Abstract

The second season of True Detective bears many marks of a classic urban‐noir crime drama. The city is a central character of the narrative. And the relationship between the detectives and the city is one of the crucial elements of the story. This is most obvious in the case of Vinci Detective Ray Velcoro, and apparent to a lesser degree in the cases of Ani Bezzerides and Paul Woodrugh. This chapter examines the philosophical aspect of the relationship between the detective and the city, comparing it to a classical view of the relationship between philosophy and the city, presented by Plato over two millennia ago in his dialogues Apology and The Republic. The Apology tells the story of Socrates on trial. There are some parallels between Socrates and the noir detective on this score, but there are some stark differences as well.