Nobody Asked for This Ridiculous ‘True Detective’ Reunion

Apple TV Legend has it that Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are actually half-siblings.

Their new show Brothers runs with it, turning the long-standing rumor—which dates back nine years to McConaughey’s mother confessing that she “knew” Harrelson’s dad during one of her divorces—into a jokey comedy.

However, aside from its central “are they or aren’t they” question and the charisma of its headliners, Apple TV’s new series (Sept.

23) is a frustratingly thin affair, putting merely a tepid spin on its central premise.

It’s amiable enough to sustain eight half-hour episodes—but just barely.

In Brothers , the True Detective co-stars play fictional versions of themselves—complete with wholly made-up families—although neither stray far from reality.

Living in Austin with wife Val (Natalie Martinez) and three children, the Dallas Buyers Club Oscar winner is a suave Southerner who spews folksy pronouncements and, on at least one occasion, quotes his popular Lincoln car commercials.

Woody, meanwhile, is a pot-smoking hippie who cherishes nature, hates air conditioning and hunting, and owns a giant RV whose side is painted with a mural of Mount Rushmore featuring Rosa Parks and Willie Nelson.

Both stars poke fun at themselves in Brothers , whether it’s Matthew suffering jokes about his vanity or Woody agreeing to have his New Age-y ethos depicted as troublesomely kooky.

Yet the series (co-created by McConaughey, Harrelson, Lee Eisenberg, and David West Read) lacks a true absurdist instinct until its final few installments, when Skyler Gisondo appears out of nowhere as Jimmy, the former fiancé of Harrelson’s eldest daughter Olive (Highdee Kuan), and promptly begins behaving like the type of ridiculous weirdo the preceding action desperately needed.

Olive’s break-up with Jimmy is the catalyst for Brothers , given that it motivates Woody (an MIA father with a habit of fleeing discomfort and trouble) to take the clan to Texas to vacation with Matthew, who’s presently struggling to write a speech honoring his late father, Big Mac.

Matthew is happy to see his BFF, if aware that his presence will muck up his immediate plans.

His intuition is correct, as their first night together devolves into an odyssey involving an impromptu trip to the rodeo, a terrible ride-share experience, and a run-in with a TMZ reporter—all incidents that are cute but not legitimately funny.

Geniality is the consistent tone, even once Matthew’s tough and boozy mother Ma Mac (Holland Taylor) implies to Woody that she had carnal relations with his incarcerated pop.