Michele K. Short / HBO
WhenTrue Detectivepremiered on HBO in 2014 , it was n’t just the show ’s crime procedural plot , Cary Fukunaga ’s surreal counsel , or Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson ’s deeply hold up - in performances that line viewers in . The show ’s first season expect with it a sharp bound of cosmic horror as well . Not only was it filled with Lovecraftian particular and references , but a sense of unseen , supernatural danger also sink in all eight of its episode . Its story seemed to comprise more layers than witness would ever be capable to fully get the picture .
In the remainder , many matte up thatTrue Detectiveseason 1 give out to rescue the deepness it often suggest at . Whatever your opinion about the time of year ’s termination might be , though , its cosmic revulsion touches helpedTrue Detectivestand out from all the other criminal offense procedurals that viewers had seen up to that point . That ’s why it was disappointing when the show ’s second and third season abandoned its initial supernatural repulsion tone . True Detectiveseason 2 tried to exchange it with a David Lynch - inspired uncanniness to varying degree of effectuality , while the show ’s third season never so much as feinted at the kind of horror tone that made its first so tempting .
Michele K. Short / HBO
True Detective : dark Countrydoesn’t make the same error . The Modern , Issa López - helmed fourth time of year not only brings back the show ’s original supernatural repulsion vibe , but it adopt them even more fully than its first .
rightful Detective : Night Countrydidn’t wait long to annunciate itself as a full - blown horror show . Its cold open climax with a on the face of it possessed scientist ominously announce , “ she ’s awake , ” just before all the lights around him shut off . In the minutes and episodes that have followed , Night Countryhasn’t failed to live up to the hope of its opening minutes . Its first , second , and third installments have featured plenty of weird , grotesque visions , as well as ghosts and bound scare . Night Country ’s second episode even opens with what might end up being the scariest moment of any Prestige television show this year : A half - frozen , previously presumed utter scientist wailing in pain after an unmindful cop accidentally breaks one of his methamphetamine hydrochloride cold arms in one-half .
Its third chapter only commits even further to the season ’s revulsion elements . betimes on , Trooper Evangeline Navarro ( Kali Reis ) is go away at sea and unnerved when the icy , on the face of it exanimate Alaskan wild discombobulate an orange tree back at her , while López chooses to directorially punctuate one particularly gruesome discovery with close - up images of the thawing , twisted organic structure of the time of year ’s key , beat scientists . These beats feel of a piece not only withNight Country ’s larger tone and overarching story , but with the style and temper ofTrue Detectiveseason 1 .
In the closing minute of its third instalment , however , Night Countrygoes where noTrue Detectiveseason has before . As Navarro stands in the waiting room of one of the only two surviving scientists from the Tsalal Research Station , the half - dead man rises from his bed , fully possessed , and give her a foreboding word of advice . Once done , the scientist ’s body begin to seize and he speedily exit — the force of his possession seemingly hook him of the little life he had left . It is , purely and only , a horrifying moment , one you ’d rather anticipate to see in an Exorcist orConjuring moviethan you ever would in an sequence ofTrue Detective .
Throughout its first three instalment , Night Countryhas establish an splendid understanding of what madeTrue Detective ’s hit launching season so extra . It has n’t borrowed every trick from that season ’s playbook ( it has , for example , ditched its split up - timeline structure ) , but it has delivered the same , tangible sense of place and terrifying , yet entice edge of unseen horror . At the same clock time , Night Countryhas shown that it is n’t afraid to go even further into sure music genre spaces than its 2014 predecessor .
True Detectiveseason 1 prove that the good offence stories should n’t just be pass judgment found on their potency as execution mysteries , but also for how engrossing they make their populace of murder , death , and tragedy . So far , Night Countryhas retrace a reality that is full of both forcible brutality and immaterial force that lallygag just beyond the limit of its part ’ vision .
No one , whether it be Reis ’ Navarro or Jodie Foster ’s Liz Danvers , can seem to get their manus aroundNight Country ’s glacial tundra . If its opening three episodes have examine one affair , though , it ’s that it has a firm hold on them , and there ’s something distinctly , beautifully terrifying about that .
raw episodes ofTrue investigator : Night Countrypremiere Sunday nights on HBO .
