Samuel and Stoddart have cultivated a strong collection of conversations surrounding a popular yet often polarizing television series. The first season of True Detective attained wide critical acclaim, whereas the second was panned by viewers and critics alike. However, this anthology impressively complicates the dominant readings of each season (and, in so doing, reclaims meaning and value to the maligned second season) with analyses of the show’s representations of gender, space, and morality, offered through literary, cinematic, narrative, thematic, and philosophical lenses. It is a great text for any scholar interested in examining a recent popular culture phenomenon through multiple perspectives.

Todd M. Sodano, St. John Fisher College

In True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series, scholars explore an exemplar of the preeminent narrative form of our time. These essays sensitively probe issues of genre, performance, and adaptation, revealing True Detective’s animation by traditions from the ancient and medieval, to William Faulkner, and Southern Gothic.

William Mooney, Fashion Institute of Technology