The new HBO series True Detective, which stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, is outstanding. I began watching the series after reading this excellent analysis of the series, where the author points out the Lovecraftian and other American Gothic influences on the series.
From the series’ first episode, the alcoholic, existentially-angst-ridden Cohle (McConaughey) delivers these delicious lines:
“I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in human evolution. We became too self-aware; nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creature that should not exist by natural law. We are things that labor under the illusion of having self, a secretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody’s nobody. I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.”
