20 TV Show Pilots That Are Totally Flawless
16. The Long Bright Dark - True Detective
Before he decided to turn it into an anthology series, Nic Pizzolatto envisioned True Detective as a novel, and that original idea shines through the show's first episode in the way it plays with time and its deeply engrossing themes of memory, age, and the human condition.
Though the way in which it sets up the season's haunting mystery suggests that the show will just be another admittedly great crime procedural, The Long Bright Dark makes it clear that the main drive of the story comes from the relationship of veteran detectives Rust Cohle and Marty Hart.
With unblemished, career-best performances from both Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, the episode moves between past and future to tell an epic tale of friendship against the backdrop of a tantalising Louisiana murder mystery, and the results are both profound and utterly compelling.