I'm loving True Detective's existential anti-religious honesty

HBO"s True Detective features Detectives Rustin Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson). It's a cop show like no other.

My wife and I are loving it. It's gritty and bleak, yet so marvelously acted and philosophically intriguing, we eagerly look forward to new episodes. 

Rustin Cohle breaks new ground for broadcast television. I've never heard a major TV show character speak about religion and the meaninglessness of existence in such an honest, philosophically-sophisticated way. 

Here's an example from the episode we watched a few days ago. Cohle and Hart are following up a lead in their investigation of a grisly ritualistic murder, which might be connected with an evangelistic preacher.

After arriving at a tent revival in rural Louisiana, they engage in a fascinating back-and-forth. Hart (Harrelson) is no saint. He believes in God, though, and defends religiosity. Cohle (McConaughey) has a dark perspective on life.

Watch the video of the tent scene, which, a bit over half way through, includes a flash-forward glimpse of an interview session with Cohle many years later. (The detectives are investigating another murder.) Cohle obviously has changed in appearance a lot. His worldview, though, doesn't seem to have altered much.

 

I found the initial dialogue in the tent revival scene so interesting, I transcribed it. Here it is.

Cohle: What do you think the average IQ of this group is, huh? 

Hart: Can you see Texas up there on your high horse? What do you know about these people?

Cohle: Just observation and deduction. I see a propensity for obesity, poverty, a yen for fairy tales. Folks putting what few bucks they do have into little wicker baskets being passed around. I think it’s safe to say that nobody here is going to be splitting the atom, Marty. 

Hart: You see that, your fucking attitude. Not everybody wants to sit alone in an empty room, beating off to murder manuals. Some folks enjoy community, the common good/

Cohle: Well, if the common good got's to make up fairy tales, then it’s not good for anybody. 

Hart: I mean, can you imagine if people didn’t believe, what things they would get up to?

Cohle: Exact same things they do now, it’s just out in the open.

Hart: Bull-shit! It’d be a fucking freak show of murder and debauchery, and you know it. 

Cohle: If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then brother, that person is a piece of shit, and I’d like to get as many of them out in the open as possible. 

Hart: Well, I guess your judgement is infallible, piece-of-shit-wise. You think that notebook is a stone tablet? [Cohle habitually carries around a large ledger-size notebook for his detective notes.]

Cohle: What’s it say about life? We get together, tell yourself stories that violate every law of the universe, just to get through the goddamn day? What’s that say about your reality, Marty? 

Hart: When you get to talking like this, you sound panicked.  

A Wall Street Journal piece, "The most shocking thing about HBO's 'True Detective,'" persuasively argues that Cohle's philosophizing is virtually identical to a weird fiction work by Thomas Ligotti. The piece includes this speechifying by Cohle in another True Detective scene.

I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in human evolution. We became too self aware; nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law. We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, a secretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody’s nobody. I think the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal. 

The bold-faced lines are almost exact reflections of Ligotti's writing. 

[Update: just came across a video of the great Episode 1 scene where Hart decides to ask his new'ish partner, Cohle, what he believes in. They've just started investigating the grisly murder. I love Hart's "And now, I'm begging you to just shut the fuck up!" line. Watch below.]

 

I don't feel anywhere near as bleak as Cohle does about human consciousness or the meaning of life. Yet almost always my wife and I find ourselves resonating more with Cohle, than with his partner, Hart.

It's refreshing to see something closely akin to our worldview being prominently featured in a major television show. The Wall Street Journal piece ends with:

As my friend and colleague Marshall Crook suggested in his review of the second episode, the series could end up “as bleak as it gets” following the lead of Chambers and Lovecraft — even if there is no supernatural element, and there doesn’t appear to be — as well as a philosophy similar to Ligotti’s.

Yet, it could also be revolutionary television. Millions of viewers are hearing Cohle’s worldview weekly, and many might just find that it makes some kind of troubling sense.

Comments

[Sandra]

I'll keep an eye out for it on TV, but it'd be nice if for once they'd actually highlight the happiness being a non-believer actually brings. This show seems to make him sound kind of bleak about it, when it is the opposite for me. When you're kind to others because it feels good and you're not worrying about earning brownie points in the afterlife (or losing points by violating mores of decrepit or dead cultures), it is quite uplifting and rejuvenating. And we thrive being part of a community of naturally supportive, loving, critical thinkers.

Sorry, not preaching, but I do follow and enjoy your tweets/blogs, and wanted to comment. Love your thoughts!

[Brian Hines]

Sandra, you're right. Cohle comes across as a tortured soul. Or rather, a non-soul with a tortured outlook on life. I wouldn't call him a happy guy, for sure. Yet neither is his partner. In fact, nobody is in the episodes I've seen so far.

This isn't a feel-good television series. But it has a lot of gritty honesty in it, and makes people think. Which is good.

[cc]

...it'd be nice if for once they'd actually highlight the happiness being a non-believer actually brings. Sandra

Cohle comes across as a tortured soul. Or rather, a non-soul with a tortured outlook on life. I wouldn't call him a happy guy, for sure. Brian

One of the things this TV crime drama shows about religion is that for believers, happiness is idiocy.

[Willie R.]

I do not think that being a non-believer brings happiness. There actually is nothing to be happy about from the get go. But, on the other hand, there is no reason to feel miserable about things, either. There is nothing at stake. Once that becomes crystal clear, all of the twaddle occurring in the cerebral cortex can be discounted. You just play with it, the way a cat plays with a bird it is slowly killing.

[cc]

...all of the twaddle occurring in the cerebral cortex can be discounted. You just play with it, the way a cat plays with a bird it is slowly killing.

Wherever the twaddle is occurring, the cat discounting it is slowly dying while killing time finding ways to make it interesting.

[Nietzsche]

The end is not that anti-religious ;)

[Brian Hines]

Yeah, the end bothered me somewhat. Didn't seem like Cohle, to get all lovey-dovey at the end. This review of the final episode pretty much reflects my reaction. Excerpt:
http://www.tv.com/shows/true-detective/community/post/true-detective-yellow-king-form-and-void-finale-review-season-1-episode-8-139409705892/
---------------------------

"But it was the final minutes of "Form and Void" that saw those lines firmly etched into the ground. Our two men were still recovering from their battle wounds in the hospital when True Detective delivered an oddball of a twist ending that I don't think anyone expected.

Rust Cohle went sentimental on us! Cohle's near-death experience had a profound effect on his psyche, and as Cohle sat in his wheelchair looking like he just got out of a meat grinder, he told Marty that he was looking at his night-sky metaphor (light vs. dark) all wrong. "Once there was only dark," he said, peering up at the faint stars. "If you ask me, the light's winning."

Rust Cohle, the man who could look at a puppy and only see a trip to the vet to put the dog down in 12 years, had hope. HOPE! Cohle's words were captured on the season's final shot, a long hold on the night sky as stars shone brighter and brighter. It was almost enough to draw a tear. Almost.

I'm not entirely sure that ending worked, but I give True Detective an A-plus for effort and I loved how it broke expectations. When I think about how I will remember Rust Cohle, one of television's best characters of all time, it will be the man who amassed a beer-can-man army as his minions against his interrogators.

It will be the man who spoke of flat circles, bad men, and suicide suggestions. His final revelation of hope will be a footnote in my memory even though it shouldn't be, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm enamored with the Rust Cohle of old (1995 and 2002, specifically) or if it's because I want True Detective to be that dark, Nihilistic show that thrilled me through the first five or six episodes.

And maybe it's because I'm not entirely sure I even believe him. It could be the pain meds talking for all I know. It's just an abrupt turn to take everything we knew about a man—Rust was defined by that fatalistic attitude—and spin it on its head in a series' final minute. But gosh darnit, it still warmed my heart even if it was sudden and cheesy. I like to think Cohle took that positive attitude straight to the nearest watering hole and put down a celebratory six pack of Lone Star."

[Nietzsche]

Hmm ok, it was a marvelous show. It reminded me of the dark twist in the movie Prisoners. At the moment I like these twists :)

[observer]

Hi Brian,

Haven't seen this cop show you are talking about. Hope you don't mind if I post this excerpt about the rush we experience when watching exciting thriller type movies, TV shows, also emotional porn shows, they can become quite addictive.

"The Slide and Adrenalin

I have alluded to a ladder- but now I would like for you to imagine a slide. Going “up” the slide takes some effort. You must go up the steps, higher and higher until you reach the top. One may then position themselves in such a manner so to enjoy the ride downward. This downward “thrill” is brief but exhilarating. The slide provides a good physical example of going from a higher state to a lower state and the ensuing thrill from moving in this downward fashion.

There are also many examples of the slide analogy within the spiritual realm. Turn on any news station and you will soon be bombarded with “energy dropping” stories that create a sort of “rush” –a rush that, curiously enough, is habit forming. These news sources often report stories of tragedy and high drama. So severe are these stories they actually can cause the body to produce an adrenalin related “rush” or high. Once again we find ourselves “sliding” down that imaginary slide and into a lower vibrational state. The “mainstream” news networks have created legions of adrenalin junkies. The “sleepers” are their primary target.

During the course of their day, the sleepers gradually build their energy level back up. But soon they find themselves back on that hypothetical slide and are sent swooshing down once again into a lower energy state. It’s a vicious, repeating cycle that keeps the sleepers fast asleep and drunk happy on adrenalin."

[Nietzsche]

Adrenaline is only a by product. What i like in this movie is that certain characters are playing certain psychological profiles. I identify and learn by watching them. Looking at things differently. There is a lot about relations in this movie, you recognise the problems, ponder on what love is etc. Your view on everything is quit one dimensional in my opinion.

[observer]

Nietzsche,

"Your view on everything is quit one dimensional in my opinion"

You couldn't be more wrong. My view encompasses a wide variety of information, from many different avenues. I'm now very aware of programming and conditioning, especially in the different forms of media and the control system in the world. My viewpoint has changed considerably since I was initiated over 45 years ago by Charan.

Since the advent of the internet I've explored everything from the new age movement (which I can now see will become the new one world religion) to all the different kinds of alternative thinking and 'out there' viewpoints. Yesterday I watched the fascinating 2013 science fiction film called "Her" which examines (in my pov) the movement towards trans-humanism which humans are facing and also explores human relationships in a very comprehensive way.

The quote I posted in my comment above was something I found interesting and obviously resonated with and thought others reading here might also find interesting. But its only a very small portion of what I find interesting. I also keep in mind to be careful to remain within the blog master's perimeters of what he finds acceptable on this blog. I don't think Brian would like my really 'out there' interests :)

[Nietzsche]

Hi Observer you are right I was judging.

But about that movie 'Her'. I hope you don't mind my opposing viewpoint. What I think I see is that humanity is trying to control nature with their mind. Science helped in modelling nature as an abstract space-time where everything is dominated by laws. The computer is the next step in controlling human emotion through a system of laws. Bottom line is 'we are so afraid of what we are'.

Uncontrollable will to live and to power and love. We are making nature very complicated so that we can hide not understanding her. The real her is not a computer program it is your own nature, your feelings your incredible being that can be shared with others.

About conspiracies. I don't know but perhaps some control freaks are trying to control us even more into the ultimate fear machines they feed on. Don't know.

I realise my thouhts are just like loose sand.

[observer]

Hi Neitzsche,

I wondered if you have heard of Richard Alan Miller who is also a Charan initiate, he's mentioned this a couple of times in interviews. Interesting fella, physicist, worked for Navy Intel and has a lot of info to share.

Sorry Brian, off topic!

Cheers