‘True Detective’ Season 3 Rotten Tomatoes Score Revealed

Ahead of its season three premiere tonight, review-aggregating website Rotten Tomatoes has revealed its critics’ score for the upcoming season of True Detective. Earning a 74% Fresh rating, True Detective Season Three bests the score set by its immediate predecessor.

While season one of the HBO hit stills reigns supreme with an 83% Certified Fresh rating, the Colin Farrell-led second season earned a score of 63%, short of the “Certified Fresh” status.

According to the Rotten Tomatoes’ “Critics Consensus,” the third of True Detective is “driven by Mahersala Ali’s mesmerizing performance” and “finds fresh perspective by exploring real world events — though it loses some of the series’ intriguing strangeness along the way.”

The anthology series features a brand new story arc and cast season to season and the third season will be led by the Academy Award-winning Mahershala Ali (Moonlight). Joining Ali is lead roles include Stephen Dorff (Blade), Carmen Ejogo (Alien: Covenant), and Justice League‘s Ray Fisher.

The third season will follow Ali and company to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where Ali’s character — Detective Wayne Hays — will attempt to solve a decades-old crime. The season will feature Ali both in past and present timelines as he works to solve the cold case.

True Detective creator and lead writer Nic Pizzolatto said he wanted to take the show to Arkansas because he found it “extremely evocative and powerful.”

“Having lived for four years in Fayetteville, I always found this area extremely evocative and powerful,” Pizzolatto said. “I feel landscape is a character, definitely in what I do.

“It would have been a disservice to the story to not shoot it in the Ozarks, in Fayetteville or in Arkansas. Because it is such a character in the story. It would have been such a shame if we had shot it any other place.”

Ali mentioned he’d love being in the area, even remembering one of the first moments he arrived in town and was warmly welcomed by a dog-walking stranger.

“I remember getting out of my car after being dropped off from the airport,” he said. “I went for a quick walk to go get some food, and this woman was walking her dog a few houses down from mine a good distance from me, and she yelled out ‘Welcome to Arkansas, we’re glad you’re here.’”

Are you looking forward to the third season of True Detective? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

True Detective Season Three premieres tonight, January 13th on HBO beginning at 9:00 pm Eastern.