To prepare, Matthew McConaughey created a four hundred fifty-page analysis, the "Four Stages of Rustin Cohle," to study his character's evolution over the course of the story.
According to Matthew McConaughey, the entirety of Rust Cohle's interview scenes were shot in one day; this means about twenty-eight pages of a four hundred fifty page season one script were filmed over the course of an eighteen hour work day.
Episodes averaged 11.2 million viewers, making it the most watched first season of an HBO original series since Band of Brothers (2001).
Rust Cohle is based on a high school teacher in Arkansas, who also worked on the police force.
Series creator Nic Pizzolatto wrote the first season by himself, without any input from a writing staff (which is unusual for a major American television series). For the second season, he hired author Scott Lasser to help break stories.