Why Mahershala Ali is a perfect fit for True… | Little White Lies

Incoming

Why Maher­sha­la Ali is a per­fect fit for True Detec­tive Sea­son 3

03 Jul 2017

Words by Josh Howey

A well-dressed Black man wearing a suit and tie, gesturing with his hand against a dark, blurred background.
A well-dressed Black man wearing a suit and tie, gesturing with his hand against a dark, blurred background.
The Moon­light star is report­ed­ly poised to join the show’s forth­com­ing return.

Sea­son one of HBO’s True Detec­tive revi­talised the crime dra­ma genre, so it was unfor­tu­nate that the sec­ond sea­son failed to meet our high expec­ta­tions. Thanks to the reboot-style nature of the anthol­o­gy series, how­ev­er, cre­ator Nic Piz­zo­lat­to and writer/​producer David Milch (Dead­wood) will be hope­ful of recap­tur­ing the show’s ini­tial bril­liance for the upcom­ing third sea­son. Espe­cial­ly if reports sug­gest­ing the pair are keen to bring Acad­e­my Award win­ner Maher­sha­la Ali into the fold prove accurate.

Ali’s recent per­for­mances in films such as Moon­light and Hid­den Fig­ures have fur­ther estab­lished him as a scene-steal­ing pres­ence. The Amer­i­can actor and rap­per also won acclaim for his por­tray­al of ruth­less gang­ster Cor­nell Cot­ton­mouth” Stokes in the Netflix/​Marvel series Luke Cage. In it, Ali bal­ances his trade­mark cool demeanour with rage-fuelled vio­lence and a dis­tinct mani­a­cal laugh to help deliv­er some of the show’s most thrilling­ly tense moments.

See­ing as how the detec­tives in Pizzolatto’s show are often set in the flawed anti­hero mould, Ali’s char­ac­ter work would sure­ly be even more unnerv­ing from the per­spec­tive of him oper­at­ing under the author­i­ty of the law. His cen­tral pres­ence could be exact­ly what’s need­ed for True Detec­tive to regain some of the fan­base which dwin­dled dur­ing sea­son two.

There is cur­rent­ly no word on what char­ac­ter Ali might play if the rumoured deal goes through. But if he does end up land­ing a star­ring role our inter­est in True Detec­tive will cer­tain­ly be renewed.

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