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Time is a Flat Circle: Examining True Detective, Season One
When it premiered in 2014, the first season of HBO’s True Detective immediately became a pop-culture phenomenon. Created by Nic Pizzolatto and starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, the show reinvigorated the detective genre on television, infusing it with philosophy, metaphysics, and macabre mystery. With this unique mix of elements, True Detective is more than a crime drama – it’s an examination of the illusory nature of self, the corruption of society, the malleable nature of reality, and the meaning (or lack thereof) of life.
In Time is a Flat Circle, Melissa Milazzo examines cross-genre storytelling in the first season of True Detective, while also exploring the season’s literary, cinematic, musical, and comic-book influences. It is a must-have for any True Detective fan.
From Sequart Organization. More info at http://sequart.org
In Time is a Flat Circle, Melissa Milazzo examines cross-genre storytelling in the first season of True Detective, while also exploring the season’s literary, cinematic, musical, and comic-book influences. It is a must-have for any True Detective fan.
From Sequart Organization. More info at http://sequart.org
- GenresPhilosophyNonfictionTv
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 19, 2019
33 people are currently reading
260 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Milazzo
2 books17 followersMelissa Milazzo has worked in the field of scientific publishing, information, and analytics for almost twenty years. She loves stories, storytellers, and the people who support them. She lives in San Diego, California with her novelist husband and two illiterate dogs
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 16, 2019
Deep dive into what made season one special.
What started as a blog post about True Detective as Hard Boiled Detective Fiction has been filled out into almost 200 pages of analysis. Covering such subjects as "True Detective as Noir", "True Detective as Southern Gothic", "True Detective as Cosmic Horror" and more. Including an appendix on the music and how T Bone Burnett carefully picked each song for the series, and a chapter on the influence of graphic novels on True Detective.
What started as a blog post about True Detective as Hard Boiled Detective Fiction has been filled out into almost 200 pages of analysis. Covering such subjects as "True Detective as Noir", "True Detective as Southern Gothic", "True Detective as Cosmic Horror" and more. Including an appendix on the music and how T Bone Burnett carefully picked each song for the series, and a chapter on the influence of graphic novels on True Detective.
August 24, 2021
This is a piece of provocative non-fiction that addresses many of the themes, motifs, and philosophies addressed in Season 1 of True Detective. IN doing this, it also addresses certain aspects of anthropology, postmodernism, nihilism, psychology, forms of literature, theories about time and the universe, death, good vs evil, religion, and so forth. I found it completely fascinating and read it several times before I decided to mark it as read and give it a slight review here. I watched True Detective Season 1 several times and it was so brilliant, some of the best writing I have ever encountered on a TV show, that I was just mesmerized. It was also daunting as my current WIP was about many of the same things and I was left with a personal dilemma. What to do about my project. In the end I have chosen to move the setting and restart the project. I can smile now, but for months, I could not smile at all. Starting over is hard.
One of the most beautiful conclusions I came to watching this series and reading this book over and over is how PLACE and FAMILY HISTORY, really has a power over our personal predicament, even if we are unaware. And perhaps, it is almost determinism, which is not fashionable at the moment and not going to make my review likable. That said, I often went to evolutionary psychology books and to other psychology books while rereading this little book on examining True Detective Season 1 and I became very fixed in knowing that place and family history, evolutionary biology and our own biases determine so much of our stories. But place is essential on how we will view the world. And I find that absolutely uncanny.
In conclusion, I do not believe Time is a Flat Circle. I do not embrace nihilism, even while I do recognize determinism, after all my background is Biological Anthropology which is Darwinism and Evolution. And I firmly believe in the idea that the past is never past. So there.
I cannot recommend True Detective Season 1 enough and this book is a very good book. And I love it. It has made my Beloved Shelf. RECOMMENDED.
One of the most beautiful conclusions I came to watching this series and reading this book over and over is how PLACE and FAMILY HISTORY, really has a power over our personal predicament, even if we are unaware. And perhaps, it is almost determinism, which is not fashionable at the moment and not going to make my review likable. That said, I often went to evolutionary psychology books and to other psychology books while rereading this little book on examining True Detective Season 1 and I became very fixed in knowing that place and family history, evolutionary biology and our own biases determine so much of our stories. But place is essential on how we will view the world. And I find that absolutely uncanny.
In conclusion, I do not believe Time is a Flat Circle. I do not embrace nihilism, even while I do recognize determinism, after all my background is Biological Anthropology which is Darwinism and Evolution. And I firmly believe in the idea that the past is never past. So there.
I cannot recommend True Detective Season 1 enough and this book is a very good book. And I love it. It has made my Beloved Shelf. RECOMMENDED.
January 12, 2019
Fascinating!
September 28, 2019
Melissa Milazzo takes a deep dive into the psyche that inspires the show's most complex themes, and looks at them through a historical and philosophical lens.
She deconstructs the shows allegories in a way that reveals the true potential of True Detective S1. Not only is her writing charming and brilliant, but her poetic analysis made me want to rewatch the season with the book in one hand and the remote in the other.
She deconstructs the shows allegories in a way that reveals the true potential of True Detective S1. Not only is her writing charming and brilliant, but her poetic analysis made me want to rewatch the season with the book in one hand and the remote in the other.
March 26, 2022
Fascinating!
An extremely well-researched deep dive into one of the best TV series of all time: True Detective Season 1.
An extremely well-researched deep dive into one of the best TV series of all time: True Detective Season 1.
February 5, 2023
This really didn't work for me. I was far more interested in the original sourcing for the show such as In the dust of the planet or The conspiracy against the human race. I found the book really just drawing out concepts that were discussed in the show or that have been discussed already.
December 2, 2022
Loved it! Now I need to find analyses of all of my favorite shows.
September 2, 2023
Neat little book about Rust Cohle and mythos, symbolism, philosophy, psychology, etc, of True Detective
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews