‘True Detective: Night Country’ Review – Jodie Foster and Kali Reis Lead a Short, Unsettling Mystery
A spooky, supernatural-tinged, short-lived ride that dives into how unresolved trauma can come back to haunt you. Literally.
“She’s awake.”
The first True Detective that gets its own title, not simply called season four, Night Country opens with strange and beautiful scenery and quickly throws the viewer into an eerie mystery. The location is cold and dark Ennis, Alaska with the majority of the drama surrounding the TSALAL Arctic Research Station, where several scientists go missing.
Immediately, the audience is thrown into a sense of utter and complete dread, as the tension builds and we meet our True Detectives™. Liz Danvers (played by the incomparable Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (played by boxer-turned-actor Kali Reis) are an uncomfortable, tight-knit, and brutally honest pair of people.
“She’s here.”
It’s easy to dislike Danvers and her blatant disregard for her daughter Leah’s and Navarro’s indigenous roots, cultures, and traditions. What keeps your eyes glued to her every movement and careless words is Foster’s performance. Under all the bluster and bravado is a deeply broken and traumatized woman, who prefers to sleep her way through other people’s marriages than deal with her own problems. She’s a mess and you want her to do better even as you recoil from her behavior.
Navarro’s eyes draw you in the second you meet her. It’s obvious she’s carrying some heavy baggage and it spills out in her interactions with everyone. Despite every effort to rebuff the audience (and her lover) from learning anything real about her, she fails. Navarro has been haunted by the murder of Annie K., activist and a member of the Inupiaq people that resides in Ennis. She carries her unsolved murder with her. This case and the old Wheeler case are major points of contention between them. They’re forever bonded through these cases and they dislike it, to say the least.
“She’s calling.”
One of the strongest parts of the short, 6-episode series is the background conflict between the Inupiaq people and the coal mines poisoning their water. This largely only affects the disenfranchised population of Ennis, Alaska, causing stillbirths, illnesses, and other health issues. The people push back with protests at the coal mines, while the corporation that backs it pushes back harder with a brutal police presence. This conflict shows up in numerous ways: between Danvers and her daughter, Navarro and her people, all aided along by what feels like an unseen, vengeful force: “she.”
One of the most haunting parts of the first season of True Detective (featuring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson) was the question of whether what you’re seeing is rooted in reality or if something supernatural is occurring. The same themes are at play here in Night Country amplified by a thousand.
“She’s out there.”
Between one-eyed polar bears, random power outages, mysterious whispers, visions, and people disappearing and reappearing in the darkness, this show wraps you up in supernatural potential. There are jumpscares and horror elements that keep the pace of the show moving along, almost too quickly.
As the conspiracy unravels, it becomes evident this show was probably shortened unnecessarily. What should’ve been an 8-to-10 episode season felt like it was condensed down to six, losing some of the weight the endings of certain episodes had. Some pretty wild moments happened that were never addressed again, as a result of the story moving quickly to its conclusion.
Overall, the show is an incredible piece of work from Issa López. Haunting, brutal, infuriating, weirdly empowering, sometimes funny, Night Country, is a great return to creepy form.
Grade: A
Watch Vanessa, Sam and Jorge in their spoiler-free review. Check out Team JVS’s video reviews as each episode drops.
SYNOPSIS: 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 (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.
Cast: Jodie Foster (Liz Danvers), Kali Reis (Evangeline Navarro), John Hawkes (Hank Prior), Christopher Eccleston (Ted Connelly), Fiona Shaw (Rose Aguineau), Finn Bennett (Peter Prior), Aka Niviâna (Julia Navarro), Isabella Star Lablanc (Leah Danvers), and Joel D. Montgrand (Eddie Qavvik).