‘True Detective’ star Mahershala Ali: One troubled man, three eras in HBO’s Season 3

LOS ANGELES – In just two seasons, HBO’s “True Detective” has established a signature brand: dark criminal mysteries that explore the psyches of obsessive investigators who can’t let them go.

But Season 3 (two-hour premiere Sunday, 9 EST/PST), which centers on an Arkansas state police detective (Mahershala Ali) searching for two missing children, offers a new ingredient: hope.

“There’s a light about this season,” especially in later episodes,” says Ali, 44, who plays investigator Wayne Hays at three points in his life. “There’s a hope in this one that’s very different from the previous seasons.”  

Series creator Nic Pizzolatto agrees. “I’m not even sure this is properly noir, given where it goes.”

Don’t worry. “Detective” isn’t turning into a rom-com. There’s still brooding atmosphere, a tragic crime, tangential casualties and collateral psychological damage to all who come into contact with the initial crime and investigation.

“It’s not the kind of show where you watch five episodes in a single day,” says Ali, an Oscar winner for 2016’s “Moonlight” who won a Golden Globe Sunday for his performance in “Green Book.” 

Season 3 arrives with much anticipation, partly because of the roller-coaster reaction to the first two editions. The 2014 inaugural effort, which featured Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson pursuing a serial killer over two decades through the Louisiana bayou, became an award-winning phenomenon.

With the bar set so high, many found major disappointment in 2015’s Season 2, which starred Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams and Taylor Kitsch as police officers and Vince Vaughn as a bad guy, all following the trail left by a corrupt city manager’s death through dreary stretches of Los Angeles.

Pizzolatto, who wrote most of the eight episodes and makes his directing debut, acknowledges the criticism.

Source: Read Full Article