The Philosophy of True Detective – Wisecrack Edition

Hey everyone, a quick correction. The photo we used for David Benatar is incorrect. Thank you to everyone in the comments for pointing this out!

now are you going bake to talk about season 4

This show rocks but philosophical pessimism is the dumbest reddit 80 IQ bullshit ever

Omg I just got the ad read and promoting a crooked CBT start up on a video promoting a philosophy advocating for voluntary human extinction is some of the funniest shit I've ever seen

When wisecrack was good 😢

I miss jared

I actually found the ending of season one quite a thoughtful reflection on the meaninglessness of violence: all season long we have been hyping up this Yellow King as some kind of demon, almost supernatural like a Lovecraftian Old One, but when we discover his identity it turns out he is just some ugly, stupid, worthless loser. The satanic symbols that terrified me all season long fell completely flat for me during the final confrontation since I now knew that the person who made them was just some dull, narcissistic asshole and nothing more. There was no more sense of dread or cosmic struggle, just the utter meaninglessness of the deaths of the victims, who were all infinitely more wonderful and important than the piece of shit that killed them.

I thought they ended season 1 in an excellent way. Cohl overcomes his pessimism after his brush with death and finally sees the light winning out over the darkness. A very fitting character arc for him.

That Betterhelp ad at the end so you dont get Socrates’d

Seems i have a lot of reading to do.

Also I’m starting to wonder if Nic p is a pretentious rip off artist

Just watched a great piece on TD Season 2 and how it almost carbon copied LA Confidential just messed it up with too many characters, too many weird placements of scenes and felt rushed, Nic P went at it alone as opposed to his collaborator from Season 1

Thank's to those in the comments who recommended this show. I binged the first season the other day and it was unbelievable. Amazing. Rust is hard

im gonna end it all now

"Nice hook, Marty." Now that's positive. Rust could have taken Marty apart but he let the guy get some licks in because he is Marty's friend.

Coming back to Jared videos ❤

Don’t watch anything but Season 1, two is horrible and 3 is pretty bad. Season 1 is amazing though.

Rust was only a pessimist before he found the meaning in his life by hunting the cult of the yellow sign. Hope to continue the fight against immeasurable odds would classify him as an optimist to me.

How is ‘pessimism’ not just ‘nihilism’?

This channel is much better without a talking head

Season 2 was actually pretty good idk why people despised it

Still no season 3 episode? I thought season 3 was amazing, as imperfect as it was!

Rust should be a psychiatrist..

Rust is my hero

Nic Pizzolatto stated in the Inside the Episode of True Detective that the reason Rust says the “light’s winning” at the end is because that is actual physics and not just optimistic opinion.

mmmm, none pizza with left beef.

The ending was purposeful for Season 1. The after show inside look confirms that. The theme is light vs dark. It’s still mostly dark but the light is winning as before it was only dark.

Love this show! For me,I don't think hope has to be logical. Opptomism can help people even when it's from a more emotion driven place. One doesn't have to decieve or lie. They can simply remind folks that chocolate and coloring books still exist in this crazy universe. That why I love Superman\Supergirl. They know flatly that Earth is a primitive planet beset by threats and problems. They actively choose hope as the best way forward. If hope isn't there,you bring some. One ray of light is enough.

I think in the ending Chole trully was "born again" or "seen the light." The light for which he was fighting for from the beginning, against the forces of darkness.
He seemed to use pessimism and words and phrases as a coping mechanism for loss and suffering. But his NED revealed to him a sense of eternity and transcendence found in true genuine love. Love for humanity. Love for which he was willing to die.
The title of the last episode "Emptiness and form" seems like an obvious reference to Buddhist "emptiness is form, form is emptiness." Which is a profound spiritual realization about the inter-existence of the cosmos.

It’s gnostic not pessimism

Very professionnal, you guys are the best.

Philosophy for True Detective is simple: Try to at the very least match Season 1 knowing it’s such a steep feat that at the time, had the perfect synergy of cast, writing, production, directing, etc. (I’m not even having to watch the video to know this)

What’s scented meat?

Shame on me, just stumbled over this great show, meaning season 1, a few days ago.
I bet back when it was on it´s height, you saw a lot guys growing mustaches - what´s not to love about Rust 😉

boo hoo, a couple of men competing who has it worse. The one who wallows in his trauma without excuses or the one who tries to run from it at all costs. How about some balance, let's integrate this darkness, fellas! Love the show, no offense! This is just the central topic that I see.

Wished Rust Cohle would return. Because time is a flat circle

That deep hostility toward pessimism from society has always been an interesting thing to witness. People in general, even knowing how awful things are, do have a tendency to willfully bury their heads. Super frustrating when you know things could be better if people were honest about the state of our existence as a supposed collective and just how awful we still are as a species but I get it. Our state of being is a tough pill to swallow, so easier to just call people or characters that point it out edgelords or "just being negative." The amount of people who hate Holden Caulfield for being edgy even though his experiences in the Catcher in the Rye expressly give him license to wax cynically, and he's most often absolutely right, is completely ridiculous but eh, that's people for yah. Instead of admitting the sun is exploding and about to consume the planet, society sticks on sunglasses and calls it a beach day.

Brings up cormack McCarthy, doesn’t bring up no country for old men

True detective s1 reminds me of twin peaks
Nobody never knows whats the reason and meaning you are just there

King in Yellow was available FREE here on YT ... maybe listen first before investing in a book ...I did that

Single best season of TV I’ve ever seen.

Does Wisecrack plan to revisit this to see how it reflects on the story told in season 3 of True Detective?

They should of kept going with Matthew and Woody if they wanted a better story .

I think a lot of people don’t mention the nihilism that comes with losing a child, which his character is perfectly written.
It’s like losing your soul from what I’ve seen

Not pretending it is all for a reason is exactly what most normal western audiences can't stomach. They demand a ready made meaning to be consumed just to feel validated somehow in their sense of aversion to pessimism.

Everyone here: please read Galveston by Nic Pizzolato, it's a short but really amazing and gritty book

Took a turn for the dystopian there at the end.

Weird fiction is your hair bro. It wants to be combed one way or the other but cannot make up its mind.