Here, too, he is patient: after focusing on the limpid blues, greens and greys of Louisiana in True Detective's opening trio of episodes, Fukunaga – ably assisted by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw – gradually swaps them for the nocturnal, firelit griminess of east Texas's biker gangs, with the dread slowly ratcheting up as we move closer towards the encounter in the projects.
Fukunaga directs all eight episodes of True Detective, a level of involvement unusually high for TV (I can only recall one precedent – Robert Altman directing the entirety of HBO's political satire Tanner '88 – but let me know otherwise), and that long-form role allows him to be understated where one-off directors might feel obliged to be showy, keeping visual flourishes to a minimum in the first three episodes of the season. But let's not overlook the less flashy aspects of Cary Fukunaga's direction, which in their way are just as impressive. It's a moment that feels like the True Detective equivalent of College from The Sopranos, or The Wire's "fuck" scene: the point where you find yourself completely hooked. Of course, any reservations over that detour have long since dissipated by the episode's climax, an uninterrupted six-minute tracking shot following Cohle and his biker captive through a roiling neighbourhood riot. Instead, we're taken out of Louisiana and into east Texas, a move that has the potential to be momentum-sapping, or even feel like padding – a means of stretching out the mystery for another week. Despite last week's teasing final shot, the elusive Reggie Ledoux is still nowhere to be seen. Very little forward progress is made in either the original investigation into the murder of Dora Lange, or the 2012 interrogations. On paper, Who Goes There has the potential to be a frustrating hour of television.
Read Gwilym's Mumford's episode three recap here. If you have seen further ahead in the series, please do not leave spoilers. Please don't read on if you haven't watched episode three. Spoiler alert: we are recapping True Detective after UK transmission.