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David Cronenberg Knew Crap When He Saw It, and Turned Down 'True Detective's' Second Season

By Cindy Davis | True Detective | October 2, 2015 |

By Cindy Davis | True Detective | October 2, 2015 |


I have a confession to make: I never finished watching True Detective’s second season. I went on vacation and missed the final two episodes (still sitting on on the DVR), and as much as I tried to muster the wherewithal to see how the series finished out, I just couldn’t do it.

After a while, forgetting about the whole thing felt like a load had been lifted from my shoulders, and as I skimmed the headlines — in case something (True Detective Makes Massive Turnaround!) might prompt me to change my mind — everything I read left me feeling I’d made the right decision to skip it. Turns out I wasn’t the only one whose instincts were right.

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Recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Reykjavik International Film Festival, director (one of my favorites) David Cronenberg (Maps to the Stars, Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, Naked Lunch, Dead Ringers, The Fly, Videodrome, Scanners) acknowledged that while television is hot right now, he walked away from an offer to do the series considered one of 2014’s best.

“”Last year I was approached to direct the first episode of the second season of ‘True Detective,’ I considered it but I thought that the script was bad, so I didn’t do it. In TV, the director is just a traffic cop, but on the other hand it is work and there’s a lot of it.”

Some of us could indeed smell the stench coming from a long way off. And though he’s still attached as an executive producer, Season one director Cary Fukunaga doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to watch, either.

“I haven’t seen it yet, no.

…i’s a different show, different characters, different story. It’s not necessarily my thing anymore. If it was Woody [Harrelson] and Matthew [McConaughey], of course I’d be more quick to watch because I want to see where those characters go. But if it’s all new characters, I can watch it whenever I have time to watch it. Other than the brand, it’s not my show. When I watch it all, I’ll check back in with you. I swear to God, though [raises hand to swear]: I have not seen it yet.”

Just a note, Mr. F.; if you decide to forgo watching all together, your only regret will be not seeing Rachel McAdams’ great performance.


Cindy Davis, (Twitter)