HBO’s “True Detective” still has three episodes to go in its first season, which will end the story of Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle and Woody Harrelson’s Marty Hart. Though the show is drawing glowing reviews and big ratings (recent episodes have drawn a cumulative rating of 11 million viewers per week), it has yet to be renewed for a second season, mainly because of the unusual nature of the series. It’s an anthology show, like FX’s “American Horror Story,” and a second season would feature an entirely new group of characters, and likely an entirely new group of actors – though I can imagine HBO is doing whatever it can to get McConaughey and Harrelson to return, even in a reduced capacity. There will surely be another season; the announcement will just wait until HBO has found a satisfactory cast (preferably with a lead as famous and talented as McConaughey).
We don’t know what the premise of season 2 would be, or whether it would even feature another pair of cops (for what it’s worth, Nic Pizzolatto told me that that’s not necessarily the plan). But excitement over this first season led yesterday to one of the great hashtag games in Twitter history: #TrueDetectiveSeason2, in which Twitter users began posting suggestions – most of them jokes, a few serious – of who should succeed Cohle and Hart.
Some were former police pairings (albeit unlikely ones):
#TrueDetectiveSeason2 pic.twitter.com/f5oFjrqs5a
– Scott Tobias (@scott_tobias) February 20, 2014
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#TrueDetectiveSeason2 pic.twitter.com/lVfvzgmS5i
– Michael Atlan (@FUNCULTUREPOP) February 20, 2014
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Some featured an actor or two who would grow up to play a TV cop
#TrueDetectiveSeason2 pic.twitter.com/NteVFWi15S
– Matt Fowler (@TheMattFowler) February 21, 2014
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Some wanted desperately for season 2 to resemble season 1 as much as possible
#TrueDetectiveSeason2 pic.twitter.com/WsxfvAPuhb
– Jaime J. Weinman (@weinmanj) February 20, 2014
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Some found a way to cast two new heroes and a new villain at the same time
#TrueDetectiveSeason2 pic.twitter.com/hztTc5BMjt
– David J. Loehr (@dloehr) February 20, 2014
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Some went for the biggest name value possible, possibly in a Western setting
#truedetectiveseason2 pic.twitter.com/jFvzlTXFN7
– kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) February 21, 2014
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Some were caught up in Olympic fever
#TrueDetectiveSeason2 pic.twitter.com/ufMacPsROF
– Ryan McGee (@TVMcGee) February 21, 2014
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Some tried to take the idea seriously, and/or continue a beloved recent series:
#TrueDetectiveSeason2 Not actually joking… pic.twitter.com/O5Ajwz8oc5
– Mo Ryan (@moryan) February 20, 2014
I’m sure I’m redundant but it bears repeating… #TrueDetectiveSeason2 pic.twitter.com/AchLlbEoKW
– Libby Hill (@midwestspitfire) February 21, 2014
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And many were just shameless ’80s nostalgia:
#TrueDetectiveSeason2 @sepinwall pic.twitter.com/rd4BEs54qM
– Omar L. Gallaga (@omarg) February 20, 2014
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#TrueDetectiveSeason2 pic.twitter.com/iggtVZICC8
– Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) February 21, 2014
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#TrueDetectiveSeason2 pic.twitter.com/PbYrCAq9P3
– Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) February 20, 2014
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And this, of course, should have been my first #TrueDetectiveSeason2 idea pic.twitter.com/YfOhbSsBfg
– Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) February 20, 2014
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Does anyone have a favorite idea, whether a joke or for real? In your ideal world, who would succeed Matthew and Woody in a second season? And do you agree that this is the winner as either joke or reality?
Yeah, per @hownowbrownmow, I think we have our #TrueDetectiveSeason2 winner pic.twitter.com/mzXoeYvjyq
– Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) February 20, 2014