So, they ruined True Detective. (Major Spoilers)

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True detective looked like it was going to accomplish something rare in american television in its depiction of a sympathetic atheist character who was intelligent and logical, had a pessimistic world view, and yet was good and compassionate; only to have him find "spirituality" in the last ten minutes.

Was anyone else bugged by this?

Is the U.S entertainment industry so stacked with christian ideologues that they are unable to present an atheist character who is neither a villain, nor repentant?

In spite of this, the series is still excellent. If you intend to watch it at some point, you should skip the link There's some profanity.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVlrNKtFLbM[/youtube]

I really enjoyed the series.

I am not so sure whether the finale was really about finding spirituality or facing the fear of death.

just a thought...

Yea....I think it was actually very true to his character. As though he was once again disappointed by the humaness of it all.

I enjoyed the show but I was a bit worried when it seemed Rust was seeing Jeebus in his own reflection in the hospital. The light vs dark stuff at the very end was disappointingly simplistic compared to some of his great dialogue throughout the series. It was kind of a cop out to the mainstream audience to have him have a near death experience in the coma especially since only a small percentage of people who suffer clinical or near clinical death report an nde. The majority of course say death was non existence. Still, this didnt ruin the show for me. I was just grateful for not being treated like an idiot for most of the season and to hear a tv character espouse antinatalistic sentiments. That was an amazing start that maybe others will have the balls to follow.

I wasn't hanging around the board when this was showing, so am late to this, but:

There was a whole lot of Jesus going on - from Rust's contemplation of allowing of one's own crucifixion, to his apparent death and resurrection (seems he forgot about that part of the story), and that very obvious beat-to-shit Christ visage as he stares out at the night and the stars and sees his reflection in the window. And I don't think it can be overlooked that, of all the characters in the show, Rust the unbeliever was the most 'Christian'.

However - there is nothing spiritual about love, about feeling loved. Indeed, to think so concedes a very important part of life to those of a spiritual bent. Rust experienced what he had already referenced, in both the death of his daughter and what he saw in the eyes of the corpses. He just had a different, entirely valid perspective on it.

His perspective shifts. There was nothing more 'real' in his pessimism than there is in his new position (if indeed he has one).

Marty called it right at the tent, when he said Rust sounded panicked. What I got from Rust, especially the 2012 interviews, was that he kept everything away from him, so as not to feel, so as not to hurt. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say Rust would have felt guilt at his daughter's death. To actually accept and understand that one is loved, as Rust was by his daughter (and, I get from that end scene, his father), can be profoundly disturbing, can really shake you up. Of all things, not unlike the scene toward the end of Good Will Hunting, where Williams tells Damon, "it's not your fault" - Damon knows that intellectually, but understanding it, really engaging with it and accepting it, is what moves him to tears.

Rust had the good lines, and the spiel. Remember his remarks about preachers: