TRUE DETECTIVE Creator Responds to Plagiarism Accusations

With casting on the second season of HBO's TRUE DETECTIVE nearing a close, series creator Nic Pizzolatto is now responding to new plagiarism accusations. Fans of writer Thomas Ligotti have offered up comparisons of lines from the first season of 'DETECTIVE,' citing striking similarities between character dialogue and Ligotti's writings.

Click here to check out the comparisons.

"Nothing in the television show 'True Detective' was plagiarized," Pizzolatto said in his statement, according to MTV. "The philosophical thoughts expressed by Rust Cohle do not represent any thought or idea unique to any one author; rather these are the philosophical tenets of a pessimistic, anti-natalist philosophy with an historic tradition including Arthur Schopenauer, Friedrich Nietzche, E.M. Cioran, and various other philosophers, all of whom express these ideas. As an autodidact pessimist, Cohle speaks toward that philosophy with erudition and in his own words. The ideas within this philosophy are certainly not exclusive to any writer."

HBO released its own statement on the claims, saying: "'True Detective' is a work of exceptional originality and the story, plot, characters and dialogue are that of Nic Pizzolatto. "Philosophical concepts are free for anyone to use, including writers of fiction, and there have been many such examples in the past. Exploring and engaging with ideas and themes that philosophers and novelists have wrestled with over time is one of the show's many strengths - we stand by the show, its writing and Nic Pizzolatto entirely."

The first season of the series was written by Pizzolatto and directed by Cary Fukunaga. It centered on two detectives, Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson), whose lives collide and entwine during a seventeen-year hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana.

The investigation of a bizarre murder in 1995 is framed and interlaced with testimony from the detectives in 2012, when the case has been reopened.