True Detective can never hope to surpass its immaculate first season starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. Most viewers agree that the second season was a departure that could easily be forgotten, and the third outing valiantly soared in an attempt to at least equal former greatness (Mahershala Ali and Scoot McNairy’s mustache both rallied for the cause). Now, the franchise is ready to send thrills and chills up your spine.
Emphasis on the chills. True Detective: Night Country will certainly evoke some mental images that are still seared into the brains of 30 Days Of Nights viewers. At least we don’t have the outright threat of vampires in this fourth HBO season, but there are suggestions of something preternatural afoot after Jodie Foster’s detective (Liz Danvers) teams up with an old colleague, Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) to solve an unfinished case, once and for all.
Plot
As it turns out, some horrors want to stay buried, or frozen, and once digging commences in earnest, sh*t might get real. The story doesn’t take place in Barrow (now renamed as “Utqiagvik”), Alaska (as with the aforementioned vamp extravaganza) but in the fictional settlement of Ennis, Alaska.
Is time a flat circle there? The show isn’t telling (yet), but presumably, the show adheres to the legend that an Utqiagvik-like town is pitch-black dark for a huge swath of time each winter, rather than the twilight-like Polar Night that realistically dominates most of that annual phase. As HBO’s logline reveals, Danvers and Navarro will dig into the case of an entire research team being frozen solid, although they discover that they died before freezing under mysterious circumstances. From the HBO longline:
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 (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.
The cast and crew filmed in Iceland, and I’m feeling cold already.
Cast
In addition to Foster and Reis, this show will have more brilliance in the form of John Hawkes (Deadwood, Martha Marcy May Marlene) as a fellow detective that is known to be moody, to put it mildly. Co-stars this season will include Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve) as a survivalist, Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who, Jude) as the police chief, Finn Bennett (The Nevers) as Danvers’ apprentice, and Isabella Star LaBlanc (Pet Sematary: Bloodlines).
Harrelson and McConaughey are onboard as executive producers, and original series director/producer Cary Joji Fukunaga returns to co-produce here. Showrunner Issa López serves as also directs, writes, and executive produces. And True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has nothing to do with this iteration. Hmm.
Release Date
The fourth season will debut on HBO on Sunday, January 14, 2024.
Trailer
Hold onto your fur-lined hats. It’s time to get spooky.
