How many days to binge True Detective
Pick the pace that matches your life. Days are rounded up, so the last day is usually a short one.
| Pace | Days | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| One episode a day | 30 | 4 |
| 1 hour a day | 32 | 5 |
| 2 hours a day | 16 | 2 |
| 3 hours a day | 11 | 2 |
| 4 hours a day | 8 | 1 |
| 8-hour marathon days | 4 | <1 |
| Non-stop, no sleep | 1 day, 7 hours | |
True Detective runtime by season
| Season | Episodes | Avg runtime | Total | First aired |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 8 | 60 min | 8 hours | January 12, 2014 |
| Season 2 | 8 | 64 min | 8.5 hours | June 21, 2015 |
| Season 3 | 8 | 63 min | 8.4 hours | January 13, 2019 |
| Season 4 | 6 | 66 min | 6.6 hours | January 14, 2024 |
About True Detective
Touch darkness and darkness touches you back. True Detective centers on troubled cops and the investigations that drive them to the edge. Each season features a new cast and a new case. True Detective is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto.
How to get through True Detective faster
- Skip the intro. Roughly a minute and a quarter per episode adds up to about 38 minutes across the whole run.
- Bump the speed. At 1.25× the total drops to 25.2 hours; at 1.5× it's 21 hours.
- Watch with a comment section. A running conversation pinned to each moment makes long stretches feel shorter, and it's the reason TalkAbtIT exists.
True Detective FAQ
How long does it take to watch all of True Detective?
1 day, 7 hours of screen time. That's 30 episodes at about 63 minutes each. At two hours a night it takes 16 days.
How many episodes of True Detective are there?
30 regular episodes across 4 seasons (2014–present). Specials and recap episodes are not counted.
How long is an episode of True Detective?
Episodes average 63 minutes. The per-season table above shows where runtimes change.
Is True Detective still running?
TVmaze lists True Detective as “Running”. No next episode date is listed yet. See the release countdown.
More binge times
Episode data from TVmaze, refreshed weekly (last update 2026-09-23). Runtimes are as listed per episode, so totals exclude recaps you skip and credits you don't.