9 Things We Need in 'True Detective' Season 3

True Detective season two is in the can. Expectations were high, and for most, went unmet. Creator Nic Pizzolatto had the impossible task of following up his acclaimed first season with a spiritual successor. He wasn't getting Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson back for round two. His approach: double down on surly antiheroes and opaque narrative. And it worked, in the sense that we tuned in every week, curious to see the decisions Pizzolatto had made and where the convoluted plot would end up.Now that we know, we have a few hopes and suggestions for season three. Eight, to be exact:

1. Crazier pairings

This season, Pizzolatto beefed up his cast to four co-leads. It was a great idea in theory—more voices, more dynamics, more strings to wind together into a tight ball of mystery. But True Detective season two was ultimately light on friction. Pizzolatto chiseled out four characters from the same brooding, sexually frustrated stone. Season one nearly suffered from the same pitfalls, centering on two capricious white guys mumbling their way through detective work. McConaughey saved the day, a kooky armchair philosopher who bounced off Harrelson's pragmatic stoicism. There was excitement surrounding season two's surface-level changes. Vince Vaughn might add a dash of comedy. Rachel McAdams could address the critiques against Pizzolatto's macho style. That didn't happen. Vaughn was stifled, McAdams was one of the boys, and Colin Farrell and Taylor Kitsch were two more repressed gents in a sea of repressed gents. If dour is what Pizzolatto does best, fine, but True Detective season three needs to see characters as personalities, not merely extensions of mood.

2. More detective work

For being a bunch of true detectives, season two's ensemble did very little sleuthing. McAdams' Ani Bezzerides had the sharpest eye for puzzles, tracing lines from historical plots and percolating crimes (whenever she wasn't warding off investigations into her own life). Fate did more for Farrell's Ray Velcoro than his skills, leads blindsiding (or shotgunning) him left and right. What the detectives couldn't solve they shot up. Season two had guns-ablazing set pieces galore—amusing and fleeting. True Detective fans parsed the show's fabric for exposition, but it was a chore. No doubt by design—Pizzolatto brings novelistic approach to his teleplays. If we were reading season two, it may all add up. But not when devoured over eight Sunday nights. For season three, True Detective needs to downplay its "elevated genre" status and learn from the greats. Recent examples like Top of the Lake and Sherlock prove there's room for character and sleuthing plot in a crime series. If the geniuses behind Murder, She Wrote could design 264 independent mysteries for ol' Jessica Fletcher to solve, I believe the seasoned Pizzolatto can tease a complex mystery across eight episodes with clarity and profundity.

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3. A single directorial vision...

There are rumors that Pizzolatto and season-one director Cary Joji Fukunaga squabbled behind-the-scenes (and that the writer-producer even had a laugh at his collaborator's expense in season two). Whatever went down resulted in thrilling television. Fukunaga's eye amplified Pizzolatto's wandering style. Film grain and deep shadows went a long way in separating True Detective from CSI. The long-take action sequence was real-deal bravado. Season two took a more standard approach in its direction. The show hired the Fast and Furious series' Justin Lin to kick off the proceedings before recruiting Game of Thrones veterans to knock out the rest. But Lin established a non-presence. His action background went unused in the opening two episodes and his attention to acting detail felt beholden to Pizzolatto. Later episodes simply delivered. Instead of reckoning with Pizzolatto's words, the direction complied with them. Everything felt micromanaged (and behind-the-scenes videos speak to that approach). When (if?) True Detective returns for season three, it might behoove the creator to hire a combatant for his own personal Thunderdome.

4. …or a team of writers.

Pizzolatto retreated from The Killing's "writers' room" to the one-man operation of True Detective. If he wants to control every aspect of the show, perhaps he should take a cue from Mad Men's Matthew Weiner, who takes a credit on every episode. True Detective needs an outside perspective, or at the least, a Pizzolatto filter. The writing is what keeps even the befuddled tuning in each week. We love the "Pizzolattoan" lines. But season two needed a wrangler. Or it needed its creator to become that wrangler. The singular voice defines the series, but what if Pizzolatto supervised someone else's singular voice? Here's our crazy idea: True Detective season three, run by Wet Hot American Summer duo David Wain and Michael Showalter and supervised by Pizzolatto. Watch the new Netflix series and tell us we're crazy.

5. More comedy

Okay, maybe True Detective season three wouldn't get that wacky, but Pizzolatto can land a joke on his own and should at every opportunity. Take this incredible scene from season two: During a supervised visit with his boy, Ray declares, "You are my son and I will always love you." "K," the kid replies. Pizzolatto has a way with foul language. But he keeps himself on a leash. True Detective is a "serious" show and reminds us every chance it gets. But shouldn't Vaughn describing his plan to drill himself a new orifice and fuck himself be funny? It sounds funny. It is funny!

6. An unlikely location

Los Angeles could not be more boring. It's a hotbed for noir tales, but it's also the most overused location thanks to its relationship with Hollywood. Season one had a mesmerizing glow. The bayou South birthed aesthetics, that yellowish overgrowth and sweltering heat, and more substantive themes, from religious iconography to the cast's Southern culture. Fargo thrives for the same reason. Pockets of our own country feel both known and foreign. With so many options, season two fell back into well-trodden territory. Intersecting highways are only so interesting.

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7. Required reading

True Detective season one's audience went from interested to obsessed when the show's relationship to Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow came into focus. People delved into the text, researching its history and connecting the dots. Though its ultimate ties were loose, the allusion added to the series' enigmatic energy. Red herrings took on crazy meanings to the theorists on Reddit. True Detective's path was fun to imagine. The season-two opening had eager fans wondering if The Western Book of the Dead and Hagakure: Book of the Samurai may fill the role. No dice. True Detective went from high-minded to highfalutin. Our library cards collected dust. And it worked against the series; True Detective can be dense and hazy with a literary reference adding thematic, philosophical resonance. Without one, it's all surface. And season two's surface was hard to stomach—a bunch of unlikable folks solving the murder of an unlikable criminal.

8. Embrace the weird and mystical

Shortly after season one ended, Pizzolatto teased his idea for a second season. "This is really early," he told HitFix, "but I'll tell you [it's about] hard women, bad men, and the secret occult history of the United States transportation system." That kernel rests inside the finished product, minus the prospect of supernatural undertones. Which would have been amazing—True Detective season one kept us on the edge of our seats because we were never quite sure if Rust Cohle would or wouldn't go face-to-face with a Cthulu when he strolled into Carcosa. Season two dipped its toe into the "afterlife" with Ray's Twin Peaks-y, Conway Twitty-soundtracked brush with death and Frank's final march through a limbo desert. Even more would feel daring. Pizzolatto's characters feel the weight of the real, fucked-up world on their shoulders. Metaphysical terror is the one thing that could rattle their bones.