OK, 2014 is less than two weeks old so this may be a little premature, but my vote for best new TV series of the year goes to HBO for "True Detective." It's a tour de force from its first moments.
It's also my favorite kind of series, a character-driven story told slowly, unfolding like the peeling of an onion, layer after layer after layer. This one involves two Louisiana detectives working one case in which they tried to track a serial killer together 17 years ago, and now have that case come back on them and rear its ugly head again. The now-older, now-estranged detectives are being deposed by other cops about the case because the files got destroyed by hurricane Katrina. The story is thus told in two timestreams -- back then, and here and now. Now imagine that the two detectives are played by Woody Harrelson and Mathew McConaughay, and you've got yerself one helluva TV series. Series creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto is a relative newcomer, with only a couple of episodes of the US version of "The Killing" under his belt. But he handles his material and his characters like a master. Cary Fukunaga directs like an old master himself, greatly assisted by his cinematographers, who turn back-country Louisiana into a third major character in the drama. It's dark, as you would imagine a series about trying to track down a metapsychotic serial killer might be, so it might not be everyone here's cuppa tea. But if you love great, character-driven movies and TV (and you get HBO), this one's gonna be on your Don't Miss list. It's already on mine, after one episode. The official trailer is at the first link below. The second link is a 13-minute "Making Of" special that (warning) might leave you as excited about the series as I am. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXG1netn9_g <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXG1netn9_g> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoYq2bDaGt4 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoYq2bDaGt4>
