Intensity 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Showrunner and writer: Issa Lopez
HBO’s acclaimed series True Detective returns to the horror roots it developed in season 1. In Season 4: Night Country, the franchise brings screen legend Jodie Foster to the TV streaming powerhouse production. Foster is paired with up-and-coming talent Kali Reis. They are investigating a grotesque mystery where a research station’s entire crew is found frozen, naked, and apparently terrified out in the Alaskan tundra just as the permanent night of the polar winter is settling in.
True Detective is a franchise known for its Hollywood star power. Season 1 featured Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson and was revered as must-see television. The first season featured Lovecraftian themes revolving around The King in Yellow and the city of dread, Carcosa. The much-maligned Season 2 still featured the star power of Vince Vaughan and Colin Farrel and was more of a straight-up detective drama. The third season starred Mahershala Ali, who partnered with Stephen Dorff on a case of missing children. So, none of these seasons were meant to connect to each other. Each season works as a stand-alone series. We return now to season four. This time, it’s the lady’s turn.
Thematically, this also represents a change. The sun-baked southern settings get swapped out for the frozen tundra of Alaska and a seasonal black-out of the sun. New showrunner Issa Lopez, who directed the masterful Tigers are Not Afraid (2018), has referenced The Thing, The Shining, and Alien as source references for this season. That’s proof positive that this season is firmly rooted in horror. Horror Hounds rejoice! The body horror arrives early in season four, with a shocking reveal at the end of episode one.
True Detective Season 4: Night Country – The Cast:
- Jodie Foster plays Chief Liz Danvers, a cantankerous and brilliant sheriff who has been “promoted” to the remote village of Ennis, Alaska.
- Kali Reis plays Trooper Evangaline Navarro, who has been pursuing an unsolved murder of an Inuit activist and has paid a heavy professional price for the pursuit.
- Finn Bennett plays Officer Peter Prior, a young police officer who is Danver’s only trusted deputy.
- John Hawkes plays Captain Hank Prior. Peter’s father is an unscrupulous cop who Danvers cannot rely upon.
- Fiona Shaw plays Rose Aguineau, a local eccentric who gets visitations from her husband’s ghost.
- Christopher Eccleston plays Captain Ted Connelly, who gave Danvers her unwanted promotion and relocation and shares an unhealthy personal relationship with her.
- Isabella Star LaBlanc plays Leah Danvers, Liz’s rebellious adopted teenage daughter.
- Aka Niviana plays Julie, Navarro’s sister who struggles with psychoses.
A Short Synopsis of Episodes 1 and 2: (Minor Plot spoilers ahead)
Episode 1:
The final sunset crests as Northern Alaska slips into the polar winter, plunging the region into a darkness that will not lift for months. Near the mining town of Ennis, a group of research scientists operate in the TSALAL Arctic research station on a series of geological and biological experiments. When a delivery driver arrives with supplies and food, all eight of the men are missing. The only thing left behind is a woman’s tongue on the floor.
Chief Danvers is summoned along with Peter and Hank Prior to investigate. Danvers determines that the scientists have been missing for at least 48 hours, and that the tongue belongs to a native woman. Dead or alive? Unknown. The appearance of the tongue alerts Trooper Navarro, whose cold case from six years ago had a young native woman, Annie, who was murdered for protesting at the local mine. She was missing a tongue. Unfortunately, Navarro’s zealous pursuit of a long-dead case ran her afoul of the PD, and Danvers is in no mood to play nice with the case.
Danvers instructs Peter to smuggle the cold case file from Hank’s house, which is certain to anger his old man. But Danvers is no fool and recognizes that despite her public pronouncements, there is likely a link between the old case and the TSALAL mystery. Meanwhile, Rose is visited by her husband’s ghost, dressed only in loose flannel and jeans. He guides her out onto a frozen glacier and reveals the location of the missing scientists, frozen together, naked, and half-buried in the ice.
Episode 2:
Danvers and the entire Ennis Police Department scrub the apparent crime scene. It is clear that this little police outpost is overmatched. Several of their eardrums had burst, their eyes had frozen solid white, and some of them appeared to have clawed their own eyes out. After one of the cops accidentally snaps an arm off of one of the corpses, one of the corpses wakes up with a groan, shocking everyone on the scene. (And the audience)
Rose points out to Navarro that one of the frozen bodies had a tattoo on its forehead. The same spiral graphic is on Annie, further linking the two cases. When Captain Connelly arrives to take control of the case, Danvers finds a code technicality that requires frozen bodies to be thawed. The chief convinces the local rink owner to use the rink to thaw the frozen block of scientists out.
As Pete and Lizzie ask key questions about the case, they suspect that there may be a suspect and that the scientists may have been murdered. Eventually, Lizzie concedes and invites Navarro in on the case. Too much evidence links up between the two cases. When Navarro discovers that one of the scientists, Clark, purchased a trailer from a local miner. Clark also had the cultish tattoo. Also, when Danvers and Navarro find the trailer, there appears to be a mummified body in it. All evidence now points to the geo-biologist Clark being a deranged killer, with the final clue being that his body is not present as the block of frozen bodies thaws out.
Episode 3:
The episode opens with a flashback where Navarro attempts to arrest Annie, the woman who will be the victim in her unsolved mystery. The scene establishes Annie’s central role in the indigenous culture as a midwife assisting in a difficult home birth.
Returning to the current timeline, Hank has rounded up a posse of civilians to find Clark out in the ice fields. It’s a sloppy operation for a search that requires more finesse. Meanwhile, Lizzie and Eva continue their investigations. While pouring over evidence at the station, Navarro connects to Annie’s hairdresser, Susan. The investigators catch a new lead when the hairdresser informs them of a native local named Oliver Tabaq, who knew about the relationship between Annie and Clark. What’s more, after Annie was murdered, Susan reported to Hank about the relationship.
Ennis is in an uproar over the local water supply being fouled by mining activities. Leah attends a protest rally and gets wrapped up in the indigenous anger, which leads to a mother-and-daughter conflict. Family affairs are not going well for Eva either, as she has to attend to Kayla having a mental breakdown.
As their family pressures push the women to their breaking points, they head out to try and find Oliver Tabaq. They find him armed, angry, and not in a mood to cooperate. When Tabaq chases them out of his hut, they receive news that the lone surviving scientist from the frozen pile of flesh has awoken. He had his legs and one arm amputated and is still in critical condition but regains consciousness. Initially, the man can only scream, though he utters “She came for us!” When a commotion of the posse calls Danver’s attention, the disfigured man tells Navarro “Your Mother says Hello. She is Waiting for you.”
EVALUATION: THE LEADS
Jodie Foster crushes this performance. Her portrayal of Lizzie Danvers is a master class in subtle acting. Danvers is not an easily likable character, but she is magnetic. Foster describes her as a Karen. She’s a bad mom. Danvers apparently has burned through many sexual partners within Ennis, and she is quite open about it. She’s an unsympathetic boss. And most locals grumble and mutter under their breath when she arrives. Foster layers so much character onto the Chief that you can’t help but be entranced by the performance.
That was not a surprise. You expect that from Jodie Foster.
What is less expective is the performance of the newcomer Kali Reis. As noted earlier, MAX likes pairing star actors for this show. Reis made her name as a champion boxer. She held the WBC female middleweight title in 2016 and also held the WBA, WBO, and IBO light welterweight titles. You might as well refer to her as “The Champ.” The sample size of female fighters who have tried to cross over from the fighting world is limited. Gina Carano (polarizing politics aside) is a capable actress. Ronda Rousey, not so much. Neither of those two would ever be considered thespians. Reis, however, is fantastic at portraying Evangeline Navarro.
She’s tough but also nurturing. The interactions she has with her sister add depth and texture to her story, and she is a natural in those scenes. Reis is a member of the Seaconke Wampanoag tribe, and she is an advocate for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement. This marries up hand-in-glove with the character of Navarro. It helps that her personal identity and her character match up so well. Her chemistry with Foster is most impressive, as the story depends on it.
EVALUATION: THE PRODUCTION AND THE STORY
MAX knows how to do premium must-watch television properly. They also generously fund their favorite shows. True Detective has earned the most-favored show status, and the production values reflect this. It starts with excellent casting, as the large supporting cast is convincing and nuanced, down to the Arctic delivery driver. The mystery is completely engrossing. It strikes the perfect middle ground between complex and simple. Too complex and you get a frustrated and confused audience. Conversely, if it is too simple, boredom sets in.
A good portion of the show was filmed in Reykjavik, Iceland, which proved to be a fine stand-in for Alaska. The production team created the fictional town from scratch, and this is where having a MAX budget pays off. The authenticity is off the charts. It is convincing.
Some of my favorite scenes are when Peter and Lizzie review the evidence and start asking critical questions. The audience gets put into Peter’s position. Every time that Danvers states, “Wrong question!” we get a chance to puzzle it through with him. I always appreciate that in a mystery.
Thematically, this show tries to accomplish a lot. Darkness is used as a powerful metaphor, shrouding the case and putting a pall on all the relationships in the story. Like all of the True Detective shows, police partnerships and extended familial relationships are put to the test. This storytelling ambition supplies the only weakness in the show for me. The side stories bog down the show at times. Maybe the show threads all the needles by the end of the series, flipping this from being a narrative liability to strength. But right now, there are some threads that are less interesting than others. The result is perhaps a little more melodrama than is necessary.
Concluding Thoughts
Issa Lopez crafted a masterful story. True Detective Season 4: Night Country oozes atmospheric dread and mystery. Ennis strangles the characters, and the context squeezes all of the complex relationships within the town. In the Official True Detective Podcast, Issa Lopez noted that she wanted Jodi Foster to portray Danvers because of Silence of the Lambs. She pointed out that Silence of the Lambs was David Fincher’s source for his masterpiece Se7en, and that film was the inspiration for Season One of True Detective. This is a show of deep pedigree and lineage.
Experienced True Detective fans will find plenty of Easter Eggs tying back to Season One. As cool as the similarities are, the contrasts are more compelling. The competitive and awkward partnership remains, but the way that men and women handle their petty and serious differences is on full display. Swapping men for women, day for night, and swamp for glaciers makes for fun counterpoints for comparison. It pleases me greatly that this thriller has strong horror vibes.
Many things remain true. The acting is Emmy-worthy. The characters are flawed and, at times, awful but also wonderful. The plot’s mystery gets its hooks into you. Complex, but not so complex that you can’t follow it. And, per the HBO/Max tradition, the production value from the music to the cinematography and the expansive depth of talent on display is impressive. Max once again delivers a must-see water cooler television show and a production worthy of the brand.