Helen Archer | On 09, Jun 2024

Since its debut a decade ago, True Detective has been an uneven anthology, on both a macro and micro level. Created by Nic Pizzolatto, it entered the scene in a blaze of glory, with director Cary Joji Fukunaga partnering Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as odd couple detectives – a deeply satisfying pairing. Matthew played Rust Cohle as something of a mystic, while Woody’s Martin Hart was more grounded. They inevitably butted heads, but emerged as the yin to each other’s yang. But even that glorious season, while reaching heights a detective show had rarely seen, betrayed some flaws as it went on.

The second season moved the show from Louisiana to Los Angeles, with Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams investigating a deeply forgettable plot. The third was something of a return to form, with a cast led by Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff, set in the Ozarks – although critically acclaimed, it failed to capture the viewing public in the same way the as the original.

This latest season promised so much. For the first time, it put a woman, Issa López, at the helm, writing and directing the female detective pairing of Chief Danvers (Jodie Foster) – her rigid front hiding her own past grief – and Detective Navarro (Kali Reis), again with a hardened exterior and a past that makes her unable to form bonds. Navarro, here, is the “mystic” of the duo, indigenous to the land, but both are loners, women in a very male environment. Season 4 also gave us a new, entirely unfamiliar setting – the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska (filmed in Norway), during the long winter where there is no daylight, just endless night.

The town is held hostage to a mining company, headed by Dervla Kirwan, the activities of which are having an impact on not only the environment, but also the health of the people of Ennis – pregnant women are having stillbirths in increasing numbers. The detectives are sent to investigate the mysterious deaths of a group of scientists holed up in a research facility in the middle of nowhere, which Navarro quickly understands to have something to do with the murder of Annie, an anti-mining activist, some years previously.

The plot and subplots take us through all manner of symbols and themes, many of which may seem familiar to fans of the 1982 film The Thing, or the more recent series Fortitude. The secrets of the universe that the scientists are working on lead the detectives to ice caves and polar bears, via arctic storms and the pull of the frozen ocean, which makes it all too easy for people to disappear. The mining allows for questions of the environmental and human impact of such industry, while the age-old battle of man versus nature is intertwined with the exploitation of Indigenous people by big business.

Add to this Christopher Eccleston as the police chief with a romantic interest in Danvers, Finn Bennett as the obligatory young, naive detective following his father’s (John Hawkes) footsteps into the force, but with a more empathetic approach, Fiona Shaw – an always-welcome presence – providing some continuity with the first season, and cinematography by Oscar-nominated Florian Hoffmeister, and we have all the ingredients for a regeneration of the anthology. But while there is much to admire about the scope and ambition of the series, it never quite reaches the greatness to which it so clearly aspires. It is a welcome addition to the canon, but fans will inevitably compare it to the original – and, with such high standards set, it will always come up wanting.

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