Ten years ago, back when media was simpler than what we deal with now, HBO debuted a series that literally had me in a chokehold – True Detective by newcomer Nic Pizzolatto and Cary Joji Fukunaga. Starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as two police detectives, Rust Chole and Marty Hart, who are investigating a murder in the mid-nineties, and then around the same time, we’re watching the show. With the use of non-linear storytelling, long interviews with the detectives, and a story that felt a bit like EC Horror Comics of the Golden Age, you had something special. This show killed it in all ways; if the writing ever missed a step, Fukunaga’s direction made up for it twofold. Then, season two happened. I remember watching that season week to week, and it was so damn disappointing. I never saw a drop-off that bad from one season to the next at that time. It was so bad that I never watched season three. I can’t speak on it. I know after season 2, I soured on Nic Pizzolatto as a writer. The latter two seasons also didn’t have that one writer and one director thing that made the first season unique and consistent in both literary and visual themes. That brings us to True Detective: Night Country.
Issa López, a Mexican Writer, Director, and Producer, is the person with vision for this new entry in the franchise. With their hands in each script and directing each episode, I can say that with each episode, my thoughts were – Issa López is COOKING. Night Country stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, our leads as Police Chief Liz Danvers and State Trooper Evangeline Navarro. The two who police in Alaska are brought together after a group of scientists in a research station are found naked and frozen out in the snow; with these mysterious deaths might have a link to a cold case about a murdered indigenous activist woman from years prior. While this new season has some things in common with the first season regarding certain surface-level plot elements, it’s completely different. Jodie Foster is great in this show as a complete curmudgeon of a small-town Police Chief. Danvers is a character that is so hateable in the first episode it’s wild that you will completely flip on how everyone involved in the telling this story builds this character and her reasons for mentality throughout. I think Foster is already a lock for the next Emmy race right now.
Then we have Kali Reis, a relatively new actress, but man, what a star-making role Evangeline Navarro is. Her character is the story’s heart, and she’s the engine. Navarro’s need to solve the older case of a murdered woman leads to unlocking a whole web of deceit in this town. She’s in some way a pariah from the non-indigenous and from her people because of her role and her lack of a true name. Her drive for the case is also one to connect with her community. Reis is able to be super tough and vulnerable in this story. You’ll be rooting for her to throw someone through a window in one scene and give her a hug in another. Her acting chemistry with Foster is also excellent, as they feel like people who do know each other as former partners would. They fall easily into the older wise cop and the younger daredevil cop. Big-time Lethal Weapon partner energy here.
Finn Bennett plays Peter Prior, the young policeman whose father Hank (John Hawkes) does whatever he can to undermine Danvers while Peter is essentially the only cop she trusts and treats him. Perry White does Jimmy Olsen. In any other show, he’d be the point of view character, but here, the character has this separate arc that’s more about ethics and sacrifice. Bennett shows this character’s growth in a coming-of-age way and a loss of innocence as well. Hawkes, an actor I love while not in this show much time-wise, is very much felt, and as much as you’ll dislike Hank, you get an understanding of him. Christopher Eccleston (even got a Doctor in this show), as Ted Corsaro is Danvers’ superior, works well as that obstacle in the way of the Detectives actually solving the case. Isabella Star LaBlanc, as Leah Danvers, Danvers’s stepdaughter, can be annoying initially but humanizes Danvers a lot in this show, especially as Leah gets more of her own arc. Anna Lambe, as Kayla Malee, and Aka Niviâna, as Julia Navarro, gave good performances. Still, their characters sometimes don’t have enough time for you to connect to their arcs.
Where the first season played with the idea of cosmic horror, and things they did end up rolling back on that to make it more of a regular murder mystery. This show does not and leaves a lot more up to your imagination. There are points where this show goes into pure horror like you’d see in Japanese Horror or Korean style Horror. The return of the spiral motif has, for me, less of a feel from the earlier uses in the franchise and reminded me more of the way Junji Ito does in his Uzumaki horror manga (and film). There are parts in this show that really will creep you out, and others might get nightmares. It never throws you off, though the pacing and how it moves from procedural to family drama to a legit horror story is pretty excellent. True Detective: Night Country is another amazing show for HBO/Max and a return to form for the True Detective franchise.
Score: A
RIOTUS 