I watched the first season, the one with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, because it was the “it” TV series, and I was left thoroughly confused.

As hard as I tried, I couldn’t follow the plot, and the almost-mystical nature of the serial killer’s crimes left me cold. It felt unrealistic, like the killer was created so he would look cool onscreen rather than out of any desire for realism.

The whole first series felt self-consciously arty, like something a first-year film student would create if they had a big enough budget. It seemed a series more interested in looking cool than actually telling the story.

And the second season? Well aside from it featuring Rachel McAdams I remember nothing about it. Not because it was complicated, but because it was boring, like creator-writer Nic Pizzolatto only had an idea for one season and had to bash something together quickly when the network offered a second go-round.

So there was no real reason why I would have wanted to sit down and watch season three of True Detective, but I’m glad I did because it’s really, really good.

So good that I binged the first three episodes in one hit and was then annoyed that I’d have to wait a week to see the next one.

Part of that is because of the fact that any “mystical” elements are played down. Sure, they’re in there – that’s the weird straw dolls that get left behind – but they’re not pushed to the front of the story.

Season three is told in the same non-linear fashion as the first, with this one focusing on ex-detective Wayne Hays (brilliantly played by Mahershala Ali) and his obsession with a case of two missing children.

There are well-developed layers of mystery; not only do we not know what happened to the kids, we don’t know who was jailed for their crime or, as scenes in the present-day suggest, why the wrong person may have been sent to jail.

In terms of the improvement from the mumbo jumbo of season one, I put that down to the involvement of seasoned writer David Milch (Deadwood and NYPD Blue).

He’s pushed the focus onto the story, rather than trying to create something self-consciously “arty”.