It’s been awhile sinceNic Pizzolattohas been on anyone’s mind and there’s good reason for that. There may be no season of television more intensely derided and difficult to suffer through thanTrue DetectiveSeason 2. Even in the realm of the TV crime procedural, a genre notorious for its undeserved self-importance and male-centric storylines,True DetectiveSeason 2 romanticizes the burden of being a white man with an especial lack of humor and insight. In hindsight, it’s not surprising that it’s taken so long for any concrete news about a third season of Pizzolatto’s series to come about.
To be fair, the writer-director-producer has been keeping himself somewhat busy, even if the work has remained mediocre. He pennedAntoine Fuqua’s bloated remake ofThe Magnificent Sevenand adapted his own novel,Galveston, into a screenplay for actor-directorMelanie Laurent. He was also working on HBO’s planned reboot ofPerry Mason, which is set to starRobert Downey Jr.in the title role, but news has come in over atDeadlinethat his involvement has officially been scrapped. Instead, Pizzolatto is now putting all of his focus onTrue DetectiveSeason 3, which will be led byMoonlightbreakoutMahershala Ali.
In lieu of Pizzolatto, thePerry Masonseries will now be written byRolin JonesandRon Fitzgerald, a scripting team that came out ofWeedsandFriday Night Lights. There’s still no sense as to when Perry Mason will make his return to TV, and the same goes forTrue DetectiveSeason 3, which currently only has Ali and Pizzolatto’s involvement to hang its hat on. Things are likely still coming together but if HBO and Pizzolatto are serious about fixing the issues that plagued Season 2 ofTrue Detective, they better pair the writer with a director. Pizzolatto reportedly wasn’t too keen on the attention thatCary Fukunaga’s work in Season 1 received, despite the fact that the series would have likely been nothing particularly special if not for Fukunaga’s imagery and sense of pacing.
No one is suggesting that Season 3 needs to be exactly like Season 1 but Pizzolatto requires someone to challenge and interpret his writing rather than simply finding the most efficient way to put it on the small screen. The casting of Ali is a great hook and the series has regained my attention - an impressive feat on its own - but what this show needs is dedicated people thinking about how it looks and feels rather than what’s being said. In fact, that’s what most major television series are in dire need of these days.
