Quentin Tarantino is known as a great writer and director. He’s responsible for some of the best, most creative movies of all time, including *Pulp Fiction*, *Kill Bill, Vols. 1 and 2*, and *Once Upon a Time in Hollywood*. So, it would be reasonable to think that one of the most preeminent directors of all time would enjoy one of the most innovative TV shows, *True Detective*.
Especially when it comes to its first, and arguably best, season, which holds a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, despite the widespread acclaim and many huge fans of *True Detective*, Tarantino is not one of them.
In a profile, he told Vulture about his experience with *True Detective*, saying,
“I tried to watch the first episode of season one, and I didn’t get into it at all. I thought it was really boring. And season two looks awful. Just the trailer—all these handsome actors trying to not be handsome and walking around looking like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. It’s so serious, and they’re so tortured, trying to look miserable with their mustaches and grungy clothes.”
Clearly, Tarantino wasn’t impressed with *True Detective*’s brand of super-serious crime solving. This reaction may not be entirely surprising, though, given Tarantino has always enjoyed exploring the bad guys more in his many films. Movies like *Reservoir Dogs*, *The Hateful Eight*, and *Kill Bill* often take the antagonist’s point of view.
Plus, his movies tend to be punctuated by humor—something *True Detective*, whatever you think of it, is sorely lacking. So perhaps it’s understandable that Tarantino was bored with the pilot episode of the series.
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Though Quentin Tarantino has had an easier time finding perfect movies he loves, his TV picks are more sparing. He’s watched the shows *Justified* and *How I Met Your Mother* all the way through. While he didn’t express any particular opinion about them, just sticking with those shows for that long signals he liked them both.
But the show he heaps praise on is *The Newsroom*, starring Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer, which was canceled after three seasons.
“The HBO show I loved was Aaron Sorkin’s *The Newsroom*. That was the only show that I literally watched three times,” Tarantino explained to Vulture. “I would watch it at seven o’clock on Sunday, when the new one would come on. Then after it was over, I’d watch it all over again. Then I would usually end up watching it once during the week, just so I could listen to the dialogue one more time.”
Though he was given pushback on his choice, he seemed surprised that anyone would question it, saying,
“Why would it be surprising that I like the best dialogue writer in the business?”
And it’s true. Aaron Sorkin is renowned for his sharp, engaging dialogue, and Tarantino, as a screenwriter himself, would be especially sensitive to that.
Still, there are arguably more celebrated Sorkin shows and movies that Tarantino might enjoy, like *The West Wing*. No matter what, we’ll be excited to see Sorkin’s next movie—a sequel to *The Social Network* called *The Social Reckoning*.
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Meanwhile, we’ll be equally thrilled to see what Tarantino does for his 10th and possibly final movie (which is definitely not *The Movie Critic*). After *The Adventures of Cliff Booth*—the *Once Upon a Time in Hollywood* sequel Tarantino wrote and David Fincher is directing—comes out on Netflix, Tarantino’s acting work will hit the big screen in Jamie Adams’ *Only What We Carry*.
With both these projects on the horizon, Tarantino fans have much to look forward to.
https://www.looper.com/2016981/quentin-tarantino-review-hbo-true-detective/
