HBO Debuts New Trailer for True Detective

The newest addition to HBO’s assembly line of awesome television is True Detective, starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. They’ve now released a full trailer for the upcoming series.

Right now, True Detective appears to be a planned miniseries, with Harrelson and McConaughey signed on for one season which will consist of 8 episodes that will span 17 in-universe years. If the series is successful-I’d say there’s very little doubt of that-the presumption is that True Detective will then become an anthology series (a la American Horror Story) where each season will introduce a new cast and plot.

The plot of this first season sees Harrelson and McConaughey playing two detectives named Rust Cohle and Martin Hart who meet and spend seventeen years hunting a serial killer in Louisiana. A 1995 murder case is reopened in 2012, and this provides the series with the necessary framework that allows the detectives’ testimony about the case to tell the story to the audience.

If the idea of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey traversing Louisiana for seventeen years to look for a serial killer wasn’t enough to hook you, this trailer should do the job. As I watched the trailer, I couldn’t help but notice how similar the look and feel are, in my eyes, to David Fincher’s 2007 film Zodiac. Fincher’s film deftly captures the muted life of obsession; the dark, colorless, and lonely world you construct around yourself when you focus on a singular passion. That’s Zodiac, and-at least the trailer for-True Detective feels like it has captured that same raw look and feel. On top of that, it’s all taking place in the always interesting setting of Louisiana. I can’t wait to see if this series lives up to my lofty expectations.

True Detective stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey; with Michelle Monaghan, Alexandra Daddario, and Elizabeth Reaser. It is set to premiere on HBO in January 2014.