Night Country conveys the atmosphere of True Detective better than True Detective ever did

Real detective is the rare show that was much more exciting and complicated after seven episodes than it was after three seasons. What started as a somber series about detectives looking into the dark heart of senseless, apparently occult murders, eventually turned into a detective series about men who are sad. What’s notable about the latest season of the show, True Detective: Nightlandis that new showrunner Issa López has managed to bring back the creeping, supernatural horror atmosphere that gave the first season so much promise in just one episode.

The new season is set in the small town of Ennis, Alaska, and this first episode is all about discovering the town’s quirks and the bones of this season’s mystery, and of course, getting to know our newest real-life detectives . The show’s opening, and its central mystery, is a classic cold-weather horror: a group of researchers at a remote winter base suddenly disappear, only to be found far from their base, frozen deep in the ice.

While the show’s first season hinted at the supernatural and the ways it sometimes peeks (or doesn’t) into our world, Night country leaves no room for doubt. By the end of this episode, more than one character has had visions, and the state the scientists are in seems impossible to imagine this happening naturally. But the real underline that makes the story’s supernatural elements undeniable is that local weirdo Rose (Fiona Shaw) is the one who finds the frozen scientists for the police, and the only reason she knew where to look is because a long A friend who died recently showed her the way.

López doesn’t let the supernatural overwhelm the rest of the world Night country‘s first episode, but she is unequivocal about its existence. This feels like a targeted response to the Real detective stories that have already appeared before. Not necessarily combative, but direct. While previous seasons, especially the first, took the characters from the natural and explainable world of crime to something more supernatural, Night country‘s mystery starts at the inexplicable and works its way back.

But despite all the ways López seems to respond Real detective‘s past in the first episode of her season, she also makes her love for the series clear. When it comes to the police investigating this case, López likes to characterize them as the same kind of broken bastards that original series creator Nic Pizzolatto made central to his three seasons writing the show. Conducting the investigation Night country is Liz Danvers (played fantastically by Jodie Foster), a brilliant cop with a mile-long track record of pushing people away by being an absolute jerk. Then there’s Liz’s old partner, Evangeline Navarro (boxer turned actor Kali Reis), a self-destructive spitfire who let one case stick in her head and consume her entire career.

The two cops don’t share quite the same dynamic as Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle and Woody Harrelson’s Marty Hart, but it’s clear López was looking for the same crackle the two had between them, and after just one episode, she already seemed to have it to take. . The two only share brief scenes in episode 1, but the chemistry they have is immediate and the bickering is perfect for signaling to us that they’re sure they’ll definitely work together again eventually.

Through just one episode, True Detective: Nightland feels like something Real detective should always have been this way. There’s no way it captures the atmosphere of the series’ best episodes better than anything the second or third seasons ever achieved. López feels at war with the show’s history, not because she hates it, but because she loves it enough to want the best version of it. What Issa López wants is the twisty, supernatural, pitch-black mystery show that captivated the internet for eight weeks in 2014. And so far she’s off to a great start.