No one was really clamoring for another season of True Detective until Issa López came along and suddenly revived our interest in a series that’s been dormant at HBO since 2019. With Night Country, López tells a compelling story that’s wrapped up in just six episodes, and leaves the door open for others to come and tell their stories in the world of True Detective.
Update: HBO has officially renewed True Detective for season 5, with López returning as showrunner as part of an overall deal with the network.
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Ultimately, Night Country isn’t, as Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) thinks, about asking the right questions—it’s about stories, the ones we tell and the ones who get to do the telling. With that in mind, were HBO to greenlight True Detective season 5, it would only make sense to do so with a different storyteller at the helm. A big part of what makes Night Country so great and such an effective piece of storytelling is López’s perspective and the way she essentially inverts the story and characters of season 1.
That includes the Iñupiat women, who play a pivotal role in the series and its finale; often overlooked and ignored, the Indigenous women of Ennis see and hear everything, including the murder of Annie K. While Danvers is busy investigating the deaths of the Tsalal researchers and Navarro (Kali Reis) is connecting the dots between the men and Annie K., it turns out that the Ińupiat women have already taken justice into their own hands.
Night Country tells a complete story, but True Detective is an anthology series with new detectives, new crimes, and new actors in each season. After taking a stumble in season 2, True Detective course-corrected with a pretty good season 3. Unfortunately, that season failed to recapture viewers who ditched the show during season 2. As The Wrap notes, season 4 is the most-watched season of True Detective since season 1, making it incredibly likely that HBO will chase opportunities to renew the series for a fifth season.
It’s still pretty early for news of a season 5, but based on the popularity of Night Country, I’d be shocked if HBO didn’t pursue another installment. Here’s hoping series creator Nic Pizzolatto can get over himself and let another creator take a crack at it.
(featured image: HBO)
