The first season of “True Detective,” which starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as a pair of quarrelling, haunted detectives who spend 17 years trying to catch a serial killer in the maze-like swamps of Louisiana, is often cited as the programme that made it fashionable for A-list actors to appear in prestige TV series. Nic Pizzolatto, the show’s creator, returned the series to its roots for season three after a misguided attempt to switch from the Southern Noir vibes of season one to a Californian crime drama in season two. Season 3 was a confident comeback that missed the lightning-in-a-bottle aspect of season 1, pairing two character actors (Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff) with a remote location (the Ozarks) and a plot spanning decades.
The fourth season of the show, titled “True Detective: Night Country,” will premiere in just as much as time is a flat circle (come on, you knew that joke was coming). The show will also have a new showrunner at the helm and an appropriately sinister subtitle. Here is what we currently know about what could be a breath of fresh air for the anthology series, which has been running for close to ten years.
What is True Detective season 4 about?
The cast of “True Detective: Night Country” features two character actors (seasoned Oscar winner Jodie Foster and rising star Kali Reis) who are entrusted with solving a terrible, enigmatic crime in a harsh, unwelcoming environment. According to the official logline:
The six guys who run the Tsalal Arctic Research Station disappear without a trace as the long winter night comes in Ennis, Alaska. Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) will have to face the darkness they harbour within of them and delve into the haunted secrets that are buried beneath the perpetual ice in order to solve the crime.
The plot of “Night Country” is similar to that of “Hold the Dark,” a criminal thriller directed by Jeremy Saulnier that quietly made its Netflix premiere in 2018. However, it wasn’t entirely unexpected that it didn’t appeal to general audiences. Hold the Dark, as Chris Evangelista of /Film phrased it in his favourable review, “is certain to horrify some viewers to the point of disengagement. Shot through with danger and unabashedly nasty.”
In contrast to Saulnier’s movie, “Night Country” will have the benefit of being associated with the “True Detective” franchise, so viewers will be aware of the type of grim, unnerving criminal thriller they may expect. In fact, returning to Nic Pizzolatto’s cold, brutal reality would be a welcome change of scenery from the hellish one we currently inhabit.
Who is working on True Detective season 4
Along with Cary Joji Fukunaga, who oversaw the whole first season of the programme, Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, and Nic Pizzolatto will serve as executive producers for “True Detective: Night Country.” This season, Jodie Foster will become a member of the show’s executive producing team in addition to writer and executive producer Alan Page Arriaga. The most interesting development is that “The Underground Railroad” filmmaker Barry Jenkins, who also directed “Moonlight” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” is executive producing this season.
Of course, the biggest news of all is probably that “Night Country” will be created, written, directed, and produced by Issa López. With her fantasy-horror thriller on the Mexican drug war, “Tigers Are Not Afraid,” released in 2017, the Mexican director established herself as one of the year’s top filmmakers. Consider this your chance to finally catch up on López’s earlier work (if you haven’t already), as she will film the upcoming season of “True Detective” in Iceland for an as-yet-unknown release date.
