True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series

(Hardback)

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Description

Throughout its limited run beginning in 2014, the HBO series True Detective has presented viewers with unique takes on the American crime drama on television, marked by literary and cinematic influences, heavyweight performances, and an experimental approach to the genre. At times celebrated and opposed, the series has ignited a range of ongoing critical conversations about representations of gender, depictions of place, and narrative forms. True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series includes a breadth of scholarly chapters that cross disciplinary boundaries, interrogate a range of topics, and ultimately promise to further contribute to critical debates surrounding the series.

Reviews

Samuel and Stoddart have cultivated a strong collection of conversations surrounding a popular yet often polarizing television series. The first season of True Detective attained wide critical acclaim, whereas the second was panned by viewers and critics alike. However, this anthology impressively complicates the dominant readings of each season (and, in so doing, reclaims meaning and value to the maligned second season) with analyses of the shows representations of gender, space, and morality, offered through literary, cinematic, narrative, thematic, and philosophical lenses. It is a great text for any scholar interested in examining a recent popular culture phenomenon through multiple perspectives. -- Todd M. Sodano, St. John Fisher College
In True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series, scholars explore an exemplar of the preeminent narrative form of our time. These essays sensitively probe issues of genre, performance, and adaptation, revealing True Detectives animation by traditions from the ancient and medieval, to William Faulkner, and Southern Gothic. -- William Mooney, Fashion Institute of Technology

Author Bio

Scott F. Stoddart is associate professor of English and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Peters University. Michael Samuel is doctoral researcher at the University of Leeds.