DUBAI: The closest thing we can compare the latest season of “True Detective” are not its three predecessors but “The Thing” – horror auteur John Carpenter’s eerie creature feature set in Antarctica.
Dark, foreboding and oh-so-frosty, “True Detective: Night Country” – set in the snow-draped landscape of Ennis, Alaska – sinks its teeth into the supernatural and the unseen, which previous seasons only barely hinted at, and it absolutely works here.
While fans of horror are going to adore “Night Country,” others are going to enjoy this new outing from showrunner Issa Lopez (taking over the reins from show creator Nic Pizzolatto) for its outstanding performances from lead stars Jodie Foster (appearing here in a major casting coup) and Kali Reis (former boxing champion and actress of Native American descent).
Stating the obvious, women take the wheel in “Night Country,” both, in front and of and behind the camera – a nice change of pace for a show that had very little space for them previously.
The show – available to stream in the Middle East on OSN, with the final episode set to drop over the weekend – begins on the eve of the beginning of the long winter in Ennis, when eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) will have to put aside their differences, confront their individual pasts, and “dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.”
While the central mystery and the tangential storylines are all gripping, what will really keep audiences on the edge of their seats is the crackling chemistry between Foster’s Danvers and Reis’ Navarro, factitious and tenuous at all times. And going up against the singularly talented Foster, Reis manages to hold her own with a captivating and fierce performance.
The six-episode series, which may seem short to some viewers, packs in a lot for its short runtime. Some might even say too much. With the increasingly tangled storylines by episode five, one cannot help but feel that the show needs more time to breathe.
But will the ever-twisting mystery get its satisfying conclusion in its upcoming finale? There’s only one way to find out.
