The Long Bright Dark
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"The Long Bright Dark" is the
series premiere A series premiere is the first aired installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. In the United States, many series premieres are aired in the fall time or, for mid-season replacements, either in the spring or ...
of the anthology
crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...
''
True Detective ''True Detective'' is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto. The series, broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States, premiered on January 12, 2014. Each season of the ...
'', which initially aired on HBO in the United States on January 12, 2014. It was directed by executive producer
Cary Joji Fukunaga Cary Joji Fukunaga (born July 10, 1977) is an American filmmaker. He first gained recognition for writing and directing the 2009 film '' Sin nombre'' and the 2011 adaptation of ''Jane Eyre''. He was the first director of partial East Asian des ...
and written by series creator
Nic Pizzolatto Nicholas Austin Pizzolatto (born October 18, 1975) is an American writer, producer and director. He is best known for creating the HBO crime drama series ''True Detective''. Early life Pizzolatto was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is of It ...
. The episode introduces a pair of
Louisiana State Police The Louisiana State Police (French: Police d’Etat de Louisiane) is the state police agency of Louisiana, which has jurisdiction anywhere in the state, headquartered in Baton Rouge. It falls under the authority of the Louisiana Department of P ...
homicide detectives, Rustin "Rust" Cohle (
Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...
) and Martin "Marty" Hart (
Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
), as well as series regulars played by
Michelle Monaghan Michelle Lynn Monaghan ( ; born March 23, 1976) is an American actress, best known for her starring roles in ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' (2005), '' Gone Baby Gone'' (2007), '' Made of Honor'' (2008), '' Eagle Eye'' (2008), '' Trucker'' (2008), ''Sou ...
, Michael Potts, and
Tory Kittles Tory Kittles is an American actor. He has appeared in the films '' Malibu's Most Wanted'' (2003), ''Get Rich or Die Tryin (2005), ''Next'' (2007), ''Miracle at St. Anna'' (2008), and ''Dragged Across Concrete'' (2018). He is known mostly for h ...
. In "The Long Bright Dark", Martin and Rustin are forced to recount the history of the Dora Lange murder investigation as new evidence suggests the perpetrator remains at large. Pizzolatto began writing ''True Detective'' as a novel, but, as the project began taking definite form, felt it was more suitable for television.
Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...
was initially scheduled to take place in
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
; however,
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
was ultimately preferred for its generous statewide tax incentives and unique landscape. "The Long Bright Dark" was shot entirely in 35 mm film and filming for the season lasted for 100 consecutive days. Most press reviews for "The Long Bright Dark" were very positive, although some reviewers criticized the dialogue and other aspects of the program. Critics that held the episode in high regard applauded its complex narrative and sleek production, and there was a surfeit of praise for the performances of McConaughey and Harrelson. The initial broadcast of "The Long Bright Dark" drew 2.3 million viewers, becoming HBO's highest rated series premiere since the pilot episode of '' Boardwalk Empire''.


Plot


2012

The episode opens with Martin "Marty" Hart (
Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
), a former homicide detective of the
Louisiana State Police The Louisiana State Police (French: Police d’Etat de Louisiane) is the state police agency of Louisiana, which has jurisdiction anywhere in the state, headquartered in Baton Rouge. It falls under the authority of the Louisiana Department of P ...
's Criminal Investigations Division, beginning an interview with detectives Maynard Gilbough ( Michael Potts) and Thomas Papania (
Tory Kittles Tory Kittles is an American actor. He has appeared in the films '' Malibu's Most Wanted'' (2003), ''Get Rich or Die Tryin (2005), ''Next'' (2007), ''Miracle at St. Anna'' (2008), and ''Dragged Across Concrete'' (2018). He is known mostly for h ...
). His former partner, Detective Rustin "Rust" Cohle (
Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...
), is being questioned separately; they have neither spoken to nor seen each other since an altercation over a decade ago. The two men are asked to recount their relationship and the history of the Dora Lange murder investigation of 1995, the files of which were destroyed in Hurricane Rita. Hart and Cohle claim to have apprehended the killer, but the crime scene of a recently slain woman is found to closely mirror the Dora Lange murder scene, leading investigators to believe that the perpetrator is still at large.


1995

Hart and Cohle are summoned to
Vermillion Parish Vermilion Parish (french: Paroisse de Vermillion) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana, created in 1844. The parish seat is Abbeville. Vermilion Parish is part of the Lafayette metropolitan statistical area, and located in southern ...
to examine the murder scene of a young woman. The woman's corpse, crowned with deer
antlers Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on males ...
and bound to a tree in a kneeling position, is surrounded by numerous twig latticeworks loosely resembling
Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...
bird traps. Cohle notices several stab wounds and ligature marks scattered about on the corpse, suspecting the victim to be a sex worker, and is the centerpiece of a
ritual murder Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease deity, gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of veneration of the dead, dead ancestors or as ...
– the "paraphiliac love map" to the perpetrator's fantasy. Hart dismisses his suspicions, and suddenly invites Cohle to dinner at his wife Maggie's (
Michelle Monaghan Michelle Lynn Monaghan ( ; born March 23, 1976) is an American actress, best known for her starring roles in ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' (2005), '' Gone Baby Gone'' (2007), '' Made of Honor'' (2008), '' Eagle Eye'' (2008), '' Trucker'' (2008), ''Sou ...
) insistence. Cohle reluctantly agrees to come, only to arrive drunk, infuriating Hart. At the dinner table, after an awkward conversation, Cohle tells Maggie his 2-year-old daughter died in an accident years ago, the grief from which ended his marriage. Meanwhile, Major Ken Quesada ( Kevin Dunn) immediately sets up a
press conference A press conference or news conference is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicians, corporations, non-governmental organ ...
and assigns Hart responsibility over the briefing session for the following day. Cohle continues the investigation at a bar that evening and asks two prostitutes – Anette (Charleigh Harmon) and Lucy (Alyshia Ochse) – about any disappearances, but to no avail. By the next morning, there were several breakthroughs in the investigation: the body had been successfully identified as 28-year-old Dora Lange; an autopsy revealed she had been strangled, tortured, and possibly raped; and early toxicology reports found traces of lysergic acid and methamphetamine in her bloodstream. Hart, Cohle and Quesada brief their colleagues with the new evidence. The duo visit Dora's ex-husband Charlie Lange (Brad Carter) in
prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...
for questioning. Charlie, incarcerated on charges of
check fraud Cheque fraud (Commonwealth English), or check fraud (American English), refers to a category of criminal acts that involve making the unlawful use of cheques in order to illegally acquire or borrow funds that do not exist within the account balanc ...
, claims to have not seen the woman since she filed for divorce a year into his prison sentence. He informs the detectives of Dora's risky drug habits as well as the details of his final phone conversation with her. At the station, Cohle meets Reverend Billy Lee Tuttle (
Jay O. Sanders Jay Olcutt Sanders (born April 16, 1953) is an American film, theatre and television actor and playwright. He frequently appears in plays off-Broadway at The Public Theatre. Early life and education Sanders was born on April 16, 1953 in Austin, ...
), a wealthy, powerful minister in the state and the first cousin of the governor. Tuttle brings up the idea of creating a task force to investigate crimes with anti-Christian connotations, suggesting the Lange murder is one. Cohle rudely dismisses the idea. The investigation takes a brief detour as Hart and Cohle direct their attention to a five-year-old missing-persons case, a little girl named Marie Fontenot, after she was mentioned by one of the locals. Authorities believe she is in the care of her father, and during a visit to see her uncle Danny Fontenot (Christopher Berry), his caretaker echoed their beliefs. Cohle searches the property for potential evidence, and while in a shed, stumbles upon a twig sculpture eerily similar to those discovered at the Dora Lange murder scene.


Production


Development

Nic Pizzolatto Nicholas Austin Pizzolatto (born October 18, 1975) is an American writer, producer and director. He is best known for creating the HBO crime drama series ''True Detective''. Early life Pizzolatto was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is of It ...
, a writer and series creator, delved into
fiction writing Fiction writing is the composition of non-factual prose texts. Fictional writing often is produced as a story meant to entertain or convey an author's point of view. The result of this may be a short story, novel, novella, screenplay, or drama, ...
and published a novel, titled ''Galveston'' (2010), before being appointed as a screenwriter for
AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...
's '' The Killing'' the following year. It was around this time that Pizzolatto was preparing to branch out into television, an endeavor that, due to a lack of capital, was never fully realized. He had already begun writing ''True Detective'' as his next novel, but later, once the project took definite form, felt it was more suitable on screen. "I'd always had plans from the first time I'd talked to an agent from Hollywood, I was going to ask how you break into this business, and particularly cable-TV writing, because in television the writer stays in control, which is what the concept of show runner is", he remembers. Pizzolatto pitched ''Galveston'' to several executives, and from May to July 2010, he drafted six screenplays, including a
spec script A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or ...
for "The Long Bright Dark" which consumed 90 pages. Shortly thereafter, he secured a development deal with HBO for a potential pilot series. Pizzolatto's stint with ''The Killing'' provided him a glimpse of the inner workings of the television industry, but grew increasingly dissatisfied with the show's creative direction, eventually leaving the writing staff two weeks into the program's second season. "I want to be the guiding vision. I don't do well serving someone else's vision. I'm not at my best there, and I don't think I’m worth as much to the people who pay me." He soon directed his attention to working on another script for the ''True Detective'' project, encouraged by
Anonymous Content Anonymous Content (AC) is an American entertainment company founded in 1999 by CEO Steve Golin. It is based in Los Angeles with offices in Culver City, New York City and London. History Anonymous Content was founded in 1999 by CEO Steve Gol ...
.
Alejandro González Iñárritu Alejandro González Iñárritu (; American Spanish: ; credited since 2016 as Alejandro G. Iñárritu; born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker and screenwriter. He is primarily known for making modern psychological drama films about the hu ...
was initially expected to be appointed as director, but film commitments later forced him to pull out of the project. Pizzolatto instead approached
Cary Joji Fukunaga Cary Joji Fukunaga (born July 10, 1977) is an American filmmaker. He first gained recognition for writing and directing the 2009 film '' Sin nombre'' and the 2011 adaptation of ''Jane Eyre''. He was the first director of partial East Asian des ...
, who he knew from Anonymous Content, to take up the task. Fukunaga spent time conducting research with a homicide detective of the
Louisiana State Police The Louisiana State Police (French: Police d’Etat de Louisiane) is the state police agency of Louisiana, which has jurisdiction anywhere in the state, headquartered in Baton Rouge. It falls under the authority of the Louisiana Department of P ...
's Criminal Investigations Division in preparation for his services. Based on the officer's own personal experiences, the director was able to develop "a nice sense of what it must be like to be a detective in Louisiana—especially in that time period in the '90s, which was pre-cell phone, and technology was about to change the way we all live our lives. That's what I did. I'm not a big serial killer studier—I've never analyzed books about that kind of stuff and I've never really watched procedurals. Those parts of the story were the least attractive to me; I was doing it mainly for the characters."


Casting

McConaughey and Harrelson were among a small pool of actors considered suitable candidates for top billing. Producers contracted McConaughey, who had recently finished filming '' Killer Joe'' (2011), well before ''True Detective'' was greenlit by HBO. Pizzolatto, impressed with the actor's performance in ''
The Lincoln Lawyer ''The Lincoln Lawyer'' is a 2005 novel, the 16th by American crime writer Michael Connelly. It introduces Los Angeles attorney Mickey Haller, half-brother of Connelly's mainstay character Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. It was adapted as ...
'' (2011), originally assigned him the role of Martin Hart, but McConaughey offered "a really compelling argument" for portraying Rustin "Rust" Cohle. When asked about his decision to switch parts in a ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' interview, McConaughey replied: "I wanted to get in that dude’s head. The obsession, the island of a man—I’m always looking for a guy who monologues. It’s something really important as I feel I’m going into my better work." To prepare, the actor studied his character through what he described the "Four Stages of Rustin Cohle", a 450-page document he created detailing Rustin's evolution over the course of the story. Meanwhile, Harrelson was attached to the role of Martin under McConaughey's recommendation. Having previously starred in the HBO film ''
Game Change ''Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime'' is a book by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin about the 2008 United States presidential election. Released on January 11, 2010, it was a ...
'' (2012), Harrelson gravitated to the project due in part to his colleagues; "I love Matthew. He's my brother. He's a phenomenal, amazing person. And I love Michelle onaghan I've known her many, many years. Cary ukunagais a terrific director. And Nic izzolattowrote this phenomenal script that you just couldn’t put down. His writing is so amazing." Monaghan was chosen to play the female lead, Martin Hart's wife Maggie; the actress took an interest in ''True Detective'' as she realized her character arc and "really saw where these characters went." Potts acted as Detective Maynard Gilbough, and Kittles played his partner Detective Thomas Papania.


Filming

The initial location for
principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...
for ''True Detective'' was
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
; however, Pizzolatto later opted to film in southern
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
to capitalize on generous statewide tax incentives and the area's distinctive landscape, which he felt illustrated a striking paradox. "There's a contradictory nature to the place and a sort of sinister quality underneath it all," the native Louisianan noted. "Everything lives under layers of concealment. The woods are thick and dark and impenetrable. On the other hand you have the beauty of it all from a distance." "The Long Bright Dark" and subsequent episodes were shot in 35 mm film, and principal photography for the season consumed 100 consecutive days. The crew filmed exterior shots at a remote sugarcane field outside of Erath, Louisiana which, because it was partially burned, inspired a "moody and atmospheric" backdrop for corresponding scenes. Fukunaga recruited Adam Arkapaw, previously director of photography for ''
Top of the Lake ''Top of the Lake'' is a mystery drama television series created and written by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee, and directed by Campion and Garth Davis. It aired in 2013, and the sequel, entitled ''Top of the Lake: China Girl'', in 2017. It mark ...
'', as project cinematographer and employed minimalistic lighting for layering composition. Also involved in production was Alex DiGerlando, who Fukunaga had previously worked with on
Benh Zeitlin Benjamin Harold Zeitlin (; born October 14, 1982) is an American filmmaker, best known for writing and directing the 2012 film '' Beasts of the Southern Wild'', for which he received two Academy Award nominations. Early life Zeitlin was born in ...
''Glory at Sea'' (2008). The director remarked in an interview, "I knew what Alex accomplished in the swamps of Louisiana and given some money, how much more amazing he could be in building sets that would just be used for one or two days and be abandoned again."


Reception


Ratings

In its initial American broadcast, "The Long Bright Dark" was seen by an estimated 2.3 million viewers. It was the highest rated series premiere out of any HBO program in the last four years, falling behind only the
series premiere A series premiere is the first aired installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. In the United States, many series premieres are aired in the fall time or, for mid-season replacements, either in the spring or ...
of '' Boardwalk Empire'', which drew 4.8 million viewers. The episode performed exceptionally well with adults between the ages of 18 and 49, recording a 1.0 rating in that demographic. "The Long Bright Dark" was the fifth highest rated cable telecast of the night by total viewership. The United Kingdom terrestrial premiere was broadcast on February 22, 2014, by
Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HB ...
, garnering 707,000 viewers.


Critical response

"The Long Bright Dark" was critically acclaimed by most critics. Tim Goodman from ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'' said Fukunaga develops "a beautiful, sprawling sense of place" in the premiere, and identified the ensemble and the writing, which he believed "undulates from effectively brash soliloquies to penetratingly nuanced moments carried by sparse prose", as two of its other most satisfying attributes. Marshall Crook of ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' agreed, writing the show hits the mark with "good acting, smart writing, and lush cinematography". Willa Paskin of '' Slate'' described the episode as "creepy, gorgeous, unsettling, and searching" and noticed "a literary quality, an accretion of meaningful detail" within the show's narrative. ''
The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
'' Andrew Romano said the premiere, together with the former half of the season, compose "one of the most riveting and provocative series I've ever seen", while ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' critic Jeff Jensen called it "an enthralling murder mystery about history, culture, and heroic character". Brian Lowry, reviewing for ''Variety'', called "The Long Bright Dark" a "rich and absorbing" episode where ''True Detective'' immediately assumes a unique identity from other police procedurals, and wrote the cast ensemble consisted of "fine players on the periphery". Writing in ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'', Robert Bianco felt McConaughey and Harrelson not only met, but occasionally even exceeded "enormously high" performance expectations of the "golden age of TV acting". David Wiegand of the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'' singled out the duo as being "in a class of their own", and ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' journalist Robert Lloyd thought the character work from the two men was of "a very high order". Sarah Rodman of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', though found the program's grim tone to be occasionally excessive, opined that the two men successfully engaged audiences enough to invest in the series with their performances. Monaghan also received kudos from Rodman for her work in the episode. Additional praise for ensemble performances, chiefly for McConaughey and Harrelson, came from ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
''
James Poniewozik James "Jim" Poniewozik (; born July 12, 1968) is an American journalist and television critic. He is the chief TV critic for ''The New York Times''. Earlier in his career, he wrote ''Time'' magazine's ''Tuned In'' column for 16 years. Early life ...
, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' critic Mike Hale, Curt Wagner in '' RedEye'', ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' Sarah Hughes, and Gwilym Mumford of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. Bianco said the show avoided character stereotypes, and
Alan Sepinwall Alan Sepinwall (born October 19, 1973) is an American television reviewer and writer. He spent 14 years as a columnist with ''The Star-Ledger'' in Newark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news website HitFix. He ...
in
HitFix HitFix, or HitFix.com, was an entertainment news website that launched in December 2008 specializing in breaking entertainment news, insider information, and reviews and critiques of film, music, and television. In mid-2010 HitFix crossed the 1,00 ...
felt Cohle and Hart developed into such riveting characters "that they paper over some of the series' weaknesses". ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'' critic Chris Harvey awarded "The Long Bright Dark" five out of five stars, hailing ''True Detective'' as "the most ambitious TV drama for a long time". Not all critics were as enthusiastic in their reviews of "The Long Bright Dark". Hale, despite commending the flashback narrative, believed the dialogue devolved into "a languid character study and a vehicle for long-winded exchanges about religion and responsibility that are writerly in the worst way." Chris Cabin from '' Slant Magazine'' agreed that the writing too readily "defers to an earnest, rote view of bad religion", but wrote that Pizzolatto and Fukunaga "smartly embrace the pulpiness of their material". Hank Stuever, writing for ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', observed "mumbly, bloodshot fatigue" in the story, and felt the series fell short of its ambitions. "In its better moments, ''True Detective'' feels like a fever dream, but mostly it’s just groggy," Stuever concluded.
Emily Nussbaum Emily Nussbaum (born February 20, 1966) is an American television critic. She served as the television critic for ''The New Yorker'' from 2011 until 2019. In 2016, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Early life Nussbaum was born in the ...
of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' was especially critical of the show and claimed it relished in "macho nonsense".


References


External links


"The Long Bright Dark"
at HBO * {{DEFAULTSORT:Long Bright Dark 2014 American television episodes American television series premieres Fiction set in 1995 Fiction set in 2012 True Detective episodes Television episodes written by Nic Pizzolatto