‘True Detective: Night Country’ Review: Memory and Mysticism Collide in Issa López’s Chilling Tale with Jodie Foster and Kali Reis

It’s December 17, the precipice of extended days of nights at the end of the world north of the Arctic in the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska and there’s been a death. Seven of them, actually. Scientists at TSLAL, a wealthy donor-fed laboratory in the middle of nowhere who have been analyzing ice cores in hopes of sequencing old DNA to stop cellular deterioration and potentially unlocking dozens of life-changing mysteries of human healing and decline. Their deaths are a horrific discovery; buried in the ice, naked and afraid, mouths agape and eyes scratched out. A tableau of terror and one of many moments that will conjure up moments in The Silence of the Lambs, thanks largely to Jodie Foster’s presence, but also in mining our embedded familiarity and fears. Showrunner Issa López, who co-wrote and directed all six episodes, is well seasoned for this material (as her killer debut Tigers Are Not Afraid showed) and smartly uses terror more than horror in the series, choosing to offer these grisly moments as punctuation. Traditional jump scares are here, to be sure, with some being profoundly blood-curdling. 

Foster, in her first television role in nearly four decades (she’s been behind the TV camera for episodes of Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Black Mirror) is grizzled, vaguely racist chief of police Elizabeth Danvers. Put there by her boss Ted Corsaro (Christopher Eccelston, holding onto an American accent for his dear life) with whom she’s also carrying on an illicit affair with (one of many for her in this tiny town), her station at Ennis isn’t a promotion, it’s Siberia; getting her as far away as possible from her checkered past with a case that could have and should have ended her career. Among Foster’s most bracing moments in the series come from the very frank sex scenes between her and Eccelston, something Foster as an actress has virtually sworn off of in her career. Enter Alaska State Trooper Evangeline Navarro (a wily and exciting Kali Reis), a brash, impulsive Iñupiat woman who feels the case has a deeper connection to a cold case involving an Indigenous woman’s death, a case she worked on with Danvers herself, that finds itself at the center of the current mystery.

Of course it’s connected, everything is connected. Those are just the bones of detective thriller stories. Ennis is a mining town, and Silver Sky Mining holds the lives of the small, remote area in the palms of their hands. The intensity of the mining has turned the water black and has begun killing the very population it needs to function with nine stillborn babies born in just a week’s time. Danvers’ queer step daughter Leah (Isabella Star LaBlanc) is among many who find themselves immersed in protesting the mine with other local town activists. John Hawkes is fantastic as Hank Prior, an officer giving money to a Russian mail order bride and who undermines Danvers at every turn. His son Pete is very new on the force, an apprentice and an ally to Danvers as much as he can be. “Ask the question!” Danvers hammers away. Played by English actor Finn Bennett, it’s a lynchpin performance holding his own against Foster matching her beat for beat. He’s an absolute discovery. Peppered throughout the town are staple eccentrics like Fiona Shaw’s Rose Aguineau, a town survivalist who might know more truths and secrets than anyone or Navarro’s occasional hook-up, the good-hearted bartender Eddie Qaavik (Joel T. Montegrand, a lovely performance). Navarro’s troubled sister Julia (Aka Niviâna) who’s been in and out of halfway houses, also factors in ways inherent to the thread of stories for Ennis women.

It’s been 10 years since the first True Detective burst onto the scene. Created by Nic Pizzolatto and starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson (all executive producers here) and nearly five years since the last edition of the series, Night Country has more in tune with the first than any. The series is also executive produced in part by Pastel, namely Moonlight Oscar winners Adele Romanski and Barry Jenkins with Mark Ceryak, a brisk and exciting changeup from the dramas we’re used to from the company but a thrilling change of pace. The DNA of the first series is here, visible in the motifs of spooky designs and things hanging from the ceiling to offer that extra level of ‘ok, this would be a good time to pull out your gun’ moments. So is the core of local lore, faith and the supernatural. But López’s vision breaks free of masculine stranglehold of the previous iterations as it binds history and present to women and is deeply embedded in the culture of women pushed to the margins. Whether it’s in leadership positions, of which there are many here, or the most vulnerable, the point of view, the attention, the necessity of women thrives here. When Navarro bursts in to raid a home in her loose canon aggressiveness, she happens on something unexpected; a home turned into a birthing center for Indigenous women. In seconds she is tasked to assist and in that moment is a thoughtfulness, a perspective that only a woman showrunner could have provided. That isn’t to ding or dismiss men, don’t worry guys, you’ll be fine.

Foster and Reis are a traditionally odd couple pairing and bounce off each other well. Reis, a former boxer, comes in with not a wealth of acting experience and much of the time it feels that way, but not in a bad way. Her expressions, her reactions feel organic vs the studied and methodical Foster and it’s a benefit to both of their performances that they have each other. Foster often breaks far outside of her more mannered and in charge roles here with Danvers, sometimes reckless and wild, while Reis’s Navarro brashness is sometimes tempered by Danvers, giving the two an ever-changing and evolving yin-yang throughout the six episodes. A moment of triggered and unlocked trauma near the end of the series finds Foster with one of what I think stands among her best work ever and works because of the strength of her and Reis together. With Lopez at the helm of every episode and coupled with the gorgeous cinematography of Florian Hoffmeister (TÁR, The Terror) and top-notch performances, she’s created the best season of the series yet.

I almost forgot to mention the music. The opening credits are set to Billie Eilish’s “Bury a Friend” and feature more by Eilish as well as Florence and the Machine and some truly wild choices including covers of Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers” and “Twist and Shout” (as well as the original in the context of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, go with me) that at once feel out of place yet perfect. A blanket of discordance and discomfort that’s jarring at first but then eerily cloaks you like a seemingly never-ending polar night.

The six-episode limited series True Detective: Night Country begins January 14 on HBO and streaming on Max.

Grade: A-