‘True Detective: Night Country’ review: back to its brutal, unbeatable best

This fourth season of True Detective is intensely chilling from the start. It’s mid-December in Ennis, a small mining town in northwest Alaska, which means sub zero temperatures and no daylight for months on end. When eight scientists at a remote research facility disappear without trace, local police chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) is summoned to the scene and finds a severed human tongue. Tests confirm that it belongs to Annie K, an Indigenous woman who was brutally murdered in shadowy circumstances a few years earlier.

The ostensible connection between the two cases persuades Danvers to re-team with Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), her former crime-fighting partner who was transferred to a different division for reasons no one wants to talk about. But, to call their working relationship frosty is an understatement on a par with saying things are “a bit nippy” out on the Alaska ice. It’s easy to see why Foster nicknamed her character “Alaska Karen”: Danvers frequently needles Navarro with micro-aggressions undermining the spiritual beliefs she holds as a woman of native Alaskan Iñupiaq heritage. Their chemistry has a caustic crackle that’s fascinating and tricky to pin down.

True Detective: Night Country is the first instalment in the crime anthology not to be steered by series creator Nic Pizzolatto, though he remains on board as an executive producer alongside original stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. New showrunner Issa López, who previously directed the seriously creepy 2017 horror film Tigers Are Not Afraid, has rewired the franchise after a flat third season propped up by Mahershala Ali’s compelling central performance. This iteration of True Detective is a female-driven return to form that weaves supernatural elements and a sensitive mental health narrative into a riveting and intricate detective story. It’s not so much a whodunnit as a ‘whatthefuckhappenedhere’.

López’s depiction of Ennis, a pinched fictional town dependent on the mine that is polluting its water supply, is so evocative it will almost give you frostbite. Inevitably, Danvers’ relationship with Navarro thaws as the story progresses, drawing brilliant performances from both leads. Reis, a former boxer in one of her first major acting roles, really captures Navarro’s gruff vulnerability. Foster, returning to TV for the first time in nearly 50 years, delivers a piercingly sharp character study – her hallmark since 1976’s Taxi Driver. Some of the supporting characters are less well developed, but Finn Bennett impresses as Peter Prior, an ambitious young officer whose loyalty to Danvers causes problems at home. Killing Eve‘s Fiona Shaw has less to do as Rose Aguineau, a mysterious local woman who mentors Navarro, but her quietly haunting performance still feels like a key piece in this cryptic puzzle.

It all builds to a climax that is far-fetched but also, in a way, completely authentic to López’s prevailing vision. True Detective: Night Country is brilliant winter TV: scary, suspenseful and smartly constructed to leave you pondering every last plot twist and shock reveal.

‘True Detective: Night Country’ is available from January 15 on Sky Atlantic and NOW

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