True Detective

True Detective is a miniseries from HBO written by the up-and-coming amazingly talented writer Nic Pizzolatto who was an incredible career ahead of him if he can keep up with this quality of writing. On the surface the show is about two detectives trying to catch a serial killer, a hunt which spans 17 years. However the show is about humanity, the darkness, the light, the forgotten parts of the human psyche, the struggles and coping mechanisms. The show has a star studded high calibre cast lead by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.

The show is a slow burner that builds up to a climax with the final episode, very similar to my favourite show of all time The Wire. The show is deliberately paced so that we can study the characters in each seen, get a feel for who there are, where they come from, what makes them tick and why they do what they do. In Rust (Matthew McConaughey) we have a hardy detective in self imposed purgatory while Marty (Woody Harrelson) seems to be a family man with deep feelings of discontent who occasionally has affairs as a way of avoiding the reality of his problems. Their partnership is a fragile one which grows after passing a few tests of the 17 years the series takes us through. The partnership becomes about the job, the one true passion for both of them and the debt they owe (themselves) in not having solved the case earlier.

The performance from each and every actor in this show is of the highest quality but the stand out performance is from Matthew McConaughey who I believe deserves an Emmy. He delivers performances of outstanding quality every episode that makes him the centre of attention in every scene he's in. The level of performance is only possible because of the excellent writing, and it amazes me that one person could have written all 8 episodes. Usually theres an army of writers but Nic Pizzolatto managed to write this master piece all by himself.

I look forward to the next series in this anthology.