True Detective S4 Premiere, Explained

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the premiere of True Detective: Night Country.

A severed tongue. Vanishing scientists. Perpetual night. In the True Detective Season 4 premiere, all these things play a role in the mystery at the heart of the latest chapter of HBO’s acclaimed crime anthology series.

Subtitled Night Country, Season 4 is the first entry in the franchise to be helmed by a showrunner other than series creator Nic Pizzolatto. It’s also being touted as a return to form for the show. “[I]n many ways, [Season 4] feels closer than ever before to the anthology’s blockbuster debut,” wrote TIME TV critic Judy Berman. “But this fourth installment, premiering Jan. 14 after a five-year hiatus, is also a reinvention, a reawakening, maybe even a rejoinder to everything that preceded it.”

Directed by Mexican filmmaker Issa López (Tigers Are Not Afraid), who also wrote or co-wrote all six episodes, Season 4 takes the traditional neo-noir formula of True Detective and puts a new spin on it. The story takes place in Ennis, Alaska, a fictional mining town 150 miles north of the Arctic …

Continue Reading