Throughout True Detective season one that is we constantly see decay, this place is like somebody's memory of the town and the memories fading just like Russ says. This can be found from the very first episode and the concept is introduced to us when we see the city, vacant industrial buildings, signs on the side of the road showing off missing people, crime and almost nothing good within this landscape. In this bright bright environment exists darknesses but this decay isn't limited to the city it stretches much further than that and the people the culture and ultimately our two protagonists. But True Detective takes it a step further than that, suggesting that everything bad that we see throughout is caused from the decay of morality.

Of the utmost importance to True Detective is the location. We spend almost the entire season in and around rural Louisiana, venturing into swampland and other areas far from society it creates a timeless feel to the story although the narrative unfolds over a period of 17 years with a segment in 1995, 2002 and another in 2012. The world itself feels consistent, some characters change but the location always stays the same. More importantly over the course of the series the conflict is always the same two detectives trying to catch a monster. The show's location stays constant all the while corrupting people around it. Over the course of the show we watch as characters slowly lose their morals, nothing means anything to them anymore, they just start to exist. People turn to crime, to violence, to drugs anything that will give their life purpose. But ultimately find none. This is reflected in the show's opening title sequence, we watch as these swamp lands and rough looking industrial buildings melt into the protagonists and other characters ultimately corrupting them. I think what true detective does best and what it is able to do so well because of its eight hour run time is to render and develop two broken protagonists who we as the audience are able to relate to and care for despite their flaws.