True Detective
AnthologyA new story or cast with every episode or season.This show: 9/10AtmosphericMood and place thick enough to touch.This show: 9/10Detective mysteryCrime-solving from the investigator's side of the table.This show: 9/10Dark toneShadowy mood and subject matter, a shade short of outright bleak.This show: 9/10Slow burnDeliberate pacing where the payoffs are earned over long stretches.This show: 8/10BleakGrim and heavy, with little easy relief. These shows sit with suffering instead of softening it.This show: 8/10Character studyInterior life matters more than plot.This show: 8/10Morally grayNo clean heroes or villains anywhere in sight.This show: 8/10
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Starring
Vince VaughnColin FarrellRachel McAdamsTaylor KitschMatthew McConaugheyMahershala Ali
Written by
Nic PizzolattoIssa López
Starring
Vince VaughnColin FarrellRachel McAdamsTaylor KitschMatthew McConaugheyMahershala Ali
Written by
Nic PizzolattoIssa López
Ratings per Episode
Votes per Episode
True Detective Episode Ratings Heatmap
| Avg | E1 | E2 | E3 | E4 | E5 | E6 | E7 | E8 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | 9.3 | 8.9 | 8.8 | 9.1 | 9.6 | 9.5 | 9.2 | 9.2 | 9.6 | |
| S2 | 7.8 | 7.5 | 7.6 | 7.3 | 8.1 | 7.6 | 8.2 | 8.5 | 8.0 | |
| S3 | 8.2 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 7.7 | 8.0 | 8.3 | 8.3 | 8.5 | 8.0 | |
| S4 | 6.4 | 7.1 | 6.8 | 6.3 | 6.2 | 6.8 | 5.4 |
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About
"Prestige noir that lives or dies on mood"
An anthology crime series in which each season drops a new pair of detectives into a self-contained, brutal murder case tangled up with the personal demons of the investigators themselves. The setting and cast change every time, but the mood stays heavy: rain-soaked or frost-bitten landscapes, fractured timelines, long philosophical monologues about time, guilt, and fate. It moves slowly and lingers on atmosphere over action, asking you to sit with dread rather than chase twists. When it clicks, it's hypnotic; when it doesn't, the brooding can feel like posturing.
Watch it for
the atmosphere and lead performances, which can turn a slow-burn case into something haunting.
Maybe skip if
you want tight plotting over mood, since quality and coherence swing wildly by season.
Written by our AI editor to help you decide, spoiler-free by design.
All Seasons
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Season 12014
9.3298K87h 37m
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.
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Season 22015
7.8105K88h 19m
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.
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Season 32019
8.276K88h 10m
Season 3 tells the story of a macabre crime involving two missing children in the heart of the Ozarks, a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods.
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Night Country2024
6.493K66h 19m
When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.
Full Cast & Crew
Cast
Vince Vaughn Frank Semyon
Colin Farrell Detective Ray Velcoro
Rachel McAdams Detective Ani Bezzerides
Taylor Kitsch Officer Paul Woodrugh
Matthew McConaughey Detective Rust Cohle
Mahershala Ali Detective Wayne Hays
Woody Harrelson Detective Marty Hart
Carmen Ejogo Amelia Reardon
Michelle Monaghan Maggie Hart
Stephen Dorff Detective Roland West
Crew
Nic Pizzolatto
Issa López
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