James Delingpole James Delingpole

Is True Detective worth sticking with? The jury’s out

Where others see weaknesses, I see strengths. (But it's also giving me déjà vu...)

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey in True Detective [©2013 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved.] 
issue 08 March 2014

I’ve got this brilliant idea for a major new cop series. It’s called Chalk and Cheese and, though you won’t have guessed this from the title, it’s about these detective partners who couldn’t be more different. Why, they’re like two incredibly dissimilar things, one, maybe an edible, milk-based product, the other some manner of mineral that you use to write with. Chocolate and Graphite: that’s another possible title, then.

So, anyway, what I thought is that one of the characters would be a normal, sensible family-man type. And the other, by way of humorous and dramatic contrast, would be completely out there. He could be addicted to drugs and alcohol, borderline autistic, psychologically damaged, a chain-smoker, a grumpy, antisocial sod too — but redeemed by his extraordinary insights into the criminal mind. Almost, perhaps, because he’s so dangerously close to being a psycho himself.

Well, it definitely worked for Sherlock, didn’t it? And now it appears to be working, too, for the latest hot HBO series from the US — True Detective.

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