10 Best Single TV Seasons Ever

It's easy to point out how True Detective's second and third seasons didn't live up to the hype generated by the show's debut year, but one also has to consider how high the bar had been set with that inaugural season.

Not just was True Detective's first season an entertainment highlight of 2014, it holds up as one of the finest single seasons of TV ever. Of course, taking an anthology approach and dedicating each season to a certain set of characters within that season's own unique narrative helped put a nice bookend on Season One, but we've seen before how anthology shows can fall flat on their face.

For this debut outing, the action is based in 1995 Louisiana as detectives Rust and Marty initially start delving into the murder of a prostitute. In Rust, we have a man battling his demons in the bottom of a bottle, while married Marty's problems often come from his wandering eye and infidelity. There's drugs, religion, warring partners and a brilliant dollop of mystery and intrigue to this first season, and Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are on phenomenal form as Rust and Marty, respectively.

Then again, everything about True Detective's first season is on phenomenal form, and it's just a shame that the bar set by this debut season was unable to be matched by the seasons that followed it.