The first time I watched this pilot, was over 4 years ago. I was 16 and I really did not like it at all. It's clear to me now that I was simply too young at that time to be watching this. This is not the kind of show that holds your hand. You're on your own and I realise now that there's a lot more going on than my 16 year old brain really considered. Also, my personality at the time was far more like Rust's, so I didn't really understand why he was so loved because I suppose I didn't think he was anything special. Since then I'm a lot less moody and I've grown to really love his character. I do still agree with much of what he says, and we see in this episode already a lot of insight into his very damaged 1995 self. Since I was 16, I watched clips of this season on YouTube every now and then, and realised that I'd probably really love it now. This first episode was very strong, and featured some great atmospheric music, really nice cinematography, and introduced two really amazing leads, one of whom is in my opinion one of the best characters ever written. Somehow, a horrific murder embedded in some really dark occultism isn't the centrepiece of this episode. Rust Cohle is just too intriguing. Marty is the perfect partner to have alongside him, because the two are so different. They seem to tolerate each other in this episode but I know that quickly changes, and another thing is that having watched this season a couple of times already, knowing what happens makes you see things you didn't see before. The middle part of the episode slowed down a bit but otherwise, this was a really good pilot episode. It set up the plot and characters very efficiently and seamlessly. It almost didn't even feel like a pilot. It's only going to get better from here
Mid 8
Mid 8