10 TV Performances Way Better Than Anyone Expected

2. Matthew McConaughey - True Detective

When True Detective debuted back in 2014, the McConaissance was already underway, if not quite in full swing. He'd proved his chops in Dallas Buyers Club, but this was before he'd claimed the Oscar for it (which would then turn far more eyes towards the role, and was aided by the True Detective hype too), and his reputation was still largely that of a faded rom-com surfer dude type.

He changed all that with Rust Cohle, who is one of the greatest single-season TV characters to have ever existed. Hell, he's one of the great characters, period. Across multiple timelines, Cohle's lone star shines brighter than all the rest. Sure, Woody Harrelson is excellent too, in a more understated (and less surprising) way, but it's through Cohle that True Detective transcended television and permeated the pop-culture mythos.

McConaughey uses many of his old tricks - his classic good looks, his alluring Southern drawl - to draw us in, but not in the ways he has in the past,. Here, those looks are used to juxtapose the older, haggard version of his character. There's the boyish charm contrasted with the almost creepy, unkempt loser. The drawl isn't to simply say 'alright, alright, alright', but to pontificate and ponder on life and things even larger still. The philosophising, in almost anyone else's hands (or voice) would be at best cliched, at worst laughable. But with McConaughey, you believe in it. You root for Rust Cohle even as he can't root for himself. There's something rather ineffable about it, in the way he is so completely magnetic every time he is on screen. After all those years of rom-coms, McConaughey showed us what he's truly capable of in his best ever performance. There's a victory in that.