When Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey made the deliriously comedic Edtv together in 1999, I would find it hard to imagine they would be tag teaming in HBO’s darkly brilliant 8 hour miniseries True Detective over 13 years later.  Then again, each actor had taken chances by then in addition to their well-known comfort zones.   Woody didn’t stray too far from his weirdo humor except for random occasions like Natural Born Killers and The People Versus Larry Flynt(both involving a heavy dose of dark humor).  McConaughey flirted with his demons in Frailty and Lone Star.

Trust me when I say that each actor is on a completely different level here.  Their work on this show tells you how much of a roll they have been on in recent years. Playing a pair of detectives investigating a gruesome crime in 1995 while they tell modern investigators about their methods in present day, the two actors are spellbindingly flawless in their roles.

Creator and writer Nick Pizzalatto frames the 8 hours around these two cops and their personal lives.  Martin Hart (Harrelson) is a deeply flawed man with a wife and kids yet is slowly crumbling under the weight of infidelity and nerves that are nearly fried.  McConaughey’s Rust Cohle is the polar opposite, a spiritual outcast who gives new meaning to the word eccentric and practices methods other detectives find creepy and uncomfortable.

Watching these two work with each other and get lost inside these deeply layered roles, a viewer is taken aback at what they are watching.  Are these the same guys who wasted a decent part of their career playing softball instead of spending more time in the A List pro class?  It’s a marvel to partake in every single hour.

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