Great news for all of the True Detective: Night Country fans out there! The 4th season of the anthology series, which concluded last Sunday, has officially been renewed for a fifth season with its new showrunner Issa López returning at the helm. Season four of Night Country starred Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as the two lead detectives. It was also the most-watched season of the show, with around 12 million people watching each episode. There’s no official release date, casting news, or plot yet, but it’s happening!
HBO on Issa’s return: “Issa Lopez is that one-of-a-kind, rare talent that speaks directly to HBO’s creative spirit. She helmed ‘True Detective: Night Country’ from start to finish, never once faltering from her own commendable vision, and inspiring us with her resilience both on the page and behind the camera. Alongside Jodie and Kali’s impeccable performances, she’s made this installation of the franchise a massive success.”
Will Foster and Reis return? “‘True Detective’ is an anthology series, so chances are the next installment will be with somebody else. Who knows who that’ll be?” Foster said during a sit-down interview with Reis earlier this year. “But maybe they’ll bring us on as extras or something.”
“Kind of like an Easter Egg,” laughed Reis. (Season One character Rust Cohle’s father, Travis Cohle, made an appearance in Season Four).
A cold but fun shoot: Either way, the pair said that the experience of working together was something they’d happily repeat, despite the fact that filming lasted seven months and took place in Iceland (not Alaska) during some of the coldest months of the year. “It is cold, but I think it helps put you in the place,” said Foster. “It helps you understand who the people are in this isolated community and how isolated they are from each other and from the rest of the world.”
At times, the frigid temperatures made it difficult for the actors to say their lines. Reis said she sometimes struggled to get words out while shooting “True Detective” scenes outside. “But it adds to the character and the whole story because the cold is a character,” said Reis.
Jodie compares it to Silence of the Lambs: “I think ‘Silence of the Lambs’ is the closest experience that I’ve ever had to this,” said Foster. “Where you jump on something because you love the material so much and everybody jumps on and does their best work because they respond to the material and the depth of it. And then you do the best work of your life. I really felt like that’s what was happening.”
Will Season 4’s mysteries ever be answered? After wrapping on Feb. 18, the final episode of Season Four solves some mysteries and leaves others intact. Navarro, for example, appears alongside Danvers at the very end of the finale. Minutes earlier, she was seen walking into the frozen Alaska tundra. Was Navarro a ghost? Or did Navarro manage to avoid the fate of her mother and sister, escaping the oppressive town limits of Ennis for a more peaceful existence instead? Reis tells TODAY.com that it’s up to viewers to decide. “You have enough evidence to go either way, but it’s up to the audience to choose,” says the actor on the ending.
The tongue of it all: And what about Annie Kowtok’s tongue? How did it end up at the Tsalal research outpost, six years after her murder? “That’s a great mystery. There’s a few things that could have happened to it,” says Reis. Those, and other burning questions, will likely remain unanswered. According to Reis, López intentionally left “True Detective: Night Country” vague to let viewers decide what happened for themselves. “It’s not very permanent. It’s very open, which I like a lot,” Reis says.
Honestly, I’m genuinely excited to see what López does next. I don’t need or want the next season to be a continuation of this one, so I’m relieved that they’re keeping that format. I’ve watched every season of True Detective, even the very ‘meh’ second one. I was enthralled by the first one and really enjoyed the third. I binged all of Night Country except for the finale last weekend, pausing to read reviews and theories in between each episode. I watched the last episode this weekend. Although I’ve heard that fans are mixed on the season as a whole, I loved it. It had a great mix of both the supernatural and the ordinary. I really enjoyed that they returned to that same type of storytelling as Season one, even including Rust Cohle’s father’s ghost as an easter egg tying the two seasons together. Overall, I was satisfied with the ending.
I’m in the camp that Issa did a great job landing the plane. I think the funniest/stupidest/dumbest timeline part of this news is that creator Nic Pizzolatto has been throwing a hissy fit all season long that a *girl* ruined his precious show. Never mind that he basically got kicked off it because he was a total a–hole to work with. Like, whatever, dude. Cry more, Nicky. It feels like the Venn Diagram of the people criticizing Night Country on Nic’s behalf and the people who pay for blue check marks on Twitter is one big circle.
https://t.co/27n8WiLIRO pic.twitter.com/4JLoD9GJtS
— Maggie Lovitt (@maggieofthetown) February 22, 2024
I LOVED night country. The whole season I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it – great casting, obviously – but I felt so much hinged on the ending. And I thought they NAILED the ending. Some ambiguity, so the supernatural element wasn’t completely lost, but they tied enough up that I felt there was closure and the story was told. Honestly I thought it was the best season – season 1 had too much ambiguity as I remember it (we loved it at the time but I never felt compelled to rewatch it, so I may be misremembering some things), I actually didn’t hate season 2, but didn’t feel it fit in as a True Detective season, and I really liked Season 3.
But this was the best one in my opinion. I had flat out forgotten just how GOOD Jodie Foster is, and the rest of the cast was excellent as well.
I dont want to give away too many spoilers, but this one I’ll mention bc the post itself mentions it – I don’t think Navarro was a ghost, I think she found peace after all she had been through and she and Danvers had also found peace together as friends.
I loved this season too! I’m with you – she wasn’t a ghost but she had “moved on” in her own way
Wholeheartedly agree with most everything you wrote (with the exception being season 2. Everyone in it was great but overall it just didn’t click with me), especially about Navarro. Definitely looking forward to the next season and can’t wait to find out who will be in it!
I also loved this season. Hooray for Issa Lopez & season 5! And I also agree Navarro found peace and she and Danvers remained friends at the end.
And the Nic Pizzolatto is a misogynist and idiot. Season 1 was so good due to the phenomenal cast, amazing acting and excellent directing by Fukunaga (who admittedly is also a douche). Pizzolatto has delusions of grandeur if he thinks Seasons 2-3 which he penned but without Fukunaga’s directing could even approach Season 4 are laughable.
I agree. Season 4 was hands down amazing. Although I was a little perplexed by the ending, but it makes better sense now. For me, I think Navarro walked into the ice and is a ghost. But that’s just my perception.
I love to season one but the more I hear Nic spout nonsense, the less I like it. (Let’s not even talk about season 2. That was hours of my life I will never get back).
I can’t wait for season 5!
I agree!! I liked the first season, hated the second, liked the third (‘though I can’t remember a single thing about it now), and LOVED this season. Nic Pizzolatto and his minions have behaved atrociously. Like it or don’t like it…but seemingly waging a campaign against it is WEIRD. I loved that there were rational explanations for events while holding space for the supernatural. It was a beautiful study of grief and the last episode was wonderful. I’ll likely rewatch it to see the clues I may have missed in the first few episodes.
I have never watched any of them but having read Pizzolato’s interview in the Guardian, I will try to find a way to watch it…from Season 4 onwards!! 🤣🤣
I hated Night Country. There were so many plot holes, so little actual detective work, the characters were not that likeable, the ending very dumb. I was very excited by the premise, but the execution was just lacking.
Same. There was so much that didn’t make sense about the “resolution” and too much happened in the series that never had a point or connected to anything.
I agree with Pizzolato’s criticisms also: Lopez included some of his material without permission and it didn’t connect to or add to the story, which makes it seem like an attention grab.
Season 1 is still the only good True Detective.
I didn’t hate it but didn’t love it. The ending wasn’t great. Each episode had very little going on so I expected something huge in the end like Pete helping his dad, etc. I liked the creepy factor of it being dark all the time and strange things happening at the research station, but it didn’t deliver in the end.
Night Country could be its own anthology. Another location in the Arctic circle. A different cast. After the brilliance of S1 the show fell off a cliff hard. Why follow that pattern when Night Country is packed with opportunities for new stories?
Night Country was so good! I normally get annoyed at mysteries that
don’t have a completely logical plot and solution, but this is absolutely the exception because of the depth of the characters and setting.
I loved that it’s about women, mostly native women, and the men who are having hysterics about it – I can guess why.
Look at those beautiful smiling natural women. It does a woman’s soul good to see non glam shots of other women.
I think they have been awful after the first season. Ridiculous convoluted plot lines, I thought I was watchin a spoof the entire season with Vince Vaughn as the lead, bad dialog, and as a person born and raised in alaska, Im falling over dead watching everyone’s bad interpretations of how alaskans live. So much inaccuracy.
SPOILER ALERT::::::::::
Native American Women are the heroes. They slid by unseen because nobody pays attention to them ever in the first place. Subtle. Brilliant. More please!