True Detective is the uncommon present that was rather more thrilling and sophisticated after seven episodes than it’s after three seasons. What began out as a brooding sequence about detectives trying into the darkish coronary heart of mindless, seemingly occult killings finally remodeled right into a detective present principally about males being unhappy. What’s exceptional concerning the present’s latest season, True Detective: Night Country, is that in only one episode, new showrunner Issa López has managed to carry again the creeping, supernatural horror vibe that gave the primary season a lot promise.
The brand new season is about within the small city of Ennis, Alaska, and this primary episode is usually involved with establishing the peculiarities of the city and the bones of this season’s thriller, together with attending to know our newest true detectives, after all. The present’s opening, and its central thriller, is traditional cold-weather horror: A bunch of researchers in a secluded winter base out of the blue disappear, solely to be discovered removed from their base, frozen deep within the ice.
The place the primary season of the present hinted on the supernatural and the methods it typically could (or could not) peek via into our world, Night Country leaves no room for doubt. By the top of this episode, extra than one character has had visions, and the situation the scientists are present in appears unimaginable to think about occurring naturally. However the true underline that makes the supernatural parts of the story plain is that native weirdo Rose (Fiona Shaw) is the one who finds the frozen scientists for the police, and the one motive she knew the place to look is as a result of some long-dead good friend confirmed her the way in which.
López doesn’t let the supernatural overwhelm the remainder of the world in Night Country’s first episode, however she’s unambiguous about its existence. This appears like a pointed response to the True Detective tales which have come earlier than. Not combative, per se, however direct. Whereas the earlier seasons, significantly the primary, led its characters from the pure and explainable world of crime towards one thing extra supernatural, Night Country’s thriller is beginning at unexplainable and dealing its approach again.
Photograph: Michele Okay. Brief/HBO
However for all of the ways in which López appears to be responding to True Detective’s previous within the first episode of her season, she makes her love for the sequence clear, too. Relating to the cops trying into this case, López revels in characterizing them as each bit the identical type of damaged bastards that authentic sequence creator Nic Pizzolatto positioned on the middle of his three seasons writing the present. Main the investigation in Night Country is Liz Danvers (performed marvelously by Jodie Foster), an excellent cop with a mile-long file of pushing folks away by being an absolute asshole. Then there’s Liz’s outdated companion Evangeline Navarro (boxer turned actor Kali Reis), a self-destructive hothead who let one case get caught in her craw and eat her complete profession.
The 2 cops don’t share the identical dynamic as Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle and Woody Harrelson’s Marty Hart, precisely, nevertheless it’s clear that López was after the identical crackle the 2 had between them, and thru only one episode she’s already appeared to nail it. The 2 solely share transient scenes in episode 1, however the chemistry they’ve is on the spot and the bickering is pitch-perfect for cluing us in to the truth that they’re certain to work collectively once more finally.
By way of only one episode, True Detective: Night Country appears like what True Detective was all the time presupposed to be. Impossibly, it captures the vibes of the sequence’ greatest episodes better than something within the second or third seasons ever achieved. López feels at battle with the sequence’ historical past, not as a result of she hates it, however as a result of she loves it sufficient to need its greatest model. What Issa López desires is the twisty, supernatural, pitch-black thriller present that had the web in an eight-week chokehold in 2014. And to this point, she’s off to an amazing begin.
