Should True Detective be More Social?

By Reuben Levine | Jan 6, 2015

We live in a time when just about every television and film has some sort of social network presence. Game of Thrones, for example, is very active with its fan community while filming — actors frequently post photos of themselves on set and there are always behind the scenes clips that precede each new season.

That’s in stark contrast to True Detective, which has no social presence at all. And that’s not hyperbole at work. True Detective, as a production, is just not concerned with fan interaction.

Game of Thrones, being a fantasy series, has a loyal group of viewers and readers that want to be involved. A series like True Detective doesn’t necessarily have that. At least not in the same way.

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But that’s not all that’ going on here. True Detective’s show runner, creator, and sole writer Nic Pizzolatto is a very private person. To compare with another popular 2014 drama, Hannibal, creator Bryan Fuller is very active in social media and is adept at fan communication.

The Hannibal twitter is one of the best TV Twitter accounts currently active, with episode live-tweets and constant interaction with the fan base. But Hannibal also has a group of writers working on the show, and they have their own shared account as Hannibal Writer’s Room.

Nic Pizzolatto’s last tweet was in July.

But what does True Detective really have to gain from being more social? The fan-bases of Game of Thrones and True Detective are very different, and True Detective doesn’t necessarily have to be as dependent on serious fans as Game of Thrones does.

True Detective has an air of aloofness to it; it’s going to do what it’s going to do, and either you’re going to tune in or your note. There is something refreshing about that, even if secrecy can at times be frustrating. But it’s still hard to not yearn for a more open, welcoming True Detective. There is enough intrigue in the series to get fans interested and willing to put themselves out there.

But as of right now, there is no meaningful way for fans to go about it. For better or worse, True Detective exists in a vacuum.

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