One of the best crime thrillers of the century brilliantly combines Bosch‘s procedural drama with traces of Lovecraftian horror. Most crime thrillers stay grounded in realism where they walk through the day-to-day crime-solving endeavors of their central detective characters. Prime Video’s Bosch, too, draws from Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch books and delivers a by-the-books crime thriller.
However, every once in a while, a crime thriller tries to present a mishmash of several genres. While centering its main conflict around a series of murders like conventional detective dramas, such thrillers introduce hints of the supernatural. This narrative direction often proves to be risky because it has the potential to undermine the established grounded stakes.
Despite the risk involved, shows like True Detective season 1 defy genre conventions and merge their murder mystery drama with subtle supernatural elements. Instead of going overboard with the supernatural underpinnings, True Detective season 1 allows its procedural elements to be the primary drivers of its story. While at it, though, it cleverly adopts cosmic horror elements that give it a distinct identity.
True Detective Season 1 Combines Bosch’s Procedural Drama With Lovecraftian Intrigue
At its core, True Detective unfolds a classic hard-boiled detective story, much like Bosch or The Wire. Like Bosch, it features a flawed but brilliant detective character as one of its leads who often develops an unhealthy obsession with solving crime. Although True Detective season 1’s Rust Cohle is far more existential than Harry Bosch, both characters struggle with past traumas and have tainted familial ties.
In both True Detective season 1 and Bosch, catching the central killer and solving the overarching murder mystery is only half the battle. The other half involves dealing with corrupt politicians, protective religious institutions, and internal police politics. Like Bosch, True Detective season 1 also does not shy away from painstaking, mundane police work, which ensures it remains immersive and realistic.
However, despite sharing many similarities with some of the best crime thrillers like Bosch, True Detective season 1 etches its own identity with its hints of cosmic horror. Woody Harrelson’s character, Marty, in True Detective lives in a conventional detective story where he must deal with his own inner demons while fighting the ones that live in the real world.
Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle, however, lives in a world where the lines between the supernatural and the real world often start to blur. He is haunted by visions of spirals from the “other side,” reminding viewers of Lovecraftian tales. While True Detective almost always keeps its mysteries grounded in realism, it hints at the existence of forces that are far beyond human comprehension.
It even draws direct references to The Yellow King and Carcosa, subtly drawing from the mythology from cosmic horror literature. There are scenes where Rust even gets visions of Carcosa and everything that lies in it beyond the human realm.
Even after Rust and Marty solve the mystery behind the overarching crime in True Detective season 1’s ending moments, they only seem to lop off a single branch. The overarching cosmic terror remains untouched, while the heroes remain trapped in a flat circle where they are bound to do everything they have done “over and over and over again—forever.“
True Detective Season 1’s Lovecraftian Undertones Make It One Of The Fascinating Crime Thrillers
Even without the Lovecraftian elements, True Detective season 1 would have worked incredibly well as a conventional crime thriller. Nic Pizzolatto’s writing, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s direction, and the performances of its cast would have still elevated it far above more shows of the genre. However, the traces of cosmic horror give True Detective season 1 a significant edge.
Some might argue that it is unfair to call True Detective Lovecraftian in any capacity because of how subtle its cosmic elements are in season 1. However, Lovecraftian horror has always been more about humanity’s realization that we are microscopic and meaningless in the grand scheme of the universe.
Even without explicitly featuring supernatural aspects, True Detective season 1 explores these themes through Rust Cohle nihilistic world view and one-liners about how “human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution.“
Drifting away from crime thrillers like Bosch, True Detective season 1 somehow executed a rare mishmash of two distinct genres and made it seem like they truly belonged with each other. Yet, when its follow-ups tried to achieve the same, they failed miserably, highlighting how season 1 will always remain the epitome of the Lovecraftian brand of crime thriller storytelling it created.