Ahh HBO. You are a breathe of fresh air in a putrid pool of network television. You have signaled the turning of the tides, the relocation of true adult entertainment, providing the catalyst that has marked a significant reinvention of what TV could be. And you, like a fine wine, you only improve with age. Sure, you may not currently be in the best run of all time, but the library of media you’ve amassed is unwaveringly impressive as you continue to provide some of the best things around year after year. And now you offer us a look at your next promising bit, True Detective, a story that follows Rust Cohle and Martin Hart whose lives become entangled during a 17-year hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana and we are oh so intrigued.

Aside from the inspired casting of Sean Bean as Eddard Stark on Game of Thrones, Steve Buchemi as Nucky Thompson on Boardwalk Empire, and whoever Jeff Daniels plays on The Newsroom HBO series have largely launched their own talent. Think James Gandolfini and, sigh, Lena Dunham. This is why their next move seems somewhat unprecedented. Not only will True Detective have one massive star in Woody Harrelson but the series has also scooped up Hollywood A-Lister (a man currently hot on a streak that very well may lead to an Oscar nomination, if not a win) Matthew McConaughey.

McConaughey and Harrelson star opposite each other in the first eight-episode slotted season. From what we see in the chaos, they are men on two sides of a fence but the same side of the law. Although this type of cop procedural is no new news, there is something about this that still screams fresh.

The question is, with McConaughey in such high demand, how reasonable is it to expect this show to continue much past the first season? The synopsis clearly delineates a timeline lasting 17 years which really seems to open up the show and almost require it to continue but I wonder. All I know is that from this first look, I am already geared up for episode one and hope that it manages to fill the dark hole that will open up once Breaking Bad blacks out to its final credits.

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

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