HBO’s new dramatic series True Detective will kick off its eight episode season one run on January 12, 2014 at 9pm starring Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, and Michelle Monaghan. The series was created by novelist Nic Pizzolatto, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (Jane Eyre), with McConaughey, Harrelson, Steve Golin, and Scott Stephens executive producing. True Detective also features Kevin Dunn, Tory Kittles, Michael Potts, Elizabeth Reaser, Shea Whigham, Clarke Peters, Jay O. Sanders, and Lili Simmons.

And with the debut date just a couple of weeks away, HBO’s released plot details as well as info on the January episodes.

The Plot:

1995: Detectives Martin Hart and Rust Cohle, partners in Louisiana’s Criminal Investigation Division, are assigned to a macabre murder by a killer with disturbing occult leanings. As they attempt to uncover the secrets of this bizarre crime, their own lives collide and intertwine in unexpected, sometimes catastrophic ways.

2012: When a similar case leads to an investigation of the original ’95 murder by two new detectives, Martin and Rust separately tell the story of both the investigation and their lives, including why Cohle left CID in 2002.

True Detective January 2014 Episodes:

• Episode #1: “The Long Bright Dark”
  Debut: SUNDAY, JAN. 12 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT)
  Other HBO playdates: Jan. 12 (11:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m.), 13 (12:15 a.m.), 14 (9:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m.), 15 (10:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m.), 16 (midnight), 17 (9:00 p.m.), 18 (1:00 a.m.) and 24 (8:00 p.m.), and Feb. 4 (11:00 p.m.), 7 (7:00 p.m.) and 8 (10:15 p.m.)
  HBO2 playdates: Jan. 13 (9:00 p.m.), 17 (1:15 a.m.) and 19 (3:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.), and Feb. 1 (5:00 p.m.) and 9 (4:00 p.m.)
  Former Louisiana State CID partners Martin Hart and Rustin Cohle give separate statements to a pair of investigators about the murder of a prostitute, Dora Lange, 17 years earlier. As they look back, details of the crime, replete with occult overtones, are accompanied by insights into the detectives’ volatile partnership and personal lives.
  Written by Nic Pizzolatto; directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga.
• Episode #2: “Seeing Things”
  Debut: SUNDAY, JAN. 19 (9:00-10:00 p.m.)
  Other HBO playdates: Jan. 19 (11:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m.), 20 (12:15 a.m.), 21 (8:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m.), 22 (10:00 p.m.), 23 (midnight), 24 (9:00 p.m.), 25 (9:45 p.m.) and 31 (8:00 p.m.), and Feb. 4 (midnight), 7 (8:00 p.m.) and 8 (11:15 p.m.)
  HBO2 playdates: Jan. 20 (9:00 p.m.), 24 (1:15 a.m.) and 26 (12:30 p.m., 8:00 p.m.), and Feb. 1 (6:00 p.m.) and 9 (5:00 p.m.)
  Under pressure to land a suspect in the Lange murder, Quesada warns Hart and Cohle that they might be replaced by three detectives from a new task force. The pair lobbies for extra time to follow up on a lead that takes them from a rural cathouse to an incinerated church. With his marriage to Maggie already strained by work, Hart finds respite away from home.
  Written by Nic Pizzolatto; directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga.
• Episode #3: “The Locked Room”
  Debut: SUNDAY, JAN. 26 (9:00-10:00 p.m.)
  Other HBO playdates: Jan. 26 (11:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m.), 27 (11:45 p.m.), 28 (9:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m.), 29 (10:00 p.m.), 30 (11:45 p.m.) and 31 (9:00 p.m.), and Feb. 1 (9:00 p.m.), 5 (10:00 p.m.), 6 (midnight), 7 (9:00 p.m.), 8 (12:15 a.m.) and 14 (8:00 p.m.)
  HBO2 playdates: Jan. 27 (9:00 p.m.) and 31 (1:40 a.m.), and Feb. 1 (7:00 p.m.), 2 (12:30 a.m.), 3 (9:00 p.m.) and 9 (6:00 p.m.)
  A hidden image at the burned-out church leads Cohle and Hart to Joel Theriot, a tent-revival minister whose parishioners finger a scarred “tall man” seen with Dora Lange. Brought in for interrogation, a sex offender matching the description is quickly dismissed by Cohle, despite offering a confession. Hart gets sidetracked after Maggie sets Cohle up with a friend at a C&W bar. Looking to establish a pattern of murder, Cohle pores over old case files, finding a connection with a woman assumed to have drowned years earlier.
  Written by Nic Pizzolatto; directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga.