Detectives in Current Affairs

I've stopped thinking about how big people's hair looks in the 80s segments on True Detective and started thinking about how small the haircuts are in the 90s segments. But last night's decent enough episode, "The Hour and the Day", was mainly about racism and cross wired sexual chemistry.

Spoilers after the screenshot

I like the tweed coats the cops wear in the 80s better than the shiny early 90s suits, too.

Wayne (Mahershala Ali) and Roland (Stephen Dorff) interview a Catholic priest and discover the kidnapper they're looking for is probably a black man with a dead eye. Mostly during the interview I was thinking how I hope it doesn't turn out the priest is a paedophile and the kidnapper. The show couldn't possibly go in a direction that cliche, could it? Obviously there really are paedophile priests but they pop up way more often in fiction, to the point where any additional paedophile priests are really going to have to bring something new to the table or explore the issue in some greater depth.

The stand-off in a black community when Wayne and Roland track down a black man with a dead eye was another moment I feel like I've seen in ten thousand movies and TV shows. For some reason the example that came most vividly to mind was the cheesy 1993 cop film Rising Sun where Wesley Snipes guides Sean Connery through a black neighbourhood. Anyway, if you want to see a really good cop movie dealing with racism in the American south, I recommend In the Heat of the Night. Criterion has just released it on Blu-Ray and DVD.

A little more fun is the relationship between Wayne and Amelia (Carmen Ejogo) in which their ideological and philosophical differences somehow manifest in great sex in the 90s and a really sexy first date in the 80s. The chemistry between Ali and Ejogo really makes it work. He's so contained and deliberate while she's more extroverted and impulsive. Ali always seems to be barely keeping a lid on while her body language always seems so relaxed. I absolutely believe their relationship, I think it's the best thing going on this season so far.

Twitter Sonnet #1200

A set of tracks were burning late at night.
A frozen flame was orange and yellow green.
A team of six could pull the wooden kite.
Along the road the same were seldom seen.
Throughout the night a phone was ringing blanks.
In stolen gems a galaxy collapsed.
A thousand stars invest the fish's tanks.
The horse's dream by wind was soon surpassed.
In melted stripes the apples change the sun.
Behind a grid the sky was breaking out.
A mystery cooked within the burger's bun.
The stairs contract and kill the upper route.
Collected corners form a kinky hill.
The knees and elbows work a jointed mill.