Time, as they say, is a flat circle, and it’s been more than a decade since True Detective entered our lives. Since then, its first season has been a king in yellow, with numerous creative teams going mad as they restage the original story of two cops solving an occult-based mystery. However, the debate over which season is best—if anyone could call it a debate—has been settled by a highly biased source: Matthew McConaughey. Speaking with Variety, McConaughey declared his season, which featured the actor as Lousiana tin-can separator Rust Cohle, the best of the bunch.
McConaughey says he watched the latest season, which saw Jodie Foster and Kali Reis chasing spirals in the snow, and found that “there’s a lot about that I appreciated.” Still, he’d be remiss if he didn’t mention the 2014 season that kicked off the McConaissance and led the actor out of rom-coms and into all Lincoln advertisements and a briefly considered gubernatorial run. It isn’t a big secret as to why he liked it best, nor is it all that controversial. He believes it was a more fun experience because of “the water cooler talk on Monday”—not that McConaughey is spending much time at an office water cooler.
“My favorite season—and I feel like I can say this objectively—is Season 1,” the actor said. “I happen to be in that one, so I thought that was incredible, incredible television and a great series. I watched it weekly, like everyone else, on Sunday night, and that was an event for me. And I got to sit back and enjoy that. I loved the water cooler talk on Monday morning. Even though I made it, I sort of forgot what was going to happen next. It was one of the great events in TV.”
It’s fair to say that the other three seasons were not the events on the same level. Though, we would’ve appreciated a curve ball. Sure, the hot topic in True Detective world is whether or not the most recent season disgraced the franchise with all those AI fliers. But season three with Mahershala Ali was pretty cool. Even season two has that sequence where Colin Farrell threatens to pull down his son’s pants and spank him in front of the whole cheerleading squad as punishment for being bullied, then assaults the bully’s father with brass knuckles while calling the “evil as fuck” 12-year-old “ass pen.” All we’re saying is that McConaughey has some pretty dull True Detective opinions.
