True Detective’s fourth season, entitledTrue Detective: Night Country, is the first one after the departure of Nic Pizzolatto, creator of the series, from production. Set to release in 2023, the fourth season, starring Jodie Foster, waswritten and directed by Issa López. What can the upcoming entry in this anthology bring to the table? Well, perhaps, a lot.
Being an anthology series, every season ofTrue Detectivetells a different story, following different characters who live and operate in different places. However, all the stories of this crime drama show revolve around a murder or disappearance, sometimes lots of them. As is commonly the case within the HBO format, every season has 8 episodes of around 50 minutes each.
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The critically acclaimed and fan-favorite first season aired in 2014, starring Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Potts, Tory Kittles, and Alexandra Daddario. Set in Louisiana, the story follows two diametrically opposing investigators, Harrelson and McConaughey, as they investigate a series of murders linked to occultism over the course of 17 years. Hinting at the supernatural, this acidic and nihilistic season portrays a world of male chauvinism, where faulty men investigate the death of poor women and children, people who could never have their voices heard by the system.McConaughey’s brilliant accolade-winning interpretationof the hubris-fueled Detective Cohle Rust is certainly one of the most remarkable TV roles of the 21st century. Definitely a must-watch.
After the roaring success that was the first season, it did not take long before Pizzolatto renewed his contract with HBO. However, Cary Joji Fukunaga, who directed all episodes of the first season (an uncommon thing to happen in TV nowadays), departed from the project, possibly due to creative differences between him and Pizzolatto, who was given full creative control of the show. The second season, set in California, stars Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch, Kelly Reilly, and Vince Vaughn, and focuses more on corruption in politics and police forces as a theme this time around. Sadly, even with the premium casting and all the resources allocated, the critic and audience consensus was that the sophomore season presented asteep decline in quality when compared to the first one. Viewers were not surprised by the predictable plot twists nor blown away by a series that promised so much in the first season.
Nonetheless, the third season was produced, with Pizzolatto still as the main writer, only sharing writing credits in two episodes. Set in Arkansas, the third season ofTrue Detectivestars Mahershaha Ali, Carmen Ejogo, Ray Fisher, and Stephen Dorff.True Detectivereturns to the first season’s fragmented timeline structure of the narrative, going back and forth in time, as the main investigator, played by Ali, tries touncover the whereabouts of a missing girl. By taking a step back from the noir-esque vibe of the second season, and a step into a more lyrical approach to storytelling, the third season offered a refreshing take narrative-wise to the series. The present-day scenes all revolve around an unreliable, aging narrator dealing with frequent amnesiac blackouts. While it presented a much-needed upgrade from the previous season, the third one still remained in the shadows of the first.
Pizzolatto, who was working on a story draft for a possible fourth season ofTrue Detective, scratched his writing to get involved with new projects.HBO, however, still interested in reviving the anthology, decided to gather new names to be involved in the series, like executive Barry Jenkins and Issa López, the latter of which took over writing and directing for the whole season. So, what’s next forTrue Detective? The fourth season’s logline reads:
“When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro must confront their pasts and the dark truths lying underneath the Arctic ice.”
There are many things to notice here. First off, both the investigators are women and the victims are all men. A great shift from all previous seasons, which often put male detectives in the center of the narrative. Secondly, the past these characters need to confront could possibly indicate a fragmented narrative structure yet again. Thirdly, this next season will be set in Alaska, a very different location from all previous seasons. The backdrop of the investigation is no longer the swamps, deserts, or the jungle, but a snowy hinterland, which could provide many visual metaphors to story and characters. Foster, being 60 at the time of filming, could play a character that was not yet seen inTrue Detectiveyet: a mature, complex woman with internal conflicts and dark secrets.
It is often said that change is good. The truth is that change can be good. If something is going well, there is no real reason to change it. But,True Detectivewas not going well after the great first season, which means things needed to change. Perhaps, Issa López’s creative insights are exactly whatTrue Detectiveneeded to regain its status of greatness in the TV medium.
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