True Detective season 1 is arguably the greatest study of tortured masculinity ever captured on camera. The show’s creator, Nic Pizzolatto, said (paraphrasing) in an interview, “Initially, I just wanted it to be about two guys talking, but I realised nobody would buy that, so I threw a murder in there to make it interesting.” It also marked the genesis of what would later be known as ‘The McConaissance’, the rise of Matthew McConaughey successfully shifting from that shirtless rom-com guy to a serious, and eventually Oscar-winning, actor.
Season 2 is as close to a misfired disaster as one can get, and although noticeably better than the second installment, Season 3 still generated quite a few yawns, ultimately sinking to the depths of forgotten TV lore. So what happened? Had the toil of masculinity, fatherhood, and brutality in the American Midwest finally been exhausted? True Detective Season 1 is Pizzolatto’s Citizen Kane, but as Alfred Hitchcock once mused about Orson Welles “He only had the one movie.” But as The Sex Pistols can attest to, one movie, album, or TV show is all you need to cement your place in history.
Fast forward to last Monday, and True Detective Season 4: Night Country had its eagerly awaited premiere, its first episode generating over 2 million views. But unlike the first 3 seasons, Pizzolatto took a step back, paving the way for a new writer/director in the form of Mexican native, Issa Lopez.
Created by, and starring, women – Jodie Foster (in a sobering return to form), and former professional boxer, Kali Reis, in her first big acting role – the show relocated to the subzero claustrophobia of Ennis, Alaska, and provides a window into the tribulations of women in law enforcement in a town where wife-beating, alcoholic, oil-rigging brutes prowl the desolate, ice-ridden streets.
*Some Spoilers*
Much like all of the characters in the previous seasons, Jodie Foster’s Liz Danvers fits the generic cop-drama description of ‘excellent at their job, useless at everything else’, in this case: being a good parent, being a good colleague, being good at parties, the list is endless. Perhaps channeling her professional boxing roots, Kali Reis’s Evangeline Navarro is as close to macho as it gets, but unlike every modern girl-boss superhero protagonist – the abysmal Captain Marvel and She-Hulk coming to mind – her character displays a feminine, and very human, vulnerability. Emotional vulnerability amongst female heroes has been avoided at all costs in the increasingly mocked superhero-verse, because somebody told the writers’ room that any aspiring girl-boss exhibiting emotions is a sign of weakness. In fact, Emily Blunt stated that when she reads a script and the opening page says ‘strong female lead’ she rolls her eyes and throws it away. Fortunately, Issa Lopez doesn’t subscribe to such nonsense, as is evidence in her emotionally engaging lead characters, warts and all.
Having slept with half the married men in Ennis (perhaps out of spite), Danvers has reduced herself to a social pariah. Although boasting undeniable physical prowess, Navarro’s family is plagued with severe mental illnesses, leaving her in a constant state of angst over when this invisible devil will take her next. Danvers’ complete disregard for family finds her treating aspiring, yet servile rookie, Pete Prior (played exceptionally by Finn Bennett) like Meryl Streep treats Anne Hathaway in Devil Wears Prada (spending time with your newborn child and wife? Please). But when four scientists are found naked and frozen in the ice, Danvers and Navarro are triggered by a previous murder case, one that we quickly find out wasn’t handled with the utmost legality.
Unlike the previous installments, True Detective: Night Country reduced itself to six, rather than eight, episodes, a wise move from Lopez. Similar themes of hallucinatory mysticism looms over the icy, forlorn village of Ennis, a continuous battle between the spiritual Navarro and her aggressively atheistic, reluctant partner, Danvers.
Despite a fresh take on the True Detective narrative – complicated people dealing with complicated mysteries – the show felt like a very familiar dish eaten at a different restaurant. And that is also why it should not be judged by the contents on the plate, but rather why we keep serving the same dish in the first place.
When it comes to family values, women are undoubtedly held to a higher standard than men. Hence why Woody Harrelson’s Marty in season 1 initially gets a ‘pass’ for continuously cheating on his wife, and why Jodie Foster’s Danvers marriage-destroying antics are immediately met with a flinching response. This show is not about boys doing boyish things, but rather the women who are forced to step in when said boys are completely incompetent, and the lingering damage on the women in question. Despite their flaws and imperfections, Danvers and Navarro both share the primal instinct to protect those who need it, sometimes to the benefit of the world, and sometimes not.
An indelible, and very satisfying, highlight shows a bearded assailant dragging Navarro by her hair down a hallway, only for Danvers to quickly find the two reversed, with Navarro pummeling his face into a pulp.
Issa Lopez is relatively unknown outside of her native Mexico, and having your first major stab at Hollywood be to direct two time Oscar-winner Jodie Foster and former boxing champion Kali Reis in the 4th installment of one of the most lauded shows of the 21st Century takes some serious guts. The murders and gunfire in the True Detective series are just a metaphor for the inexplicable horrors plaguing the lives of everybody around us, and in order to carry the torch ignited by Pizzolatto in 2014, the next in line must have a love, and sympathy, for humanity, which Lopez clearly does. 2023 was year of the female director – Past Lives, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, Bottoms – and although far from perfect, Lopez proves 2024 is off to a good start.
For those in the UAE, True Detective Season 4: Night Country is available to watch on OSN+, the only accessible source in the region due to their exclusive partnership with Max/Warner Bros. Discovery
