“True Detective” wraps up its first season on Sunday, and we’re sad to see it go — and not just for the first-rate storytelling. Stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have now earned their place among TV’s best — and hottest — detectives. There’s just something about a man who’s good at reading the clues! In honor of Rust and Marty’s final bow, take a look at the other male private investigators we’ve been smitten with over the decades:
Peter Falk as Columbo on ‘Columbo’ (1968)
Falk’s scrappy detective outwitted criminals for over two decades, under the guise of being an absent-minded schlub.
James Garner as Jim Rockford on ‘The Rockford Files’ (1974)
Garner’s private eye was an ace at talking, not fighting, his way out of trouble.
Tom Selleck as Magnum on ‘Magnum, P.I.’ (1980)
Selleck brought sexy to the small screen with his signature ‘stache and hot sports cars.
Kyle MacLachlan as Special Agent Dale Cooper on ‘Twin Peaks’ (1990)
As the star of David Lynch’s bizarre noir, MacLachlan’s Agent Cooper was — and still is — the quirkiest detective in TV history.
David Duchovny as Fox Mulder on ‘The X-Files’ (1993)
“I want to believe” was the mantra of foxy Fox Mulder, who investigated supernatural crimes with Gillian Anderson’s skeptical Dana Scully.
Jimmy Smits as Det. Bobby Simone on ‘NYPD Blue’ (1994)
Smits’ smoldering Detective Simone, partner to Dennis Franz’s Andy Sipowicz, had an illicit office romance with fellow detective Diane Russell.
David Boreanaz as Angel on ‘Angel’ (1999)
Sure, he was undead, but Boreanaz’s vamp private eye Angel breathed new life into the detective genre in this fantasy spin.
Ice T as Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ (2000)
The former rapper went on to play a sexy sex crimes investigator on this enduringly popular show.
Dominic West as Det. James “Jimmy” McNulty on ‘The Wire’ (2002)
As rumpled detective McNulty, West brilliantly played a man as bad at interpersonal relationships as he was good at solving crimes.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes on ‘Sherlock’ (2010)
Cumberbatch deftly embodies the man whose mind is always moving at three times the speed of everyone else’s.
Idris Elba as DCI John Luther on ‘Luther’ (2010)
Elba is brilliant as the obsessive, often violent chief inspector on this popular British series.
Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes on ‘Elementary’ (2012)
In Miller’s interpretation, the prickly Holmes is seriously in touch with his personal demons.
David Tennant as DI Alec Hardy on ‘Broadchurch’ (2013, and a forthcoming American version of the British show)
Scottish actor Tennant plays a detective who came to a small town looking for a more low-key existence — and didn’t find it.