True Detective Dream Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

By Josh Hill | Jul 4, 2014

It’s well known at this point that True Detective will be having multiple directors on it’s second season, whenever it is that the season actually begins production, but the idea of talking about which directors could do the show has got us thinking about what entire seasons would look like if a Hollywood director took over a single season like we saw in Season 1.

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One interesting choice would be Oscar nominated director Paul Thomas Anderson, as he seems as though he’d turn in a truly original season of True Detective.

Anderson is best known for films like Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood. If there’s one thing in common with any of those three films it’s simply that Paul Thomas Anderson directed them as they’re three entirely different films in every single way.

That’s why a Paul Thomas Anderson season of True Detective would be a trip, as you never know what you’re going to get with the director but it always turns out to be brilliant. Even films that miss the mark for him with critics still manage to be outstanding as The Master wasn’t lauded by critics but still landed an Oscar nomination anyways.

True Detective is a dark series but it’s a series about the dark sides of humanity. That’s a thread in Anderson’s films as they all deal with the humanity of situations, whether that situation be a 1920 oil business, a 1970s porno set or a modern day California love story. He may never direct a single frame of True Detective, but it’s interesting to think about what that single frame would look like and how perfect it would be.