‘True Detective: Night Country’ Review
There’s an undercurrent of darkness that felt inseparable from the mystery in the first season of True Detective back in 2014. A remarkable crime drama imbued with philosophical musings on humanity’s existence and an unflinching gaze on the elements of life we keep in the shadows, Nic Pizzolatto’s series began leaning further down the crime-mystery path after its first season and, as a result, lost a bit of what made the series so compelling. The intangible heartache that colors every individual’s experience is just as linked to pain and anguish as it is the unshakeable feeling that something more horrifying is at work. It was almost Scooby-Doo for the misanthropic, where every answer that seems too horrifying to be real is actually just evil incarnate.
Understanding why the first season connected where the others didn’t is what makes Issa López’s revitalization of the franchise in True Detective: Night Country so effectively chilling. Set completely in the darkness as a polar night (when the sun does not rise for days on end) begins in the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, Night Country sets a tone for its six-episode season that is unmistakably horror. It’s a genre firmly in López’s wheelhouse after the stellar Tigers Are Not Afraid which blended the horrors of reality with the ghosts created by that very same darkness. It’s clear throughout the entirety of Night Country that López isn’t just the right person to take over showrunning duties, but is also a true fan of the series’ structure and allure. It’s an acute awareness of what works and what doesn’t, making the show feel like a reboot of sorts, while still being connected thematically and structurally to the previous seasons.
Opening with researchers at the Tsalal Arctic Research Station experiencing strange events before disappearing and leaving behind only a severed tongue, their disappearance slowly unravels something wicked at the heart of Ennis that opens up old wounds for Chief Elizabeth Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis). The former is a steely, bitter cop who has reluctantly made Ennis her home but spends more time on the job than she does with her rebellious step-daughter, Leah (Isabella Star Lablanc) - who is currently in the throes of an identity crisis as she tries to get in touch with her ancestry against the wishes of her stepmother.
Meanwhile, Navarro is spiraling as she wrestles with a case she could never solve, a demotion from detective to a state trooper, and constant discrimination from the small-town residents. There’s an anger at the core of Navarro that is always festering, waiting to explode given the opportunity, but Navarro is also hardened by the world around her. She now only looks out for her sister, Julia (Aka Niviâna), and herself, with the occasional visits to the local hermit, Rose (Fiona Shaw), and the local bartender, Eddie (Joel D. Montgrand). The two make up her only real support system, and in Ennis that’s worth more than anything once the dark night settles in and the ghosts of the past seem closer than ever.
Reis and Foster are both tremendous in the show with each one’s character balancing a grudge against the world with an inescapable desire to help make some sort of difference. It’s like the light fighting a losing battle against the darkness, as Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle remarked in the first season. There’s a love-hate relationship between Danvers and Navarro that is similar to the reluctant cooperation between Cohle and Woody Harrelson’s Martin Hart. However, where those characters didn’t have much of a past, Danvers and Navarro have experience with one another that colors Foster and Reis’ performances. There’s hostility and vulnerability between the two, each one putting up guards while prodding the other and taking a hard look at why those guards are up in the first place. It’s easily one of Foster’s best performances, while Reis continues to cement herself as one of the best up-and-coming actors with only a few performances under her belt since pausing her boxing career to pursue acting. All of the supporting performances are equal shades of devastating and restrained, with actors like Finn Bennett and Lablanc standing out as their characters navigate family expectations and who they really are inside.
Unlike previous seasons of the show, the family drama and small-town politics feel far more imperative to the narrative of True Detective: Night Country. Everyone seems to have a secret, but more importantly is that everyone seems to be bottling something up or hiding from something they don’t want to confront. It’s the way almost every police officer in the show seems to avoid family interaction, highlighted most by the relationship between Peter Prior (Bennett) and his father, Hank (John Hawkes). The two work in the same building, but they could not seem further apart, and their relationship is further strained by Danvers, who insists on Peter being her right-hand man on the Tsalal case. Everyone doesn’t just have a secret; they’re on edge and all seem ready to collapse from the weight of the world.
True Detective: Night Country sets a mood right away with its setting, taking place over Christmas time when the illusion of joy and camaraderie is contrasted by a town killing itself from the inside out. Comparisons to John Carpenter’s The Thing are impossible to avoid with the film’s arctic horror feeding into a state of paranoia and isolation from those around, and some incredible gnarly horror early on that does wonders to set the tone. Its sense of paranoia is operating on a larger scale but still retains that uncertainty of whether the horrors within Ennis are better or worse than what awaits in the surrounding frozen landscape. It bleeds into the Native Alaskan community who no longer trust their neighbors and are in protest of the local mining operation as it seems to be poisoning the water supply for Ennis. The fear of your home being destroyed from the inside-out, of losing your identity and culture, of nature being poisoned against you - these are valid concerns for the Indigenous community in Ennis, who see no action being taken by the local law enforcement so must take action into their own hands.
There’s also a much stronger focus on who the victims are in Night Country and why an investigation even happens for missing scientists when there’s a cold case that has gone unsolved regarding the murder of a young, Indigenous woman. López pulls no punches when interrogating the systems of power that try to bury the past when it stands in the way of colonization, industrialization, or science. It’s fitting that the show finds itself in a frozen tundra where the past isn’t just buried - it’s frozen over. And while this is the first season to have two female leads, they are both still given biases that are not easily digestible, especially Danvers, who, for a long stretch of the show, doesn’t just seem cold and bitter - she seems downright cruel. It’s true to the True Detective DNA, while also giving a far more compelling perspective within its fresh gaze. It’s the way the show refuses to keep things neat that provides endless speculation and engagement with the material presented. These aren’t just characters; they’re human beings with lived experiences that we just happen to be seeing at a point in time that requires introspection on their part.
At the center of it all is a mystery that will leave you guessing to the very end. The way it integrates the case into a framework of people haunted by the past gives it the freedom to play with horror concepts in the context of memory and trauma. It has the big philosophical questions that colored the atmosphere of the first season, but it’s kept grounded - what do spiritual questions about the world and life have to do with Danvers, Navarro, and the town of Ennis? Those questions are what keep the characters up at night, but it’s also something that keeps True Detective: Night Country intellectually stimulating as it traces itself back to the show’s roots while crafting a crime thriller that situates it firmly within its unique perspective and setting.
As someone who has enjoyed True Detective since its inception, it was certainly showing its age once the third season came around. While no season is particularly bad (I will defend the second season until my dying breath), Night Country is the first one since its creation to rival the heights of the first season. It’s an astounding piece of crime television, delivered with fury and horrifying undercurrent that leaves it suspenseful and terrifying at the same time. The way it can veer from unsettling to humorous to nail-biting only demonstrates its awareness of life’s messiness. Anchored by a strong ensemble, a dark and moody atmosphere, and led by the ferocious performances from Foster and Reis, True Detective: Night Country is a triumphant return to glory for the series.
