I really wanted to like it, but it was hugely disappointing. Sloppy writing and character development. It was really weak, yet the media praise of it was insanely positive. Almost a campaign to promote it, it was bizarre to read how good it was, yet watching it was the exact opposite. It makes total sense that the show was originally written as a stand alone show with its own lore such as the super natural stuff, which probably would have been better overall, but HBO made the decision to force it into the True Detective universe. So knowing that, all the crappy references to earlier season were forced, makes sense why they felt like a "uncanny valley" and not a natural part of the story/universe.

I personally went from watching hoping it's good, to watching because it's so bad. To waiting to see just how terrible a season 5 may be. It's a strange feeling haha!