False Detective

I’ll most readily admit, I drank the Kool-Aid regarding True Detective. I blogged about it twice, at the beginning and the end. I heralded it as brilliant television, as something altogether special. I proclaimed Nic Pizzolatto a genius. I was wrong… sort of.

I’m sure many of you by now have stumbled upon the allegations of plagiarism being tossed about the Internet. They make a strong case and I think it’s quite obvious that Pizzolatto borrowed (and outright stole) from Thomas Ligotti and Alan Moore, to name just two of the more obvious.

For me, however, the most damning evidence can be found in his novel, Galveston.

Why?

Because it’s a wretched piece of work. The mind boggles at how it ever was published to begin with. It’s derivative and banal in the worst possible way. There’s just no way the same person who wrote Galveston wrote True Detective. And, now it appears that this is correct.

Going back over True Detective, you can see that the writing that sings are the parts lifted from other authors.

That being said, I still admire True Detective. It’s visually stunning, with stellar acting from  Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, and brilliantly directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. The simple truth is, despite the loose ends and cheat in the final act, the melting pot of Ligotti, Chambers, Moore, and Lovecraft makes for a fascinatingly dark and evocative narrative.

I’ll give Nic Pizzolatto credit for stealing from the best.

It’s just a shame that the “influences” weren’t a little less heavy-handed, but then, based on his previous work, I just don’t think Pizzolatto had the chops to do it any other way.