During a TCA Q&A panel in 2014, quoted by Assignment X, show creator Nic Pizzolatto said, “[T]he title ‘TRUE DETECTIVE’ [sic] is meant to be, of course, purposefully someone [sic] generic before you even get to the deeper indications.” The name is ironic, given the association with the magazine, but it also makes sense.
“True Detective” the show is much more dramatic and features fictional crimes, not real ones. It also deconstructs complicated lawmen characters like Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Wayne Hays (Mahershala Ali) instead of sharing the older magazine’s black-and-white morality. True Detective Magazine split cops and criminals into pure good and evil, but the drama suggests this isn’t ever really possible.
However, Pizzolatto notes in the same interview, “The word ‘true’ can also mean honorable and authentic and things like that.” The show’s main protagonists often commit questionable, even morally awful, actions. Still, they can also dedicate themselves to doing the right thing and solving the central mysteries by any means necessary. This is what makes them, in the end, “true” detectives.
