THE CAST IN SIX DEGREES OF JERRY ORBACH

Matthew McConaughey was in Killer Joe with Gina Gershon who was in Out for Justice with Jerry Orbach.

Woody Harrelson was in Indecent Proposal with Seymour Cassel who was in Manna from Heaven with Jerry Orbach.

Michael Potts was in Diggers with Maura Tierney who was in Dead Women in Lingerie with Jerry Orbach.

Tory Kittles was in Phone Booth with Svetlana Efremova who was in Prince of Central Park with Jerry Orbach.

Michelle Monaghan was in Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Angela Bassett who was in F/X with Jerry Orbach.

THE PREMISE

Two Louisiana detectives hunt for a serial killer.

WHAT WORKS

The performances of the Lincoln Lawyer (as Detective Rust Cohle) and Haymitch (as Detective Martin Hart) are compelling, and they have incredible chemistry. If the opening credits of True Blood and Six Feet Under made a baby, it would look just like the opening credits of this show. The show takes place in 1995, and is told in flashback. I don’t know what technology was like in Louisiana in 1995, but at one point Mickey Knox pulls out a walkie-talkie that would make Zach Morris’s cell phone blush with inadequacy. It was the size of a toddler.

This show could also be called Demons, because everyone’s got them. The killer they are hunting for clearly has an issue of some sort, because the first victim we see is a naked girl tied to a tree with antlers. The fuck? Cohle seems batshit crazy, and Hart is cheating on his wife (sexual demons!). HBO doesn’t fuck around when it comes to good drama, however…

WHAT DOESN’T

This show moves at a glacial pace. I thought The Wire was slow, but that show moves at a breakneck pace compared to True Detective. I fell asleep a little more than halfway through the second episode and I wasn’t the slightest bit tired when I started it! This is not made for binge-watching, an hour a week is more than enough. Other than pacing, I only have two complaints about the show. 1. The way Cohle smokes. With every drag he takes, you would think he was about to go under water. He takes the loudest and deepest breath, and it drives me up the wall. 2. The way Hart talks. I didn’t notice it so much in the first episode (guess I couldn’t hear it over Rust’s smoking), but it is rampant in the second. He sounds like he has marbles in his mouth, or a big wad of chew or something. It also drives me crazy, because he sort of picks and chooses how “chewy” he’s going to sound at any minute. They both need to get their shit together.

THE GRADE: B