In 2014, True Detective offered a fresh take on crime dramas. It was a swampy thriller, set in voodoo-land Louisiana, starring mismatched detectives played by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. It was HBO’s highest-rated debut since Six Feet Under, 13 years earlier. The second season in 2015, starring Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams, moved to Southern California and lost a bit of its luster with a complicated, grim escapade. Season three in 2019 relocated to the Ozarks with Mahershala Ali and Carmen Ejogo in the lead investigating a macabre crime involving missing children. News of a season four was a welcome surprise which became an intriguing reality when Night Country premiered on January 14th. Jodie Foster and Kali Reis team up in Ennis, Alaska investigating the sudden disappearance of eight men at a research station. A severed human tongue is the only thing left at the outpost.
Dark Country embodies its namesake. Inhabitants of the endless winter night call it “the dark,” or just “dark,” as in “day four of dark.” Dark is moody, mysterious, dangerous, and haunting. And palpable. The streetlights, headlights, lit-up establishments, and Christmas lights of Ennis provide a tenuous sanctuary from the blackness. The contrast is vivid. One wrong turn down a side street and you are engulfed by dark.
Chief Danvers (Foster) has a personality like the air temperature…frosty. She’s widowed and raising a rebellious half-native stepdaughter while engaging in ill-advised affairs. Trooper Navarro is tough (Reis is a former boxer). She watches over her troubled sister and can’t forget the unsolved murder of a young indigenous woman, Annie. Danvers and Navarro have issues, but reluctantly agree to join forces to investigate Annie’s murder and what happened to the researchers. Are the two cases related? Rose (Fiona Shaw), a local recluse discovers the men. The supernatural is alive in Ennis. (A symbol, name, and vision connect to the story of season one.) You can lose your mind in the dark. Or, as Rose puts it, “it’s a long fucking night, even the dead get bored.”
True Detective: Night Country is now halfway through its six-episode season airing on HBO Sunday nights and streaming on Max.)
D² Rating ◼◼◼◪☐
Trivia: The theme song for Night Country is “Bury a Friend,” a big hit in 2019 for what American singer-songwriter?
Trivia: Who played Maggie Hart (wife of Marty, played by Woody Harrelson) in True Detective season one?
Trivia Answers: Billie Eilish and Michelle Monaghan