True Detective Trailer: The World Needs Bad Men

HBO has released the first official trailer from upcoming crime drama True Detective, set to star Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. The eight-episode first season of the series, which will air alongside Girls in early 2014, will follow Detective Martin Hart and Detective Rust Cohle as their paths cross during an investigation into a serial killer in 1985. Set in Louisiana, True Detective will go back and forth between the investigation and a 2012 reopening of the case, which will feature testimony from each detective.

The reaction to True Detective will be interesting to watch, since there’s been a recent influx of serial killer dramas that could cause buzz to be lower than expected for a new HBO drama with movie star leads and a slick trailer. While it’s sure to earn its fair share of accolades, especially if rumors prove true and the series becomes an anthology, the series will have to contend with recent successes of The Bridge, The Killing, and The Following, as well as the shadow of Broadchurch‘s rapturous critical response, in order to stand out and continue HBO’s reputation for being “not just TV.”

It also has the added pressure of being the first in line for the next generation of HBO dramas, with True Blood ending next year, Treme concluding in December, and Boardwalk Empire cooling off after a blistering first three years of award recognition. There’s a chance it could end up as the only new HBO drama next year and if it ends up underwhelming, the network will be under the gun to find its next great drama, one that would likely have to be more boundary pushing than something like True Detective.

In addition to Harrelson and McConaughey, True Detective is set to star Michelle Monaghan (Source Code), Tory Kittles (Sons of Anarchy), Lili Simmons (Banshee), Elizabeth Reaser (The Good Wife), and Brad Carter (Smashed).

True Detective will premiere this January on HBO.

Will you be watching True Detective? Does the trailer look like you expected it would? Is there a chance that this becomes the next great HBO drama?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8i5CR4kDjM