Most of the time I was convinced that I'd lost it. But there were other times, I thought I was main-lining the secret truth of the universe.
Does that pretty much describe your state of mind on Sundays this winter. That life is a flat circle. and all your love, all your hate, all your memory, all your pain was a dream that you had inside a locked room?
But we're not in Carcosa, and True Detective only repeats during 3 a.m. reruns on HBO 2. But now that Marty and Rust are gone for good, do you find yourself slicing up cans of Lone Star tallboys into little aluminum people and extinguishing Camels in your Big Hug Mug? There's hope.
While True Detective was a singular delight, we're in the midst of television's latest Golden Age and there are other shows that feature similar joys. Here are five series likely to satisfy your True Detective jones. (Huge spoiler warning for each show, of course, as well as for True Detective itself.)
5. The Walking Dead on AMC
One-Sentence Synopsis: In the Georgia woods after the Zombie Apocalypse, a band of survivors try to outlast hoardes of walkers, only to find out that their fellow humans may pose an even bigger danger.
What It Offers a True Detective Fan: Community; Longevity
If True Detective was the hottest show on television, The Walking Dead is far and away the most popular, among adults. Which means that come Monday morning you can gather around the water cooler and recall Michonne's poetic beheading of a walker in much the same way that you would puzzle over Cohle's latest nihilist soliloquy. And like True Detective, The Walking Dead is no stranger to plot twists, the biggest being the mid-season battle with The Governor which saw the show abandon its stable base at the prison, and send the characters on the road, looking for safety--and each other. But the quality that might be most reassuring to the recently jilted True Detective fan is TWD's staying power. With its immense popularity, The Walking Dead promises to be around for seasons to come, even if a few of your favorite characters might end up buying the farm along the way.
(Addendum: Since I wrote this, The Walking Dead ran an episode that was not only stunning, but might be the series' very best. Here's a link to my spoiler-filled review. Yeah, you oughta watch, then read.)
4.Justified on FX
One Sentence Synopsis: Angsty Marshall Raylan Givens puts Thomas Wolfe to the test, and returns home to Harlan County Kentucky where his boyhood friend Boyd Crowder controls the drug business.
What It Offers a True Detective Fan: Another post-modern Odd Couple
Until Cohle came along, Raylan Givens could claim the crown of television's most existential lawman. Add in the equally edgy antihero Boyd Crowder, who speaks like he swallowed a thesaurus, and Justified's got a lot of the qualities that made True Detective so consistently appealing. Like Hart and Cohle, Raylan and Boyd know each other better than they let on, and need each other more than they'd confess even to themselves. And like True Detective, Justified, is a show with a lot of moving parts, and it often takes some time for all those parts to coalesce, but it's always worth the wait. This season that has been doubly true because the show is approaching its last season next year, so showrunner Graham Yost and friends are now beginning to lay the groundwork for Raylan and Boyd to find themselves in a face off that would make impossible--and delicious--demands on our loyalties.
3.Shameless on Showtime
One Sentence Synopsis: If the Brady Bunch lived paycheck-to-paycheck on the South Side of Chicago, Carol had split, Mike was a hopeless drunk, Greg was genius with a streak of criminality, and Marcia had Joan Harris-like organizational skills...and a taste for cocaine
What's In It for True Detective Fans: Heart; Acting chops
The year's best hour of television--and yes, I'm counting True Detective --is waiting for you on Showtime On Demand. That's episode 6 of Shameless, entitled "Iron City" in which (massive spoiler alert) Fiona Gallagher gets arrested after her three-year old brother ingests cocaine left lying around at an impromptu house party. Emmy Rossum delivers an Emmy-worthy performance as we get a glimpse of what it's like for a civilian to be behind bars for the first time, and how, when you're living near the poverty line, a small mistake can all-but destroy your life. If you liked McConaughey and Harrelson, you'll love Rossum, and William H. Macy, who plays ailing patriarch Frank Gallagher.
P.S. While Shameless has elevated its game, the same can't be said about Showtime's other Sunday night dramedy, House of Lies, which, despite Don Cheadle's brilliance, seems to be channeling the world it depicts: flashy, yes, but there's less than meets the eye.
2. The Americans:
One-Sentence Synopsis: Deep cover Soviet agents live as a normal American family, but find themselves forced to choose between their faux family and Mother Russia.
What It Offers A True Detective fan: Hope
The second season is often crucial in determining a show's fate. Sometimes, the showrunners can tweak a show during that first hiatus and the result is magic. Parks and Recreation is an example of this. Or a show can fall victim to its own success, putting ratings ahead of organic character development. Homeland is a prime example. The Americans is the former rather than the latter. Keri Russell is brilliantly conflicted as she tries to make her family more than just a front. Seeing the fate of another spy family hammers this predicament home to chilling effect. If Nic Pizzolatto can do similarly great work for the second season of True Detective, it'll be something to see.
1. Rectify
One-Sentence Synopsis: An accused murderer is freed from death row by DNA evidence, but many of residents of his small Georgia town remain unconvinced of his innocence.
What it Offers a True Detective fan: More of the same.
When I binge-watched Rectify late last year, I thought it was one of the most unique shows on television. Now, I think it's an awful lot like True Detective. Or, of course, vice versa. Rectify unfolds at a deliberate pace, rewarding your patience with an attention to detail that's rarely seen on TV. The dreamy look, and the hushed tone are like something out of a Terrence Malick film. Or an episode of True Detective. Rectify has its own narrative conceit--it depicts the first week after Daniel Holden's release so slowly it almost feels like real-time. Holden, played by Aden Young, has a fair bit of Cohle in him; like Rust, he'd spent plenty of time away from civilization and alone with his thoughts. Showrunner/writer Ray McKinnon, who starred as Rev. Smith on HBO's Deadwood and clearly learned a thing or two from David Milch in the process, presents some of the most evocative dialogue this side of, well, True Detective. Rectify's second season doesn't premiere until mid June, but until then you might fill your True Detective slot on Sunday night by heading to DVD, Itunes or Netflix to savor a show that shares its sometimes languid tone, its rich language, and moral complexity.
What shows will you turn to now that True Detective is over? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Allen St. John is the author of Newton's Football: The Science Behind America's Game, published by Ballantine Books
