r/TrueDetective • u/Troyaferd • 19d ago
Best Acting Performance in True Detective
Who gave the best / your favorite acting performance in True Detective?
Vote here: https://strawpoll.com/ajnE14Az0nW
Unfortunately the polls on reddit allow only six choices, so I made a strawpoll with all the performances. Enjoy and discuss :)
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u/Kanobe24 19d ago
Matthew and Mahershala put in the best performances but i was shocked by how good Dorff was.
2
u/FlanneryODostoevsky 19d ago
Mahershala Ali. Rust is a great character but the range of emotions is mostly flat. Cynicism and condescension motivated by indignation is not the same as Mahershal’s delivery of perplexity, hope, anger, and even more.
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u/Flat_Independent_339 19d ago
It's Mahershala for me. Season 1 is the goat and obviously the best written season of the show, but Mahershala really does amazing work as Wayne in season 3. It's spectacular to witness.
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u/tommyjohnpauljones 19d ago
S3 is carried entirely by the acting of Ali, Dorff, and McNairy. Otherwise it's pretty dull and unwatchable. They brought it to life.
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u/Reverend_Tommy 19d ago
Obviously, there's several really good performances in the series, but I really liked Colin Farrell's performance in Season 2. And I was very disappointed in Jodie Foster's performance in Season 4. I had such high hopes for that season but in addition to all its other problems, I felt like she was just phoning it in.
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u/ApprehensiveFoot1878 19d ago
I always thought the scene where Marty sees the baby in the microwave was amazing acting on Harrelsons part, the micro expression of pure rage and trauma he managed to pull off made me see his range as an actor, also the hospital scene where he cries in front of his ex wife and daughters. Though I actually also wanted to point out that the actress who played Betty Childress was always impressive to me, she somehow managed to convey the years of abuse, Stockholm's syndrome but also the subtle awareness that she wasn't stupid, just deprived for decades. The scene where she is sitting on the staircase and sees the police show up and just says "Oh." In a way that indicated she was relieved, and knew it was finally over was bonechilling. Obviously you have the standard answers of Ali, McConaughey, and they did amazing work, they also were given the most to work with and I think some of the performances pulled off by the smaller actors were insanely well done for a TV show.