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True Detective’s Ending and the Anthology Format

By Reuben Levine

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True Detective isn’t the only anthology show on the block. The format is actually gaining a surprising amount of traction, between True Detective, Fargo, and American Horror Story, there’s a lot go around. It’s a format that’s a mixed-bag for viewers, with both Fargo and True Detective choosing to use new actors and tell new stories.

Every season of True Detective becomes an increasingly larger gamble. With no ties to previous seasons, True Detective has to tell a complete story in eight episodes from scratch. A reset button is effectively hit at the end of each season, and if the one before wasn’t a smash, fewer people will return for the next, regardless of the A-list actors involved.

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The fact that True Detective’s first season had to wrap every thread by the end of the season was damaging. It left us with a villain that turned out to be much less engaging than initially thought, and we also get an out of character moment of optimism from Rust.

The last two or three episodes of True Detective’s first season are its weakest, and this is at least partially due to the constraints of the format. The anthology format is limiting by nature, but we still expect a fulfilling story from it.

Being an anthology is True Detective’s biggest weakness. Even if the second season can’t top the first, it can at least make sure that the ending is worth sticking around for. Those that didn’t enjoy the rushed ending of the first season won’t come back for round two, and that’s a problem that will keep growing as long as True Detective sticks to its guns.

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