Binge Watching II: HBO "True Detective"

Sooooo….one of the things is… with this new generation of screen entertainment….is beginning to manifest itself as a problem for me.  Binge Watching.  I expounded on this once briefly when I had the pleasure over about a month of watching “The Wire” from start to finish. % seasons worth.  Fortunately my wife was in her busy season and I really was looking for ways to kill time at night that did not involve drinking and this seemed like a healthy way to go but now I am not so sure… or indeed, not sure at.  In short, there is no sureness.

Since that time I have avoided diving into new series.  My somewhat addictive personality does not do well with temptations like this.  As a youngster and up through the first 6 months or so of having my first child I had a problem with video games.  Even in high school when I was in the thralls of romance with my eventual wife, I would sneak off to the arcade (yes, we had to go places to play video games) and pump quarters into Space Invaders.  I was unstoppable and by the end could play for 20 minutes to an ½ hour on one quarter.  This continued into college and thereafter, through Atari and into the first Nintendo System and finally ended when my wife was in the midst of some trauma with our new son and I said, “HOLD IT! I AM ABOUT TO SAVE THE PRINCESS!”  The Nintendo game was retired to my parents house and other than brief flirtations with Madden Football and Tony Hawk Pro Skater (which I justified as something I could do with my children) I really, rarely lost hours (or days) of time but that is because, like an alcoholic, I knew I had a problem.

The same thing occurred to me when watching The Wire, so being prudent (52 year old) person who has some minor level of self knowledge I decided not to go down the road with another series unless I could watch with my wife, which would severely limit my intake and ti9me consumption.  But…as I type this I am flying home from a delightful trip to Europe with my entire family and I discovered that the tricky people at American Airlines and their nefarious allies British Airways (The creepily named “ONE WORLD ALLIANCE” has endeavored to put TV reruns on these overseas flights and they got some HBO content, in the form of the “True Detective” series which just started this year (or at the end of last year).

My TV watching friends with HBO (fortunately we have Show Time which although they have some great series occasionally generally tends toward seedier stuff I am embarrassed to watch like “Shameless and “Californication”) told me “you have got to watch “True Detectives” and these are people who “know” me.  They have also been encouraging me towards “Game of Thrones” but it seems too trendy for me.  Anyway… I have fallen back into the abyss.

When flying to Europe it is of paramount importance to sleep on the way over.  This softens the jet lag and leaves you in a slightly better condition for arrival and the endless walking that every trip to Europe seems to make mandatory.  Instead I watched the end of a movie I walked out (Wolf Of Wall Street) and then a horrible, stupid movie called “Ride Along” with the dreaded “Ice Cube” and then discovered the HBO feed and “True Detective.

I have always like Woody Harrelson, even in “Cheers” but his list of films which amuse and entertain for include “White Men Can’t Jump” and of course “Zombieland”.  Matthew Mcconaughey is a little more problematic (he has always been too pretty) but recently has been wowing me in his last few films (even before “Dallas Buyers Club” and allows me to say the words that my friends say, that I never say… “I was wrong”.

These two guys are detectives in Louisiana.  Mcconnaughy has a dark past and Woody appears to be a good cop trying to make a go with a nice family and a sweet wife but as they work on a troubling case involving the ritualistic murder of a young lady… their lives and psyches start to deteriorate.  Whomever wrote it (and I don’t know because I am still on the plane and have no internet access, really built some characters and as the saga moves on through the seven episodes it becomes hypnotizing.  I was able to watch 3 on the way over and the last 4 on the way home and each episode totally failed to disappoint in any way as we dug more into the guys histories and back stories as they recount the investigation to two other detectives who are talking to them for reasons that remain unclear till we move towards the end.

Riveting.

Well scripted.

Well acted.

The season ended somewhat ambiguously and although i cannot understand how they might continue it, I hope they do.  This is worth your time and although I worry for my continued mental health… the Binge Watching continues.