It’s official, “True Detective” is a home run for HBO. Not only is it critically acclaimed, but, according to Deadline, the show’s debut episode had the best rating for any premiere in the last three years.
The new series pulled in 2.3 million viewers in it debut airing for the best HBO premiere since Boardwalk Empire launched in 2010 with 4.8 million viewers. True Detectives beat both the 2011 Game Of Thrones opener’s 2.2 million and the now-heading for its third and final seasonThe Newsroom, which drew 2.1 million in its 2012 beginning.
After watching the first two episodes (you can find recaps of both episodes right here on our site thanks to TYF contributor, Max) I can, safely, say that I am hooked. It’s certainly one of the best character-driven series on television in a very long time and the pairing of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, with their excellent chemistry, has propelled the show to must-watch territory in short order. There’s a lot to love about “True Detective”, but that, and its early success, can all be traced back to creator Nic Pizzolatto and his very capable crew. HBO recognizes that and have decided to extend their deal with Pizzolatto for another two years.
Now HBO has inked a new two-year overall deal with Pizzolatto, who is working on a second season of True Detective. I hear he is currently preparing a draft to present to HBO executives who are expected to proceed with a Season 2 given the performance of the first installment whose premiere was HBO’s most watched series debut in more than three years and has garnered 7.7 million viewers to date on various platforms.
While that is good news for Pizzolatto and the show itself, the most interesting bit is the various possibilities we may get with future installments of “True Detective”. In case you didn’t know, the series will be an anthology in the vein of “American Horror Story”. It’ll be a shame to see McConaughey and Harrelson go after this first season (expect them to be incredibly early favorites for awards contention) but keeping things new might extend the show’s life considerably and take it into new, exciting territory.
While that story is self-contained and McConaughey and Harrelson indicated that they will not be returning for future installments, the anthology series will keep a duo of detective characters at the center going forward, narrating the story. “If we got to do it again, the setting would be a major character, along with our leads,” with the show set in a place “you wouldn’t normally set a television show,” Pizzolatto said at TCA earlier this month. “I tried to make the format as broad for my tastes as possible in the sense that this is almost the True Detective version of a buddy‑cop movie hunting for a serial killer. And there could be a season that’s much more of a widespread conspiracy thriller, a season that’s a small‑town murder mystery, a season where nobody is murdered and it’s a master criminal versus a rogue detective or something.
If you’re not watching “True Detective” yet, I cannot encourage you enough to check it out. You won’t regret it.
You can read more at Deadline.
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