She watches in penetrating silence as her cheating husband avoids eye contact and channel surfs. Here, the actress gets the chance to show the many layers of Maggie Hart. That honour goes to Michelle Monaghan, who has rarely gotten the chance to go deep in films ( Due Date, Mission: Impossible 3 and even Gone Baby Gone underused her talents). The star of this week’s hour is neither Harrelson nor McConaughey. Moreover, the recipient of her coy sexual games turn out to be – who else – but the dreary, damaged Rust Cohle. However, instead of confronting her husband about his illicit affairs again, she tries to level the playing field by having a bit of naughty fun on her own. Maggie suspects that something is up, verified when she sneaks onto his cell phone and finds a nude photo of Beth. It is not a bad episode at all, but it’s less urgent and exciting than the superb hours that came before, and therefore, a bit disappointing.Īlthough Hart seemed to be back on the wagon, abandoning the drink and making an effort to restore his fatherly virtues, he goes back to old habits in “Haunted Houses.” In 2002, he returns to bars and scouts out a much younger woman named Beth (Lili Simmons), who infatuates him.
Much of this week takes place in 2002, a bit of a detour from the supposed path of last week’s episodes, which led us to believe we were remaining with Hart and Cohle in 2012, as authorities re-open Dora Lange’s murder case. The sixth episode of True Detective is more casual and leisurely than the prior two episodes, two of the finest hours HBO has aired in years, but it is not brighter.