The Season 3 premiere calls to mind Season 1 through timelines and trees, while setting up an original story about one man losing his mind.
[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “True Detective” Season 3, Episode 1, “The Great War and Modern Memory,” and Episode 2, “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.”]
After nearly three-and-a-half years off the air, “True Detective” is back, and it’s traveling back in time — again. The Season 3 premiere introduces Wayne Hays (Mahershala Ali) in three different timelines: In 2015, he’s a retired detective suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, who’s asked to remember what happened during a homicide case from 1980. In this, the oldest timeline, Wayne and his partner Roland West (Stephen Dorff) are tasked with solving a small-town murder: one boy dead, his sister missing — later, in 1990, it appears she’s alive.
These are the basics of creator, writer, and producer Nic Pizzolatto’s new season, but there’s far more going on than that. The premiere, titled “The Great War and Modern Memory,” is grounded in the anthology series’ past — there are plenty of nods to everyone’s favorite season, the first — while establishing a fresh narrative about how memories shape our lives. Wayne isn’t just trying to solve a case. He’s trying to put his life together, and he’ll go spiraling through a painful past to do it.
If time is a flat circle, what happens when the circle cracks?
Everything about the oldest timeline is steeped in histrionic gravitas, starting with the very first shot of the series: the click-clack of the Purcell children’s bicycle spokes. After a brief interlude to introduce Wayne and his case, director Jeremy Saulnier shows us why those loud wheels attract so much of his attention — and the neighbors’. These are the victims, and what happens to them after this fateful bike ride will haunt Wayne for the rest of his life. So attention must be paid to their journey:
Read More:‘True Detective’ Review: Season 3 Gets Back to Basics — and Gets Good Again After Lucy and William Purcell start pedaling, they wave at a young boy who waves back a little too sweetly. Then there’s the neighbor taking down her pumpkin bucket, who waves and smiles at the passing children (who don’t seem to notice her). The “trash man,” as Brett Woodard (Michael Greyeyes) is most commonly known, sees them next, passing by in his ATV without much fanfare. Finally, the high schoolers in their blinding purple VW bug stare ominously at the kiddos (whose bike they’re shown riding later on), in our glimpse at the victims alive. “True Detective” Warrick Page / HBO The time given to this short, simple expedition is lengthy — over four minutes of screen time for an uneventful ride down the road — so one would think these eyewitnesses will play a key part later on. (The neighbor is shown comforting Lucy Parcell after the kids disappear.) But who may not matter as much as how. “True Detective” has never really been about the case, and the premiere’s direction cleverly evokes the primary subject at hand: Wayne himself.