Well this certainly makes things interesting. HBO’s stellar True Detective is an anthology series, with each season telling a standalone story with different characters and a different cast, but it appears that the network is feeling rather bullish and will be submitting True Detective in the highly competitive Drama Series category at the upcoming Emmy Awards. Many assumed HBO would be submitting True Detective as a Miniseries, where it would no doubt clean up with awards for the show as a whole, director Cary Fukunaga, writer/creator Nic Pizzolato, and actors Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.

However, with this interesting turn of events, True Detective will now square off directly with Breaking Bad’s final season in the fiercely competitive drama series field. Hit the jump for more.

News of HBO’s submission decision for True Detective comes courtesy of THR. Though the pay cable network has had much success in the Miniseries/Made for TV Movie category over the past few years, wildly positive response to True Detective has given them a very serious contender to win the big trophy. Of course, the network’s other popular show Game of Thrones has been nominated thrice before for Best Drama Series, but unless season four is jaw-droppingly, out-of-this-world good, voters remain unlikely to award the genre series. On the flipside, True Detective is just the kind of show that Emmy voters are drawn to, and could result in HBO’s first Best Drama Series win since The Sopranos took the trophy in 2007.

Not only does this mean that True Detective will face the excellent final season of Breaking Bad in the Best Drama Series category, but McConaughey (fresh off an Oscar win) and Harrelson face stiff competition in the acting categories as well. One imagines the network will maximize its potential by submitting McConaughey for Best Actor and Harrelson for Best Supporting Actor, but again, the two will be competing opposite the final performances from Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, respectively, not to mention House of Cards’ Kevin Spacey and Mad Men’s Jon Hamm. Speaking of which, Mad Men kicks off the first half of its final season next month, which will be the batch of episodes competing alongside the first season of True Detective.

Submitting True Detective in the Miniseries category would have been an easy win, but you have to admire the boldness of HBO in going for the real win by positioning Nic Pizzolato’s dramatic thriller in the Big Leagues. This should make for a very interesting Emmy season.

The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast on August 25th on NBC.