True Detective Season 1 Ep 3 “Locked Room”: The Slow Burn Network Found a Slow Burn Show

 

True Detective MONSTER

True Detective is a great fire which burns bright. It’s story is already fully formed by the time we are thrusted into it. It’s a complex murder investigation, which at first blush, we come in near the end of.

True Detective was a revelation in 2014 when it appeared. It took the well-worn trope of Detective Drama and played with it in a new—obvious way. Matthew McConaughey plays Rust Cohle, an alcoholic recluse who is both good and bad at his job. Woody Harrelson plays Marty Hart. A man with many secrets…

The first 3 episodes concern the hunting of a monster. Really just an overdramatic term for “A man who murders people brutally.” So, he doesn’t breathe fire or anything. He doesn’t fly. He just hides.

Game of Thrones Monster

I like HBO. I like their slow burn technique. But, it has to pay off.

Game of Thrones or Dan Carlin: Better History?

How do I like my history? Dan Carlin has me asking that question over and over. He's a podcaster who is educating the world about history. He often takes very deep dives into important events. And even though it's an audio-only medium, it's often engrossing.



Game of Thrones didn't happen, but it can still be very illuminating.



The Battle of the Bastards feels like an authentic representation of what a high middle age society and politics, here, here, and this.

Game of Thrones shows better than conventional historians tell.

Here, we see precisely how Dark Age rulers could instantly destroy an old family, thereby changing the politics of a realm well into the modern age. This is a literal time saver!

But, there are drawbacks. 


Dragons, after all, aren't real. And they are major players in the series. As is magic. 

But it's still a fantastic way to examine the Dark Age mentality. 

Alien: Covenant

I have a problem. I’m a Game of Thrones addict reviewing movies.  

Alien Covenant is a fun ride you’ve ridden before. It is the sequel to 2012’s Prometheus. The two movies form the basis of a prequel to the series of Alien films which began in the 1970s.

Okay. I see that, and now I know that nothing is truly new or inventive in Hollywood. Which is why when you see a twist, you need to grab a hold of it. Movies are getting harder to sit through. I have literally seen a film have to set up its comic book street cred as a way to convince an increasingly skeptical audience $15 to see a movie.

Read that again. $15! Why? Were we entertained? What did we learn?

What I learned was never deploy the TWIST TOO EARLY!

Gentle reader, there’s still movie at the end of the twist! I just want to lock Ridley Scott in a room with the Game of Thrones series! Ridley! This is how you do a twist! Don’t show us that your metaphorical girl can’t be burned with a half hour left, Ridley!  FAIL!

Links:

Alien: Covenant

Prometheus