10 Comments

Would love to hear you guys talk more sometime about why 2014 was such a pivotal year. I've noticed it too, and I've noticed this year come up a lot in sociological studies that aren't even related to each other.

It just seems like a hinge year in so many ways, and probably no coincidence that True Detective was the last show of its kind that we got before the sea change.

Expand full comment

I definitely think a huge part of it was the crossover of 4chan, tumblr, and online gaming. The gaming world crossed the more woke with the more right people when they otherwise wouldn’t have connected and then that spilled over in a big way and then when trump came on the scene it merged all that with Alex jones, hilarys emails. Etc.it was like a cascade

Expand full comment

Nailed it, great talk. Would love to hear y'all discuss The Bear. It's got the diversity casting, but all in all it's a fantastic show about what it takes to achieve aesthetic excellence and appropriate power hierarchies. To me, this is the kind of art that Isaac has been talking about.

Expand full comment

Haven’t heard of it where can I watch

Expand full comment

It’s on Hulu, so annoying ads and shit, but I think it’s worth it. High intensity show, season three a bit soft, but 1&2 are very good

Expand full comment

I haven’t watched either since they came out so don’t feel strongly one way or the other but great conversation

Expand full comment

Worth a rewatch, for sure

Expand full comment

Just a quick comment RE Astral's complaint about Rust's backstory. His daughter's death is the key event that led to his nihilistic worldview; his subsequent descent into hell ( and borderline madness ), throwing himself into various deep cover operations and finally the satanic pedophile network case, culminates in his redemptive spiritual 'rebirth' at the very conclusion of the series. He knows his daughter ( it is implied ) is with God and that 'light shines in the darkness'. So, in my view, knowing his daughter died was crucial to Rust'scharacter arc. NB, I haven't read the other comments ( and I'm late to this thread ) so perhaps this has already been mentioned.

Expand full comment

Gotta rewatch this. Thanks!

Expand full comment

Gave this episode a listen because I love me some TD. I agree with you, season 2 is not there bad and honestly above most shit out today, it just wasn't near the level of season 1.

I also agree on the main fault being too many characters but disagree on which ones. The show would have been much tighter if the focus was on just Rachel McAdams and Velcro. Vince Vaughn was the worst part of the show, his whole vibe just didn't work IMHO.

Expand full comment