Because True Detective, starring Jodie Foster, is thrilling: the enigma of another world

Those who know or have seen an episode or season of True detective, originally created by Nic Pizzolatto, they know that the seasons have no continuity, the protagonists and directors change. What unites them is the investigation of a crime, sometimes with hints of the supernatural.

True Detective: Night Landwhich already aired its second episode last night on HBO and HBO Max, has Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as protagonists. They are two police officers from the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska. The title has to do with the fact that it’s December in the Arctic and the sun doesn’t rise for even a minute. Something kept them apart – the investigation into the savage murder of Annie Kowtok, a Native midwife and activist – so Evangeline Navarro (Reis) ended up patrolling the snowy streets while Liz Danvers (Foster) takes on a new case.

The same, or much more disturbing than the previous one.

In the first episode, released a week ago, eight scientists disappeared without a trace. They worked at a research station and we as viewers see for the first time that one has a strange tremor and strange behavior. At the end of that chapter, the frozen corpses of the scientists (are they all there?) appeared in an open field, with gouged eyes, signs of self-harm, and expressions of horror.

Already in the second episode, Liz has no choice but to accept Navarro as a partner in the investigation. And clues point to a connection between Annie’s crime and the scientists’ mysterious case. We now know that the language they found at the station was Annie’s.

Issa Lopez, the Mexican writer and director of this fourth season, takes nothing for granted. Here you have to reveal what’s going on and you get into conversations without too much being explained to you. True detective It’s about opening your mind, observing everything, while the puzzle remains unsolved.

In this second chapter, Fiona Shaw’s character, Rose, becomes more relevant. Like little Cole inside Sixth Sense, sees dead people. And she, like Liz, like Evangeline, has microsecond flashbacks.

There would be other signs.

And there is another character who becomes more important. Raymond Clark, one of those missing, was reportedly related to Annie. In fact, Liz reopens Annie’s file and discovers that Clark, for example, is wearing a jacket that belonged to the murdered woman. And a strange symbol appears on the foreheads of some corpses.

Annie had a tattoo of a spiral pictogram and Clark had the same one on his chest.

Queer. Strange coincidence.

Luckily one of the corpses is “reborn” while they are removing the ice that covered his body. Obviously he’s in a medically induced coma, but it could provide clues as to what the hell happened. And no, not all the bodies are there. One is missing. Raymond Clarke’s. Will he be alive?

And there are more questions, after we know that scientists were looking for microorganisms in ice cores that could lead to a cure for cancer. And why is the water contaminated? Is there something supernatural around Alaska?

With a little “Easttown Matrix”

There is something, if you will, of Easttown Mare, the HBO miniseries starring Kate Winslet as a police officer investigating a crime. Both are cunning, and Liz and Mare’s relationships with the other characters are revealed indirectly. And if what attracts us to a series and makes us wait for the next chapter to find out what will happen, is that we are faced with a great program.

All the performances are more than correct, but the important thing happens elsewhere. They are characters in an extreme situation, of which there are still four episodes left to know the outcome.

“True Detective: Night Land”

Crime. United States, 2024. Original title: “True Detective: Night Country.” 6 episodes, SAM 18. From: Issa Lopez. With: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett. Available on: HBO and HBO Max. New episodes premiere every Sunday at 11 p.m.