True Detective Season 3: Can David Milch Fix This?

And not David as in the concept of an underdog but literal Davids.

Davids have been behind some of the most successful series in the networks history.

Each show in HBOs unofficial Holy Trinity was produced by a David.

Thats not even to mention Larry David andCurb Your Enthusiasm.

Each show and each David is an inextricable part of both HBO and TV history.

Its Milch, however, who has the most interesting relationship with his former and now current employer.

In the end though none of them panned out and he resumed working with HBO.

experimentsto test what actors will tolerate rather than production of a TV show.

Just take in some of this batshittery from a2006 Slate articleabout the set ofDeadwood.

The lesson to any would-be TV provocateur: Do the research.

And I said, Were not?

And he said, No.

In fact, youre not gonna shoot today at all.

And I said, Okay, and they sent me home.

And I ended up doing, like, nine shows that season.

And three shows the third season.

And you never knew what you were doing.

You had to go out at dawn to rehearse, because David liked to shoot with natural light.

So you rehearsed in the dark at 5 a.m. in pitch black, Tobolowsky said.

You rehearsed with the director of the show, and then David would come in and see the rehearsal.

Why dont you do that scene, but instead, do it as if you were a bird.

And I said, What?

You know, a bird.

He said, Just when you do it, pretend you have wings and could fly and squawk.

Do whatever you want to be a bird.

And he would throw these little things at you.

We never knew what we were doing.

Hes strange off-putting, difficult yet undeniably brilliant and in complete creative control.

Hes like if Ernest Hemingway was raised onPerry Mason,Star TrekandThe Twilight Zone.

In short, hes everything thatTrue Detectives Nic Pizzolatto wants to be.

The first season ofTrue Detectiveis undeniably cool.

In that sense, it perfectly mirrored the personality and temperament of its showrunner.

HBO put a lot of trust in Nic Pizzolatto and for one season at least were rewarded.

Pizzolatto is clearly a guy who believes in the mystic power of writing.

I mean look at this guy.

He dresses like an assassin who kills people through sheer dirty looks while zooming by them on a motorcycle.

It also madeTrue Detectiveseason 2one of the most frustrating and at times laughable seasons of TV in recent memory.

David Milch and Nic Pizzolatto is a match made in heaven, hell, and seedy earthbound heroin den.

Moreso than any two showrunners I can recall in recent history: Pizzolatto and Milch are true believers.

Theyre believers of the written word, art and above all the creative superiority of their own minds.

Theyre remarkably similar in approach but remarkably different in the ways theyve succeeded and failed.

Milch is one of HBOs aforementioned mythical Davids.

And hes never produced a show for the data pipe that was outright bad.

Each of his three biggest achievements (Deadwood,John from CincinnatiandLuck), however ended before their time.

Theres a reason why Brett Martins excellent modernTV retrospective bookDifficult Menis calledDifficult Men.

Pizzolatto on the other hand has known both highs and lows that Milch never experienced.

The first season ofTrue Detectivewas HBOs most-watched freshman series at the time.

Season two, of course, was crap another experience Milch knows nothing about.

Each, however, knows obsessive, controlling, all-consuming creativity.

Do the two cancel out each others weaknesses or highlight them?

Regardless of the outcome, HBO has shown that the era of the Davids is far from over.