True Detective is an American crime anthology television drama series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto which uses an anthology format, with each season featuring a different cast of characters and story.
The first season utilises multiple timelines to trace two Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigations Division homicide detectives' hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana across seventeen years.
In the second season, a bizarre murder brings together three law-enforcement officers and a career criminal, each of whom must navigate a web of conspiracy and betrayal in the scorched landscapes of California.
Season 1
In 2012, Louisiana State police detectives Rust Cohle and Martin Hart are brought in to revisit a homicide case they worked in 1995.
As the inquiry unfolds in present day through separate interrogations, the two former detectives narrate the story of their investigation, reopening unhealed wounds, and drawing into question their supposed solving of a bizarre ritualistic murder in 1995.
The timelines braid and converge in 2012 as each man is pulled back into a world they believed they'd left behind. In learning about each other and their killer, it becomes clear that darkness lives on both sides of the law.
Written and created by Nic Pizzolatto (The Killing) and directed by Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre), True Detective stars Woody Harrelson as Martin Hart and Matthew McConaughey as Rust Cohle.
Season 1 also stars Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible III) as Maggie, Hart's wife; Kevin Dunn (Veep) as Major Quesada, the supervising officer in 1995; and Tory Kittles (Sons of Anarchy) and Michael Potts (The Wire) as Dets. Papania and Gilbough, the investigators now probing Hart and Cohle for answers.
Season 2
The disappearance of a city manager disrupts a lucrative land scheme and ignites an investigation involving three police officers and a career criminal who is moving into legitimate business.
Colin Farrell plays Ray Velcoro, a troubled detective whose allegiances are torn between his masters in a corrupt police department and the mobster who owns him.
Vince Vaughn portrays Frank Semyon, a criminal and entrepreneur in danger of losing his empire when his move into legitimate enterprise is upended by the murder of a business partner.
Rachel McAdams plays Ani Bezzerides, a sheriff's detective whose uncompromising ethics put her at odds with others and the system she serves.
Taylor Kitsch portrays Paul Woodrugh, a war veteran and a highway patrol motorcycle officer, running from a difficult past and the sudden glare of a scandal that never happened.
The cast also includes Kelly Reilly as Jordan Semyon, Frank's wife, a former D-list actress who is a full partner in his enterprises and ambitions; Christopher James Baker as Blake Churchman; Afemo Omilami as Police Chief Holloway; Chris Kerson as Nails; and James Frain as Lt. Kevin Burris.
Season 3
Playing out in three separate time periods, the third season tells the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks, and a mystery that deepens over decades.
Mahershala Ali stars as state police detective Wayne Hays, with Stephen Dorff starring as Roland West, the detective who investigated the case with Hays, and Carmen Ejogo starring as schoolteacher and writer Amelia Reardon.
In 2015, retired detective Wayne Hays, his memory failing, looks back at the disappearance of 12-year-old Will and ten-year-old Julie Purcell, recalling the days and weeks immediately following the 1980 crime, as well as developments in 1990, when he and his former partner, Roland West, were subpoenaed after a major break in the case.
What started as a routine case becomes a long journey to dissect and make sense of the crime.
True Detective was created by Nic Pizzolatto; executive producers, Nic Pizzolatto, Scott Stephens, Daniel Sackheim, Jeremy Saulnier, Steve Golin, Richard Brown, Bard Dorros; producer, Peter Feldman.