True Detective can learn from Fargo’s female characters

There wasn’t a whole lot of things that True Detective got wrong in its first season but the way it underwrote the female characters was a criminal act that is hard to forgive. The main defense of the underwritten female characters was that the main characters were males — which makes sense.

More from HBO

• HBO expects House of the Dragon season 2 release in summer 2024
• HBO delays three hit shows to 2025 but one big show is still coming in 2024
• Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty will end its run on HBO
• Winning Time season 2, episode 7 recap: “What Is and What Should Never Be”
• Winning Time season 2, episode 6 recap: “Beat L.A.”

But then along came Fargo and that defense got blown away by the blizzard of success the FX show had. The main reason True Detective’s excuse for underwritten female characters was thanks to toe portrayal of Deputy Molly Solverson by Emmy nominated actress Allison Tolman.

Tolman owned the role of Solverson and not only was it a well acted role but she was a dominating character in the show. For those, like myself, who tried to convince the world that the characters in True Detective were all well written, watching Tolman’s character in Fargo shatters that mirage.

Female characters in True Detective were sort of strong but they were overall expendable pieces of the story. They had their moments, but Tolman was strong and headstrong the entire run for Fargo and that’s something that True Detective can learn from a show that might have beaten it had they gone against one another at the Emmys.