true detective

In light of the impending ultimate episode that's about to go live in less than 24 hours, let me just do a quick spazz of this TV show that blew my damn mind.

I was slightly skeptical about this show at first because we've had enough of this cop-duo-solving-murders genre. In fact, it's so rampant that it gets slightly repulsive because of how cliched and boring it usually gets. Though there's been quite a few gems in this genre the past few years (think End of Watch, Broadchurch), it's mostly been flops. R.I.P.D, anyone? No? Yeah, that's because it was on no one's radar.

This show just works. Everything just clicks into place. Perhaps owing to the fact that it's set in such a desolate place where most people turn to something (usually religion) for some sort of reprise, the premise is incredibly believable. This setting would definitely not work in a place like New York. And the fact that the case spans for close to 20 years adds another layer of realism to it; some murder cases are never solved even after centuries. And all this about how people of power abuse their authority rings so absolutely true that it just hurts. Because somewhere, you know that crimes like these happened. Are happening. And will probably continue to happen. Which makes this such a compelling drama.

But at the heart of it all, the main element that probably drew viewers in was the acting. Oh god, the fucking acting. It is phenomenal. Backed by the, basically, mind-blowing writing. There's been few nihilistic characters on TV and Rust is so damn interesting. He would probably be so tiring to be around in real life, what with his random off-the-grid rants about how TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE. Also, Marty, who thinks he's the definitive image of wholesome family guy, when he's so far removed from that he doesn't even know because he only cares about appearances. So good and heart-wrenching. It's weird when I actually care more about the character than the plot. If I never find out who the Yellow King is, I don't even care. I just want Rust and Marty to be friends again after that 2002 incident. Characters that I have grown deeply attached to and I can't believe I won't see them again after this last episode!!!!

I have high hopes for season 2 and I definitely hope that it would feature female detectives. Strong empowering female characters are so few and far between and I'm confident that Nic Pizzolatto won't let them down if they ever came to fruition.

the monuments men

Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, "The Monuments Men" is an action-thriller focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys -- seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 -- possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind's greatest achievements. 

Though this film has an interesting and remarkable premise (you hardly hear about art being pilfered by Hitler during the war), the movie was a slight let down. I can't quite place my finger on what is wrong here - perhaps it was that the climax of the movie was not much of a climax at all, and that we didn't really know what the characters were doing. Moral dilemmas raised throughout the movie were not addressed in a way that made the audience feel that all this saving art was worth it (culture is such an overarching concept that vague doesn't even begin to describe it), and we do not know exactly why these group of people were chosen to do what they did. Clooney could have done leaps better if he dared to take some risks and gave a more defined reason for choosing to save art during war, when lives would have meant so much more.