolatto now denies that any of the hints he provided, verbal or visual, were intended to mislead. But Pizzolatto wrote it all with just this ending in mind – a couple of dozen lines in the final scene to alter the entire effect and to escape the responsibility of intellectualizing what he had previously done. Check out the Eastwood move, Million Dollar Baby, which changed direction, but did it gracefully, with sparse eloquence and minimalist acting and with much greater emotion.
I felt insulted at first by this cartoon but I have come to realize that I was wrong. Pizzolatto is simply incapable. He should do well in Hollywood. This guy is no writer, but hey, he knows that – he is an "artist" now.
The writing, which fascinated me for the first seven episodes, now disintegrates before my eyes. Like mathematical symbols on a chalkboard it now blows away, because not only was there no solution, but there was never any real problem. The entire thing turns to meat, sentient or not. The good news is that there is no reason to buy the boxed set of this series any more. The author has explicitly told us that there is nothing there.

By: j brown

j brown — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

In the first 10 seconds of the first show it shows 2 men walking out of the field, one obviously badly wounded with the other more or less helping the person to walk out of the field as it burned.Could someone explain this to me. To me it looked like Cole was the one injured with his arm around Marty\’s neck. I never understood what that scene was supposed to mean. Please help. I loved that show.

By: loudrockmusic

loudrockmusic — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

I agree with the other folks on here who mention how the writing fell apart on the last two episodes.

By: crabpaws

crabpaws — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

I read Nic Pizzolatto's interview, I read all of Nic Pizzolatto's interviews, I saw all 8 episodes, most of them more than once, and after the finale, I'd like to make this request: Nic Pizzolatto, please shut up. Your mouth is writing checks your screenwriting *ss can't cash.

That last episode was a writerly disgrace. You claimed you weren't going to trick the audience and you then you did it. You cannot with a straight face call half-baked TV trash innovative and still keep the respect of those of us who can tell the difference. You've gone Hollywood in a big way, Nic, the place where bullcrap walks until it's up there on the screen for all to see. Then it's the downward spiral, Nic. You're in Carcosa now.

By: Rita G

Rita G — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

I absolutely loved every episode of this show (True Detective) and hated that is over! The last episode was the greatest, leaving me to taking off my robe and standing up, because the intensity was so high in the series and in me. I am happy that the writer kept both men alive. Just the coolest when Cohle reached over and blew psycho Childress's head off to save his partner, Martin forming a true personal part of their relationship. They had respect and disrespect, anger, resentment and many other feelings, but I think the ending caused a real caring and trust that was lacking previously.
It is by far one of the best TV series I have watched and I can say I watch a lot! The writer was superb! Casting could not have been better! My only complaint is that the cast will be different in Season 2. Harrelson and McConaughey were so good and such a perfect team.

By: Margie Barkley

Margie Barkley — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

To offer "the possibility of grace," a glimmer of joy, even though we have had follow the characters through their souls' darkest nights – that is genius. Tragedy evokes emotion, but that does mean that it is more profound than resolution. Good writing is meant to be read/viewed more than once. When I watch this again, I will look for the breadcrumbs of hope that I could not see the first time. As we live in the real world we should look for these clues. Thank you for offering an opportunity to think deeply and to arrive at the possibility of hope in a world that is incoherent at times.

By: Xibalba

Xibalba — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

Picasso stated:'the greatest artistas doesn't copy,the steal'.If Pizzolato has proved to be a great storyteller,but the finale was incoherent with Cohle's visiÃ³n of the world.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

The only reason you think he copied from other work is because there are so many shows that its pretty easy to do something and related to something else. its hard to stay completely original. We have the ingredients. its what we make with them. I thought the series was great. I loved Cohle's philosophies. my favorite episode was when Cohle ran through all of the gang members and he beat the crap out of the biker guy the whole time they were getting away.

By: FilmGuy

FilmGuy — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

"To retreat to the supernatural, or to take the easy dramatic route of killing a character in order to achieve an emotional response from the audience, I thought would have been a disservice to the story."

Mr. Pizzolatto, the story is meaningless if there is no emotional response from the audience. Take a poll of how many audience members thought at least Cohle was going to die and I bet you'd find many.

What we ended up with was seven great episodes soaked with philosophies on death, yet neither character died and the story ended on a weak note. Meh

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

He stole from se7en. No wait he stole from Alan Moore. No wait, this is the internet comment section and none of these things actually happened.

By: robert

robert — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

That's not really what an "alternative ending" is…

By: Anonymouse

Anonymouse — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

@fitzcarraldont

the lifting comes from a comic book called Top Ten #8, written by alan moore, where a dying horse headed alien describes a game of intergalactic/interspecies chess-like game involving forcers of light and darkness. as the alien is dying, he describes how long ago there was only darkness in the universe. now there are more and more stars and light is slowly winning the game.

my description does the comic book no justice, but the similarities jarred me a bit and diminished what i thought was quite a brilliant series, if only because the lifting was blatant, imo.

By: fitzcarraldont

fitzcarraldont — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

The Alan Moore connection @Anonymouse mentions is news to me. Can we get a link or a direct quote?

On the one hand, I think the whole series took and developed the feeling of Andrew Kevin Walker and David Fincher's Se7en. True Detective mostly avoided specific appropriation/theft of Se7en but did an ample amount of thematic aping âÂ intentional or otherwise. The dynamic between the two cops is very similar to that in Se7en: feuding partners, literary references galore, occult ritual murders, inscrutable clues. (Plus, in an early draft of Se7en Freedman's character actually sleeps with Paltrow's). The last lines of the finale, however, seem deeply influenced by the last lines of Se7en where Freedman's character says in VO: "Ernest Hemingway once wrote, The world is a fine place and worth fighting for…I agree with the second part." It look likes either Pizzolatto lifted the sentiment or the sentiment is predictable enough that both he and Andrew Kevin Walker divined it to be the appropriate way to end their stories. Next season, I hope Pizzolatto takes greater pains to stay far afield from the territory of other terrific stories like Se7en while continuing to advance genre conventions in the thrilling way he has here.

On the other hand, The makers of True Detective navigated a spectacular framing device, illuminated sophisticated dialog worthy of audiences with higher than a 4th-grade reading level (one of the only shows to regularly do so, to my knowledge) and built a deeply appealing character in Rust Cole. Let's agree Harrelson's predictable character left something to be desired without being nearly as easy on the eyes as young the Mr. Pitt in Se7en. That aside, week in and week out, the show left viewers with something to consider for the next seven days. Usually it was something profound.

I don't have a problem with lifting in storytelling (the venial form of plagarism) as long as the lift fires my interpretative faculties and fits into a larger mold of originality. True Detective mostly managed this caveat throughout its first season. Here's hoping Pizzolatto completely breaks free of his influences in the second.

By: Anonymouse

Anonymouse — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:59:57 +0000

was hoping he's stay away from occult conspiracies for the next season. anyway, has nic pizzolatto spoken about the homage/theft/appropriation of the stars, darkness, and light dialogue from alan moore? it was a bit glaring and took me out of the show. everything before that, thought, was brilliant.