Every Main Character From True Detective Ranked From Worst To Best

How do you find a counterbalance to Rustin Cohle?

In the first season, two detectives investigate a gritty murder in the Louisiana swamps. Next to Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson finds a charming but deeply flawed person in Marty Harty. As a more traditional and seasoned detective, Marty Hart serves as the voice of reason against his nihilistic partner.

Throughout the eight-episode arc, the unfolding of Marty is more subtle than Rusty, and could be argued as being overshadowed. At the beginning he is a family man who enjoys a beer with his co-workers, but after the Dora Lang case we watch him spiral into a former shell of himself.

He executes a suspect in handcuffs, loses his marriage and retires into a lonely life with nothing to gain or lose. It is the reopening of the case, and the return of Rusty that reignites his energy as a detective.

One point to make about Marty is that across the first season we are led to believe Rusty is the more insightful detective. But it is in the final episode, Marty is the observant one who thinks outside the box, and inevitably helps close the net around Errol Childress- through taxes of all things.