Issa López has a penchant for the macabre, but she’s not a fan of the typical cozy murder mystery. She’s drawn to the grittier, darker side of crime storytelling. This makes her an ideal fit for HBO’s ‘True Detective’, which will be making a comeback for its fourth season in January after a nearly five-year break. López was a fan of the show’s first season, with its blend of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey’s chemistry, the slightly eerie nature of the crimes, and the deep-rooted mythology (remember Carcosa and the Yellow King?). However, like many, she wasn’t as keen on the following two seasons.
The revival of the show came as a surprise to López, who was then asked to take the reins from original creator Nic Pizzolatto, who remains an executive producer on the series. Her vision, as shared at an HBO event on November 2, was to create a ‘dark mirror’ of the first season. In contrast to the male-driven, sweltering environment of ‘True Detective’, the fourth season, subtitled ‘Night Country’, is chilling, dark, and female-centric.
López replaces the humid Louisiana swamps with the icy black skies of a fictional Alaskan town called Ennis, where the sun sets on December 17 and doesn’t rise until the New Year. On the third day of darkness, police chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) is summoned to a peculiar possible crime scene: the Tsalal Arctic Research Station, home to eight scientists studying arctic biology, geology, and climate change impacts. Upon arrival, all eight scientists are missing, leaving behind their access passes, cell phones, and even an uneaten sandwich; it’s as if they’ve simply disappeared.
The new showrunner of ‘True Detective’ took inspiration from two enigmatic cases that have intrigued her since her childhood. The first is the puzzling case of the Mary Celeste, an American ship whose entire crew mysteriously vanished while headed to Italy in 1872. The second is the Dyatlov Pass incident, where nine Russian hikers inexplicably left their campsite and froze to death in the wilderness, a mystery that some attribute to a possible avalanche. However, López isn’t convinced. “An avalanche doesn’t explain a lot of the details,” she shares.
The six-episode mystery doesn’t provide all the answers, but it does offer enough hints for viewers willing to sift through the first five episodes for clues. Unlike the first season of ‘True Detective’, where the resolution relied on a briefly glimpsed character, López assures that the culprit(s) are in plain sight throughout the series, if viewers know where to look.
The series also introduces Kali Reis’s character, Evangeline Navarro, who works alongside Foster’s Danvers to uncover the truth. This partnership is further complicated by a haunting case of a murdered Native woman that Navarro has been investigating for years. López felt it was important to have a detective from the culture being investigated, especially considering the delicate subject matter of murdered and missing Indigenous women.
The dynamics between Danvers and Navarro echo those of Rust Cohle and Marty Hart from the first season. Foster’s character, a brilliant detective with a chaotic personal life, represents the left brain, while Reis’s character, an Army veteran with occasional visions, represents the right brain.
The fourth season also introduces some new characters: Hank Prior, a morally ambiguous cop played by Oscar nominee John Hawkes, and his idealistic son Peter Prior (Finn Bennett), who struggles to balance the demands of the Tsalal case with his young family.
Tackling themes of loss, murder, mental health, historical racism, and climate change impacts on the Arctic, the fourth season of ‘True Detective’ promises to be a chilling, dark, and female-centric addition to the murder thriller books for sale in the market. It’s a heavy narrative, set against a backdrop of endless night and freezing temperatures, but if anyone can navigate this icy terrain, it’s Issa López.