We’ve been seeing teasers pop up for HBO’s forthcoming miniseries True Detective for a while now, but the new trailer for the show may be its strongest yet. Running over one minute and thirty seconds, it highlights the show’s strong cast while also noting the epic sweep of its narrative; the series unfolds across seventeen years.
The trailer does a great job of communicating True Detective‘s relentlessly dark, moody tone. Ominous music plays in the background as eerie scenes of desolate Southern wilderness appear. Voice-overs from Woody Harrelson’s Martin Hart and Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle also help to establish the show’s grim, gritty feel.
True Detective follows Hart and Cohle, two detectives who hunt a serial killer through the backwoods of Louisiana across seventeen years. The case takes a heavy emotional toll on the detectives, who are both also grappling with issues of their own. The eight-episode series, which was entirely directed by Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre), was created and written by novelist Nic Pizzolatto.
HBO also recently released some new clips for True Detective. One, “Christ Tent Revival,” focuses on the heavily religious nature of many Southerners, while the other two introduce Hart and Cohle.
“This world is a veil, and the face you wear is not your own,” warns a preacher in the above video. That’s also an apt description of True Detective, it would seem, as both detectives are guarding secrets throughout their search for a monstrous killer.
Eerie dialogue from Cohle and Hart suggest tormented psyches beneath the detectives’ rugged exteriors. Hart is a veteran detective at the outset of the series, while Cohle appears to be a little green around the edges, at least at first.
This series looks better with every clip I see from it, and I’m eager to see if McConaughey and Harrelson are as brilliant in their roles as initial appearances suggest.
True Detective co-stars Michelle Monaghan, Kevin Dunne, Alexandra Daddario, Tory Kittles, Michael Potts and Elizabeth Reaser.
Will you be checking out this HBO series? Let us know in the comments section!
True Detective premieres on January 12th.
