The Unanswered Questions of 'True Detective'

When the first season of True Detective appeared in 2014, we were living in a different era of television—before auteur series and anthologies were commonplace, when seeing movie stars on the small screen still meant something, when a writer’s or a director’s vision could be so novel as to draw millions to their proverbial water coolers. It wasn’t just a buttoned-up Woody Harrelson and a gaunt and philosophical Matthew McConaughey that lured us in, but the layered timelines, the potentially cosmic intrigue, Nic Pizzolatto’s indulgent verbosity, and Cary Joji Fukunaga’s absorbing camera.