True Detective is an American anthology crime drama television series created by Nic Pizzolatto for the premium cable network HBO.

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.

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.

[7] 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][9] 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.

[10][11] By this time, Pizzolatto secured a development deal with HBO,[7] and by April 2012, the network commissioned True Detective on an order of eight episodes.

[6] 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.

[24] 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.

[26] 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.

[30][31] For the fourth season, Night Country, a new sequence was commissioned from London-based Peter Anderson Studios,[32] set to Billie Eilish's song "Bury a Friend", a major influence on the show cited by showrunner Issa López.

[36][37][38] Michelle Monaghan played the female lead Maggie Hart,[39] while Michael Potts and Tory Kittles were given the roles of Detectives Maynard Gilbough and Thomas Papania, respectively.

[40][42] 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.

[46] 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.

[60] 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.

The season, subtitled Night Country, is set in Alaska, and follows detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro as they investigate the disappearance of eight men from a research station.

[65] Further cast additions were announced in October 2022, including Aka Niviâna, Isabella Star LaBlanc and Joel D. Montgrand, while also confirming that the new season would be the first not written by Pizzolatto, who will turn over primary writing and showrunning duties to López.

The site's critical consensus reads, "In True Detective, performances by Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey reel the viewer in, while the style, vision and direction make it hard to turn away.

[83] HitFix's Alan Sepinwall agreed, and believed that these attributes "speak to the value of the hybrid anthology format Pizzolatto is using here ... points to a potentially fascinating shift in dramatic series television".

[84] Richard Lawson, writing for Vanity Fair, said that Pizzolatto and Fukunaga's sensibilities produce "a captivating and offbeat tweak of a well-worn genre".

The New York Times journalist Mike Hale thought the script too readily deferred to religion as its narrative backbone,[86] as did Chris Cabin from Slant Magazine.

Robert Bianco in USA Today wrote that the duo met, and even exceeded occasionally, the "enormously high" performance expectations of the "golden age of TV acting".

[89] David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times journalist Robert Lloyd singled out the two men for their work in the series;[90][91] The Boston Globe did the same for Monaghan.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Despite some memorably grizzled performances, True Detective's second season is florid to a fault and so unrelentingly grim that it becomes about as much fun as being stuck in L.A.

[74] David Hinckley of the New York Daily News gave it a very positive review, and wrote: "It's still the kind of show that makes TV viewers reach for phrases like 'golden age of television drama'" and "the second installment of True Detective goes out of the way not to echo the first".

[99] Hank Stuever of The Washington Post gave it a generally positive review, praising the performances, and wrote: "There is something still lugubrious and overwrought about True Detective, but there's also a mesmerizing style to it — it's imperfect, but well made.

"[100] A mixed review came from Brian Lowry of Variety, who wrote: "Although generally watchable, the inspiration that turned the first [season] into an obsession for many seems to have drained out of writer Nic Pizzolatto's prose.

"[101] Sean T. Collins of Rolling Stone gave it a negative review and described the season as having "emerged as the year's most passionately disliked show", and described it as a "squandered opportunity" for Nic Pizzolatto.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Driven by Mahershala Ali's mesmerizing performance, True Detective's third season finds fresh perspective by exploring the fallibility of memory.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Frighteningly atmospheric and anchored by Jodie Foster and Kali Reis' superb performances, Night Country is a fresh and frosty variation on True Detective's existential themes.