True Detective Season 3 was a blistering case against the true-crime genre

Vulture

Creator Nic Pizzolatto came full circle with the Season 3 finale, says Kenny Herzog. "It’s conceivable that Pizzolatto — blown back by the hostile response to True Detective season two — assessed audience appetites and realized there’d been a shift in how gritty mysteries are told and sold since season one debuted way back in 2014," says Herzog, adding: "That’s where True Detective came full circle this season, reinforcing the series’ familiar themes while tackling its near-obsolescence head-on. Season one was an alchemical wonder, but also well-timed and well-crafted escapism that helped to jolt the cops-and-killers genre out of its procedural coma. Season two was, to put a fine point on it, a cannily cast curiosity. Season three, though, positioned itself as a response to the way in which true crime had, ironically, posed an existential threat to TV fiction about crimes that could be true."

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