True Detective writer Nic Pizzolatto joined all the best TV creative talent for the Hollywood Reporter's annual Drama Showrunner Roundtable recently where they all had a good old natter about everything and anything that goes into making their hit shows.

Pizzolatto talked frankly about the pressure he felt for the second series of True Detective saying; "I'm treating it like this year's novel. It's going to be the same genre, and what carries over is the authorial vision, the authorial voice. The same way you can pick up a book by a particular author. You have your favorite book by that author, and then his lesser works. I might have built myself a nice coffin here. But writing got me into this, and writing's going to have to get me out. There's a way in this business -- I mean, I just started -- but you have to get off on the pressure, right?"

He also revealed the 'homework' he gave the first seasons stars Matthew McConnaughey and Woody Harrelson before they even began filming. Funnily enough, it seems to make a great TV show, you need to have watched the greatest TV shows - the writer gave them each of copy The Wire and Deadwood. Excellent choices, and not too shabby as homework goes really is it?

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