Series Review: True Detective: Night Country

True Detective has been a highly polarizing show on HBO. The first season was near perfect and the subsequent anthologies have created endless dialogue about how "they're never as good as the first." Despite the very high expectations everyone puts on this series, I've enjoyed every season of True Detective that's been put out. The newest season - subtitled Night Country has been a ratings hit for HBO, and a very hot topic online.

No major spoilers here - I will say, I don't know what some of y'all were bitching about, because I thought the ending was pretty satisfying. 

Our detectives this season are the hardened Liz Danvers (Jody Foster) a police chief who fucks and Deputy Evangline Navarro (Kali Reis) who cannot shake a previous case. When a group of scientists are found frozen in a pile outside their small town of Ennis, Alaska. Dangers and Navarro find themselves working together again. 

Night Country likely could've stood on its own without being under the True Detective umbrella, but it would've gotten comparisons regardless. It's an un-winnable battle. This season puts a focus on Indigenous stories, and also leans pretty heavily into ghost territory as well. They tell you right away that "people see things around here." I think because ghosts are brought up so much that people expected this to be a full on super-natural show, but again - it's True Detective. Spirituality and seeing things that aren't there have always been part of this series. 

I loved Kali Reis as a lead. It's nice to just see an actress that looks like her leading a series alongside a high profile actress like Foster. Her character also had the most interesting arc. Not all the sub plots hit. While Finn Bennett's young deputy/father trying to be the best he can at his job even when it's at the cost of his family is a great presence, the side plot with his father and fellow policeman (John Hawkes) falls pretty flat. 

Over all, this was a good bit of TV. If the reaction to the ending you're reading online is putting you off, don't let it. It's a perfectly watchable show.