SEASON ONE

GENRE: CRIME DRAMA

It is not for the faint of heart.
Don't get me wrong. I don't mean, “You can't watch this show if you're a coward.” This is not about being brave enough to see some pretty horrific and definitely-not-PG13 scenes (FYI, there's plenty of that). This is a different type of bravery. You need to be sure you're okay with having your beliefs, your prejudices, and your lifestyle shaken quite badly. Scratch that, very badly.
True Detective follows the story of detectives Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) as they hunt a serial killer over a period of 17 years. They're new partners when they get handed a rather scary, ritualistic murder case and as you can expect from any detective story, they're both at each other's throat a lot.
Cohle is a driven, slightly psychotic, definitely nihilistic character who drops psychology and philosophy lessons faster than you drop your jaws when you see a plate of cookies. Hart is your average, non-perfect man who inevitably symbolises everything that's wrong and right about our society and the two build an on-screen rapport that will leave you laughing and frustrated at the same time.
This is a POV shot series, which basically means there's plenty of past and present and future meshing together, but the director does such a brilliant job of it that the hunt for the serial killer, for the missing children and women, is as real to you as it is to them. The dialogue, however, is not. You just do not stumble upon such rare gems in ordinary life 'cause when you listen to Rust explain how time is a flat circle, you will be quite sure that even if Matthew McConaughey did not deserve an award for this, the scriptwriter, Nic Pizzolatto, definitely did. Also, if for you, detective stories are incomplete without shootouts, it has one of the best action sequences ever seen on TV.
At the end of the day, you have your classic betrayal, your murder and rape, your problems with authority, but what makes True Detective so different are the questions and their answers. This show asks you who you are, what you believe in and why you believe in it only to show that you've been wrong all along and sorry, time's up, the answers aren't always there for you to give. Halfway through the series, you'll realise you're not exactly sure what sort of story you're looking at -- the 'it-all-happened-in-my-head' kind, the 'meaning-of-life' kind or the 'good-triumphs-evil' kind.
Watch True Detective if you can live with it being all of those and none.
Trivia: Unfortunately, the series is in anthology format, with new cast of characters and story for each season. So we won't be seeing any more of McConaughey or Harrelson -- a true pity.
Plus side, there's no chance of this beauty getting ruined by sequels.