TV - True Detective Season 1, Episode 3

Does The Locked Room episode continue to please our twisted Steve? True Detective...

With only two days until the Governor’s Religious-Crimes Task Force is due to take over the Dora Lang case our duo really need a breakthrough. Will it come from religion? After the burning down of the Church of Christ, Cohle (McConaughey) and Hart (Harrelson) visit the mobile site of the church and during a sermon we see not only the difference between the two Detectives but also society in general. Cohle sees the congregation as imbeciles remarking that "No one here is going to be splitting the atom" and commenting on the obesity and I.Q of the churches members. Hart argues that religion is the structure that allows man to be good.

Hart though is not a good man and we see his inner turmoil make more of an appearance this week. He comes home to find Cohle talking to his wife Maggie having mowed the family’s lawn. This leads to a strange confrontation outside where mowing a man’s lawn takes on a whole new meaning at an insanely jealous level. Later, whilst out for the evening, Hart sees Lisa, the lawyer he had his affair with, with a new boyfriend, follows her home and beats up the boyfriend.

Cohle meanwhile has pulled an all-nighter and discovered the file of murdered Rianne Olivier, whose crime is extremely similar to the Dora Lang one. Upon further investigation it turns out that Olivier's ex-boyfriend was a cellmate with Lang's ex-husband before skipping bail. Do the detectives finally have their man?

McConaughey has been an immense presence throughout the series as Rust Cohle and it is a real joy to watch the man act. Harrelson has played the straight man up to this point but his portrayal of Hart the jealous demon, cracking up at the slightest thing, was wonderful. I really hope these two stars do more work together.

A word for the writing as well. Nic Pizzolatto has created a show like no other. It could have been a risk putting so many character traits and plot twists into one show but it has really worked. A dream of a project and one the world should be thankful exists.

Last word to Rust Cohle "A dream that you had inside a locked room. A dream about being a person. And like a lot of dreams there's a monster at the end of it".

All this over footage of a giant man clad only in underwear and gas mask, and with a machete in hand, trudging through a field...

Image - IMDb.