Season 1 poster
11/09/2024
True Detective

Season 1

In 2012, Louisiana State Police Detectives Rust Cohle and Martin Hart are brought in to revisit a homicide case they worked in 1995. As the inquiry unfolds in present day through separate interrogations, the two former detectives narrate the story of their investigation, reopening unhealed wounds, and drawing into question their supposed solving of a bizarre ritualistic murder in 1995. The timelines braid and converge in 2012 as each man is pulled back into a world they believed they'd left behind. In learning about each other and their killer, it becomes clear that darkness lives on both sides of the law.

More Season 1 Videos

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True Detective
Season 1 Episode 1

The Long Bright Dark

Aired
01/12/2014
Former Louisiana State CID partners Martin Hart and Rustin Cohle give separate statements to a pair of investigators about the murder of a prostitute, Dora Lange, 17 years earlier. As they look back, details of the crime, replete with occult overtones, are accompanied by insights into the detectives’ volatile partnership and personal lives.
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True Detective
Season 1 Episode 2

Seeing Things

Aired
01/19/2014
Under pressure to land a suspect in the Lange murder, Quesada warns Hart and Cohle that they might be replaced by three detectives from a new task force. The pair lobbies for extra time to follow up on a lead that takes them from a rural cathouse to an incinerated church. With his marriage to Maggie already strained by work, Hart finds respite away from home.
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True Detective
Season 1 Episode 3

The Locked Room

Aired
01/26/2014
A hidden image at the burned-out church leads Cohle and Hart to Joel Theriot, a tent-revival minister whose parishioners finger a scarred “tall man” seen with Dora Lange. Brought in for interrogation, a sex offender matching the description is quickly dismissed by Cohle, despite offering a confession. Hart gets sidetracked after Maggie sets Cohle up with a friend at a C&W bar. Looking to establish a pattern of murder, Cohle pores over old case files, finding a connection with a woman assumed to have drowned years earlier.
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True Detective
Season 1 Episode 4

Who Goes There?

Aired
02/09/2014
Hart and Cohle hunt for their newly identified suspect, Reggie Ledoux, a meth cooker who shared a cell with Dora Lange's husband and recently skipped parole. As Hart's personal life collapses around him, Cohle immerses himself in an old criminal identity from his narco days, contacting an East-Texas biker gang known to deal with their primary suspect.
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True Detective
Season 1 Episode 5

The Secret Fate of All Life

Aired
02/16/2014
A violent denouement in the forest clears the Dora Lange case and turns Cohle and Hart into local heroes. Each man settles into a healthier rhythm of living as Hart returns to his family, and Cohle starts a relationship while gaining a reputation as a closer in interrogations. As time passes and his daughters grow older, Hart faces new tensions and temptations, and Cohle learns from a double-murder suspect that there could be much more to an old case than he'd once thought. In 2012, Gilbough and Papania put their cards on the table, presenting new intelligence that threatens Cohle and causes Hart to reassess everything he thought he knew about his former partner.
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True Detective
Season 1 Episode 6

Haunted Houses

Aired
02/23/2014
Maggie reveals Cohle's activities in 2002, when his relationship with Hart fractured and he quit the force.
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True Detective
Season 1 Episode 7

After You've Gone

Aired
03/02/2014
Hart and Cohle call a truce to investigate a series of disappearances that may be related to the Dora Lange murder and the Tuttle family.
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True Detective
Season 1 Episode 8

Form and Void

Aired
03/09/2014
An overlooked detail provides Hart and Cohle with an important new lead in their 17-year-old case.
Cast for True Detective Season 1
Matthew McConaughey as Rust Cohle in Season 1 (01/2014)
Matthew McConaughey

Rust Cohle

Woody Harrelson as Martin Hart in Season 1 (01/2014)
Woody Harrelson

Martin Hart

Michelle Monaghan as Maggie Hart in Season 1 (01/2014)
Michelle Monaghan

Maggie Hart

Michael Potts as Maynard Gilbough in Season 1 (01/2014)
Michael Potts

Maynard Gilbough

Tory Kittles as Thomas Papania in Season 1 (01/2014)
Tory Kittles

Thomas Papania

Crew for True Detective Season 1
Jessica Levin

Co-Producer

Jim Black

Music Supervisor

Mick Aniceto

Associate Producer

Carol Cuddy

Producer

Shari Johanson

Music Editor

Christine Kromer

Casting

Alexa L. Fogel as Casting in Season 1 (01/2014)
Alexa L. Fogel

Casting

Diane H. Newman

Script Supervisor

Cynthia Anne Slagter

Set Decoration

Tim Beach

Art Direction

Carl Counts

Art Department Coordinator

Eliza Paley

Supervising Sound Editor

Mara LePere-Schloop

Art Direction

Jenny Eagan as Costume Design in Season 1 (01/2014)
Jenny Eagan

Costume Design