True Detective season 3 reviews praise Mahershala Ali as the highlight of a stale series

The reviews for True Detective season 3 are in, and the feeling among critics is that while it showed hints of a return to form, it fell way short of the first season.

The pairing of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in season one turned the series into a critically acclaimed hit and left expectations high for season two.

But the shows second outing, starring Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams, was panned and it would be for more years before Nic Pizzolattos drama returned.

In 2019 the addition of Mahershala Ali as main character Wayne Hays got people excited for season three, but judging from the reviews it wasnt as great as everyone was expecting.

Entertainment Weeklys Darren Franich said: This seasons attempt to bring back the old True Detective amgic also feels a bit stale.

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Daniel Fienberg said in The Hollywood Reporter: True Detective returns to HBO in January with a third season that may be hailed as a full comeback by those with a short memory, but actually falls into that vast middle ground as less nuanced and rich than the start of the first season yet still in most ways superior to whatever youve been trying to repress about the second.

He added that Ali stays consistently mesmerising even if the mystery around him does not.

Brian Grubb wrote for Uproxx: The main takeaway here is that the third season of True Detective is not quite up to the level of the first, so far, in large part because substantial hunks of its plot come off like a store brand version of the original. It is so much better than the second season, though. So, so much better.

However Varietys Daniel DAddario loved it, writing: Tightly directed… and plotted, and with a performance at its center that steers away from calling attention to itself, the new True Detective transcends hype and amounts to 2019s first pleasant small-screen surprise.

Colliders Allison Keene wrote: Season 3 isnt as visually inventive as its first, and the cold, gray sky of the Ozarks differs quite a bit from the Louisiana summer sunsets of Season 1. But the narrative is just as compelling, if not even more so, as it weaves the story of the investigation through Waynes personal and professional life.

True Detective starts 13 January on HBO in the US and will air on Sky Atlantic in the UK

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