From True Detective to Better Call Saul , some of the best TV shows in recent memory have brought the tropes and conventions of the neo-noir to the small screen. In the early-to-mid-20th century, film noir was one of Hollywood’s favorite currencies . After World War II left everyone feeling jaded and angry, these morally ambiguous detective stories thrived in movie theaters.

But in the latter half of the 20th century, after the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War left American moviegoers more disillusioned than ever, films like Klute , Chinatown , and The French Connection pioneered the neo-noir. In these modern anti-establishment noirs, justice wasn’t always served and there was no such thing as heroes and villains.

The gloomy mysteries of the noir genre first came to tele

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