Actor Mahershala Ali is on a roll. He won his second Oscar for actor in a supporting role for his performance in “Green Book.” On the same night, the third season of “True Detective,” in which Ali plays the lead, concluded marking a successful return after a much-maligned second season.
It’s ironic. “Green Book” was lambasted by many as an unrealistic examination of race relations in America. “True Detective” managed to delve into the issue of race in a more credible way, despite not confronting the issue head-on. And part of that may have been the result of Ali convincing series creator Nic Pizzolatto to make the lead character in season three a black man.
Ali, who plays Wayne Hays, and Stephen Dorff, who plays Roland West, are fantastic in their roles as two Arkansas state police detectives, investigating the murder of a boy and the disappearance of his younger sister. The story jumps back and forth throughout 35 years beginning in 1980. Since it takes place in the South, the issue of race often lies just beneath the surface.
White cops react with indignation, getting told by a black detective to knock on doors during an investigation. A Native American character gets convicted in absentia of the crime the detectives investigated, and no one questions it. Roland and Wayne, despite their partnership and the friendship they build over time, struggle with the issue of race, and several times it nearly boils over.
It would likely take away from the storytelling to delve into race at great depth, but rather than gloss over it or ignore it, Pizzolatto gives the audience just enough to know the tension is there while at the same time recognizing the beginning of a realignment in some areas of the South.
Rather than the sappy, quixotic attempt to appeal to audiences in a way that doesn’t require a look inward, as was the case with “Green Book,” “True Detective” season three doesn’t look past it. Instead, it reminds everyone that it’s not as easy as sticking two people in a car and pretending that’s all it would take to solve the issue of race relations in the United States.
