Nearly five years after the start of True Detective Season 3, the series returns with the first episode of season 4 ‘True Detective: Night Country’. ‘True Detective: Night Country’ takes place in a fictional town in remote northern Alaska during the polar night season, a period of time in which daylight disappears for two months. After the disappearance of a group of scientists, Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) begins to investigate their disappearances. She continually butts up against Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reiss), a former detective turned beat cop who is trying to solve a brutal murder of an Indigenous woman that took place nearly five years prior. Together it looks like their fates may be tied with this case, as they struggle to solve the night’s mysteries.
True Detective Season 1 was beloved for a number of reasons, including the incredible character work and acting by Matthew McConaugghey and Woody Harrelson. In many ways the crime came secondary to these men’s dialogue and issues, as they struggled with the case in different time periods. (Season 3 a personal favorite of mine also succeeded in this way thanks to the incredible work by Mahersala Ali). What also set this series apart is the mood and cintemstogrsphy, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga throughout, and in season one captured by Australian cinematographer who is also known for his work on the moody crime series Top of the Lake.
Recap of ‘Part 1’ of True Detective: Night Country
Kali Reis and Jodie Foster in True Detective: Night Country (Source: MAX)
In episode one of season four, we’re presented right out of the gates with a world almost unlike any other as the daylight disappears into night for a two month period leaving those behind to survive in sub-zero temps with only the power of their own lights and electricity to guide them. Even the residents seem to brace themselves for this time of year, and rightfully so as it does seem that we’re immediately presented with a lot of mysterious occurrences that feel like they could only happen in this strange dark world.
First we are introduced to a yet unnamed woman who appears to be hunting reindeer, until the herd is startled as if by some mysterious apparition. They then come charging by her off a cliff presumably to their death. We are also introduced to a group of scientists at the Tsalal research facility, who appear to getting ready to eat. One starts to have tremors as we hear a mysterious voice saying “She’s awoken”. We return to the facility just a scene or two later as a delivery driver attempts to get their signature, but instead of finding any persons in the facility he merely finds a severed tongue.
The driver has notified the police, which then leads us to our introduction of Foster’s character Detective Danvers. Danvers isn’t a particularly likeable character from the jump, but everyone in this town seems toughened up by the weather, their isolation, or some past trauma. She begins to investigate and in the process she runs into an old co-worker Reiss’s character Navarro. These two have a history which includes significant mistrust, as Navarro believes Danvers has failed to help solve the cold case of the murdered indigenous woman, while Danvers puts the failing on Navarro who stepped down as a detective to become a State Trooper and now in her view no longer has jurisdiction. Of course in the world of True Detective two polarizing figures working together to solve a case is the very bread and butter of the series, and we know they’ll only have to work closer and closer together as the series goes on.
As the first night continues on we are introduced to many of the local characters who make up the town, including a reckless mother arrested for a DUI, Danvers co-workers, a seemingly mismatched father and son duo, along with Danvers’ step-daughter Leah and Navarro’s metally ill sister. Though the series seems like it will put the mystery front and center, its often these characters and relationships that really define True Detective as we learn more about the potential suspects and the intricate, and complicated lives, of the detectives at the center of the mystery.
Danvers and Navarro both continue on their own path to solve their mysteries, with Navarro focused on the disappearance of Anne and Danvers the scientists, which brings them together again at the research station. Both suspect the tongue may belong to an indigenous person, which suggests a potential link between Anne’s murder and this crime. They’re then given another lead when Rose (Fiona Shaw), the woman seen hunting reindeer in the start of the episode, discovers the scientists’ bodies frozen in the ice.
As is often the case with True Detective, we’re not given a lot to like about any of the characters at the start; however, that certainly is a hallmark of not just this series but the detective genre in general. Much like the mystery a good detective needs to be unwrapped over time. In this particular case it feels earned here especially where the characters wear their toughness like a shield from the cold and undoubtedly the hostile world they live in. Both Foster and Reiss do an excelent job keeping the audience at an arms distance, while also compelling us to want to know more about their lives, the mystery at large, and the schism between them.
What’s especially exciting to me is how unique this stark environment as a setting for this series. True Detective has certainly presented various towns and communities as hostile and unnerving but nothing like this isolated Alaskan town. It feels like the stakes are raised from the jump, and likewise True Detective’s cinematography, one of its standout features, will undoubtedly continue to shine as it always has. Though I’ll need to keep watching more of course to truly get a read on this season, its already entranced me in enough to excite me for the next episode of ‘True Detective: Night Country’ to drop.
