*Premise spoilers.*
True Detective is one of those buzzy shows that I’ve simply never gotten around to. It doesn’t help that I’ve heard about its extreme unevenness across the different seasons, but I just haven’t ever mustered the energy to check it out. I heard good things about the Night Country season, though, and since it’s kind of an anthology show, I had no qualms about jumping in on season 4 when I realized that Christopher Eccleston has a recurring role on it! He’s only in about half the season, but it’s short enough that I’m going to watch the whole thing, just reviewing his appearances.
The season takes place in Ennis, Alaska, where the scientists at a research station have just been found dead, in a horrific frozen tableau. It’s the “third day dark,” during the period of the winter where Alaska gets no sun, and the residents of Ennis generally accept that things get weird this time of year. But not this weird—police chief Liz Danvers, a transplant from Anchorage, is investigating the mysterious deaths. She’s not ready to accept the idea that anything supernatural is going here, and she’s not particularly entertaining Trooper Evangeline Navarro’s theory that this is somehow connected to Annie Kowtok, a Native woman who was brutally murdered six years earlier.
I don’t know if all seasons of True Detective have some supernatural flavor to them or if it’s just this one. I certainly wasn’t expecting it going into the show, but I like it. So far, there’s just enough plausible deniability that a lot of it could have a “logical” explanation, which makes Danvers’ skepticism easier to take. She’s kind of a “my way or the highway” hardass anyway, but she’s also smart and thoughtful, so we’ll see how her thoughts evolve as the mystery continues.
One of my favorite scenes in the episode comes when Danvers is examining the slowly thawing bodies with a rookie cop named Prior. Patiently but unsentimentally, she nudges him through how to think over the evidence they’ve looked at on the bodies and the crime scene photos, repeatedly helping to steer him toward “the right questions.” For example, she’s quick to point out that some of the more sensational elements, like the researchers being naked and some of them clawing their own eyes out, could be contributed to the rational explanation of confusion due to hypothermia. She looks past the flashy stuff to deeper questions, like, “How scared do you have to be to run out on the ice without any shoes?” And when Prior laments that the case doesn’t make any sense, she assures him, “Yeah, it does. We’re just not seeing it. Not asking the right questions.”
In between the spooky mystery, there’s also a lot of personal stuff for the different characters: Danvers’ difficult relationship with her stepdaughter, Navarro’s worries about her sister’s mental health, Prior’s struggles with his abusive dad (who’s a fellow cop on the force,) and so on. There’s a ton of moving pieces here, and it looks like a number of these plots are going to interconnect. I’m looking forward to seeing how the story rolls out from here.
Oh, and I love this blasé reaction from one townsperson to the notion that the researchers might have seen a spirit: “It’s a long fucking night. Even the dead get bored.”
Jodie Foster is turning in nice work as Danvers. She’s tough and no-nonsense, and she’s quick on the mark at her job, even as her interpersonal relationships are a bit of a mess. I’m enjoying Kali Reis as Navarro, who’s still haunted by Annie’s murder and thinks she’s finally found a chance to bring her some justice. And the show also features the always-great Fiona Shaw (Maarva!!!) as Rose—we don’t know a ton about her yet, but she’s the one who discovers the bodies of the researchers on the ice.
Christopher Eccleston plays Ted Connolly, the police captain. He’s only in a few scenes so far, but it’s clear that his professional relationship with Danvers is fairly combative. He tries to take the case from her, saying, “Don’t worry, I’m moving it out to Anchorage. You don’t have to do a thing.” As she finagles her way into holding onto it a little longer, you get the sense that this is a longstanding dynamic between them. We also don’t yet have the details on why she got moved to Ennis in the first place, but we know that Connolly was the one who sent her there.
Also, we get one of the most awkward sex scenes I’ve seen outside of Girls—it cracked me up!
First impressions:
Accent Watch
Generic American, sounds decent.
Recommend?
In General – I would. Two episodes in, I’m really liking the mystery, and the characters are well drawn.
Christopher Eccleston – Too early to say! I need to see more.
Warnings
Graphic violence/gore, sexual content, drinking/smoking, language, and strong thematic elements (including Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.)
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