True Detective is an American anthology crime drama television series created by Nic Pizzolatto. The series, broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States, premiered on January 12, 2014. Each season of the series is structured as a self-contained narrative, employing new cast ensembles, and following various sets of characters and settings.
The first season, starring Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Potts, and Tory Kittles, aired in 2014. It takes place in Louisiana and follows a pair of Louisiana State Police detectives, and their pursuit of a serial killer with occult links over a 17-year period.
The second season, starring Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch, Kelly Reilly, and Vince Vaughn, aired in 2015. It is set in California, and focuses on three detectives from three cooperating police jurisdictions and a criminal-turned-businessman as they investigate a series of crimes they believe are linked to the murder of a corrupt politician.[2][3]
The third season, starring Mahershala Ali, Carmen Ejogo, Stephen Dorff, Scoot McNairy, and Ray Fisher, aired in 2019. It takes place in the Ozarks over three time periods as a pair of Arkansas State Police detectives investigate a macabre crime involving two missing children.
The fourth season, titled True Detective: Night Country and starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, aired in 2024. It takes place in Alaska and follows the investigation into the sudden disappearance of a team of eight men from a research station. Issa López serves as writer and director, marking Pizzolatto's first time as neither writer nor showrunner.[4]
The first season received widespread acclaim and earned high ratings for HBO. It received numerous awards, chiefly for its acting, cinematography, writing, and direction. Reception to the second season was more divided, although the show maintained high viewership. The third season received positive reviews, but saw a drop in viewership. Night Country earned the highest viewership ratings for the series,[5] and received widespread critical acclaim. It earned the highest number of Emmy Award nominations for the series.
A fifth season, with López returning as the showrunner, is in development.
Before developing True Detective, Nic Pizzolatto worked as a literature professor for the University of Chicago, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and DePauw University.[6] He also delved into fiction writing, having developed a fascination for it as a graduate student at the University of Arkansas. His first published work was the short story collection Between Here and the Yellow Sea, released in 2006.[6] The author published his debut novel, Galveston, four years later and around the same time began preparing to branch out into the television industry (earlier attempts were never realized due to lack of capital).[7]
Intended to be Galveston's follow-up, Pizzolatto felt True Detective was more suited to film.[6][8] Pizzolatto shopped the novel to two TV executives, and, once he secured a deal in May 2010, drafted six screenplays, including the pilot episode ("The Long Bright Dark") script, which ran 90 pages.[6][7] He devoted another script for the series shortly after his departure from The Killing's writing staff in 2011, thanks to the support of Anonymous Content.[6] The final copy, amounting to 500 pages, was written without the aid of writing staff.[9][10] By this time, Pizzolatto secured a development deal with HBO,[6] and by April 2012, the network commissioned True Detective on an order of eight episodes.[11] Set up as an anthology series, each season will feature a different cast of characters and self-contained narratives in various time periods and locations.[12]
When preparing season 4, subtitled Night Country, director and writer Issa López chose to create a "dark mirror" of the first season: "Where True Detective is male and it's sweaty, Night Country is cold and it's dark and it's female."[13]
In February 2024, following the fourth-season finale, HBO renewed the series for a fifth season with López returning in her roles.[14]
The initial location for principal photography of True Detective's first season was Arkansas, but Pizzolatto later opted to film in Louisiana, which was cheaper due to its generous film-tax incentive program.[9][15] Production lasted 100 consecutive days,[16] and each episode was shot on 35mm film.[17] The crew filmed exterior shots of various constructed sets, including a remote sugarcane field outside of Erath,[18] in addition to real life locations such as Fort Macomb, a nineteenth-century fort located outside of New Orleans.[19]
California was selected as the setting for True Detective's sophomore season. Producers were urged to avoid filming in Los Angeles and, instead, focus on the more obscure regions of the state to "capture a certain psycho-sphere ambiance".[20] Production began in November 2014.[21]
The third season was filmed at various locations throughout Northwest Arkansas, including Fayetteville, Bentonville, Lincoln, Rogers and Springdale.[22] Filming began in February 2018 and was wrapped in August of the same year.[23]
Led by creative director Patrick Clair, True Detective's title sequences were developed by a collaborative team consisting of three motion-design studios: Santa Monica-based Elastic, Antibody and Breeder, both based in Australia.[24][25][26] For the first season, Clair and his team took a variety of photos of the Louisiana scenery, which became the sequence's backbone.[25] They superimposed these images onto low poly meshes, thanks to the use of various animation and special effects techniques. This was a meticulous process for production, since they wanted to avoid creating a digitized look for the sequence.[26] Once its final cut took form, the team polished it by employing optical glitching and motion distortion technique.[25] True Detective's season one opening theme is "Far from Any Road", an alternative country song originally composed by The Handsome Family for their 2003 album Singing Bones.[26] The Sydney Morning Herald included season one's opening sequence in their list of the "Ten of the Best" title sequences on television.[27]
Clair took a similar approach to creating the title sequence for True Detective's second season. Production used material from a number of photographers, including aerial shots captured by David Maisel.[24] However, unlike season one, season two's title sequence incorporates deep, vivid gold and red color, thereby presenting "that more complicated view of California".[24] Leonard Cohen's "Nevermind" is the season two opening theme, which is a song from Cohen's 2014 album Popular Problems.[28] The theme song's lyrics change with every episode, incorporating different verses from Cohen's song.[29][30]
For the fourth season, Night Country, a new sequence was commissioned from London-based Peter Anderson Studios,[31] set to Billie Eilish's song "Bury a Friend", a major influence on the show cited by showrunner Issa López.[32] As the fourth season sought to distinguish itself visually from prior entries, Anderson chose not to use superimposed images. Instead, the company was flown out to Iceland to film the majority of the sequence "from scratch", using the same props and locations as the show itself. Although certain scenes involved CGI (such as the final shot of a car parked on the sea ice) and underwater sequences were filmed in a tank, the majority of the sequence was real footage. This allowed Anderson to recreate the arc of the story in miniature, tantalizing the audience with the unfolding story: "[t]he setting is the same. But the story, packed inside a single minute, stands on its own."[33]
The first actor to be cast for True Detective was Matthew McConaughey, who acted as Detective Rustin "Rust" Cohle. McConaughey came to Pizzolatto's attention for his performance in the 2011 thriller film The Lincoln Lawyer, and was contracted before the series was commissioned by HBO. He and Woody Harrelson were among a pool of candidates Pizzolatto had in mind for star billing.[8] Although the actor was to play Detective Martin "Marty" Hart, he later convinced Pizzolatto to cast him as Cohle.[34] Instead, Harrelson was assigned the role of Hart at McConaughey's request.[35][36][37] Michelle Monaghan played the female lead Maggie Hart,[38] while Michael Potts and Tory Kittles were given the roles of Detectives Maynard Gilbough and Thomas Papania, respectively.[39][40] Major recurring roles in the first season include Kevin Dunn as Major Ken Quesada and Alexandra Daddario as Lisa Tragnetti.[39][41] Daddario appeared in a four-episode arc as a court reporter having an extramarital affair with one of the main characters; her nude scene with Woody Harrelson attracted much attention.[42]
Cary Joji Fukunaga was appointed as director of True Detective's first season. He competed with Alejandro González Iñárritu for the position, but Iñárritu dropped out because of other film commitments.[43][44] To prepare, Fukunaga conducted research with a real-life homicide detective of the Louisiana State Police's Criminal Investigations Division.[45] The director brought on Adam Arkapaw as the project cinematographer, and hired Alex DiGerlando, who he worked with on Benh Zeitlin's Glory at Sea (2008), as the production designer.[16]
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In January 2014, Pizzolatto signed a two-year contract extension with HBO, effectively renewing the series for two additional seasons.[46] Much like its predecessor, season 2 of True Detective consists of eight episodes, all written by Pizzolatto.[20] However, the responsibility of directing was assigned to several people. Justin Lin directed the first two episodes.[47] Fukunaga, who directed all of season one, did not return as director; he remains, however, an executive producer,[48] as do McConaughey and Harrelson. Pizzolatto hired fellow novelist Scott Lasser to help develop and write stories for the second half of the season.[48]
The season's first significant casting was Colin Farrell as Detective Raymond "Ray" Velcoro.[49] Vince Vaughn, playing the role of criminal and entrepreneur Frank Semyon, was officially cast toward the end of the month.[47] By November, True Detective's principal cast expanded to include Rachel McAdams as Detective Antigone "Ani" Bezzerides, Taylor Kitsch as California Highway Patrol Officer Paul Woodrugh, and Kelly Reilly as Jordan Semyon, Frank's wife.[50][51]
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In August 2017, HBO officially greenlit a third season, which takes place in the Ozarks over three decades.[52] The first two episodes were directed by Jeremy Saulnier; he had been expected to direct the third episode, but had to exit the series due to scheduling conflicts. In March 2018, it was announced that Daniel Sackheim was added as director and that he and Pizzolatto would direct the remaining six episodes.[53] Pizzolatto is the sole writer, with the exceptions of episodes 4 and 6 which he co-wrote with David Milch and Graham Gordy, respectively. Mahershala Ali was cast as the lead character, playing Wayne Hays, a state police detective from northwest Arkansas.[54] Ray Fisher plays Wayne's son, Henry Hays;[55] Carmen Ejogo plays Amelia Reardon, an Arkansas schoolteacher with a connection to two missing children in 1980;[56] Stephen Dorff plays Roland West, an Arkansas State Investigator;[57] Scoot McNairy plays Tom Purcell, the father of the missing children;[58] and Mamie Gummer plays Lucy Purcell, the mother of the missing children.[59]
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In March 2022, it was reported that a fourth season of True Detective was in development, with Issa López writing a pilot episode and Barry Jenkins as executive producer. López would also direct the pilot if HBO moved forward with the project.