It’s a new year, and I think I already found its first great season in new TV.
True Detective Night Country is doing weekly drops on HBO. Max, starting this coming Sunday, January 14th. It’s the fourth season of the anthology series. Each season has a totally new cast and characters, and it follows a totally new chain of events. This season was directed by Issa Lopez and stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis. It has a stellar supporting cast too.
The Story
This season picks up with a mysterious chain of events all taking place in Icy Enes, Alaska. A lab that should be full of scientists is found to be empty. We later find out that they’re all frozen and naked out in the snow with looks of terror on their faces. In the season, we pieced together that mystery of what happened to them, as well as how it ties in to some of the other peculiar things that have been happening to the people of Enes. Our main characters, Danvers and Navarro, are detectives out to get to the bottom of what’s happened. They both have personal stakes in finding those answers too.
I love how the story slowly unraveled as the season went on. From the first episode, I was thinking it might be decent, but once I got to episodes, three and four. I was locked-in and things kept getting crazier from there.
My favorite parts of the season are when the detectives are getting their Batman on and doing the detective work. But the show had a lot more to offer than that as well. it touches on topics like mental health issues and supernatural. And this straddles the lines between whether one or the other can be attributed to what’s been going on.
The Characters
Another thing I enjoyed about the season was just how deep they go with each of the characters. They all have flaws and skin in the game. They all have problems. They have for interesting story arcs and histories with each other.
I’m so impressed with how director Lisa Lopez strung them all together and balanced them out with the mysteries of the season.
Jodie Foster kills it as Officer Liz Danvers, who’s a super gruff lady and a great lady for the season. She’s determined to get what she wants and definitely use the people around her to do it, regardless of how that may affect their lives. She hates everyone and loves her daughter and just might be a little bit racist.
Kali Reis is a standout as detective Evangeline Navarro. The story of her and the folks around her is one of the main driving forces of the story of the season. She’s experienced a lot of tragedy in her recent life and even in her career, and it informs a lot of the decisions that you see her making. it was a really powerful performance and I hope we see more of Ray is in future projects. Some other standout contributions include Fang Bennett, John Hawk, Anna Lam and Isabelle LeBlanc.
The Verdict
So if you like previous seasons of true Detective, the Night Country will bring you more of what you love. Just a great, creepy, suspenseful, emotional ride I know that’s what I was hoping for. I enjoy bingeing it over the course of a few days, but it might have been cool to let the events of each episode marinate for a bit so they’re doing a good job with their weekly release strategy. I think this season will get a lot of accolades and appreciation. The episodes get progressively better if you can make it to the third episode, I think you’ll really love the rest of it.
So are you planning to watch the new True Detective season or if you’ve seen it already, let me know what you thought of it in the comments. I’ll catch you on the next one.
