Issa Lopez

This post contains spoilers for this week’s episode of True Detective: Night Country, now streaming on Max. Midway through our penultimate installment, the combined investigation of Annie K’s murder and the death of the Tsalal scientists seems to grind to a halt. The forensics team in Anchorage attributes the Tsalal deaths to a “weather event.” And if Ted Connelly isn’t in the pocket of Silver Sky Mining, he’s at least political enough to decide that law-enforcement is not well-served angering big business just to…

This post contains spoilers for this week’s episode of True Detective: Night Country, which is now streaming on Max. Early in our fourth chapter, Danvers comes upon Navarro’s sister Julia stripping off her clothes in the middle of the street. She flings her clothes behind her, unconcerned for the mess or spectacle she’s making, just trying to get free of the emotions that are always trying to crush her. Evangeline takes this for another episode in Julia’s lifelong struggle with mental health, and finally gets her…

A somber theme emerges in episode one of True Detective: Night Country.Photo: Michele K. Short/HBOIf you’ve been curious about True Detective: Night Country, but don’t have an HBO or Max subscription, prepare to be further tempted: episode one is now streaming free on YouTube. Writer-director Issa López’s (Tigers Are Not Afraid) new installment of the anthology series is an Alaska-set tale that tips its fur-lined cap to John Carpenter’s The Thing; it also features a rare TV series appearance by Jodie Foster, in a role…

This post contains spoilers for this week’s episode of True Detective: Night Country, which is now streaming on Max. The third chapter of Night Country begins and ends with women screaming. The late Annie K is there for both scenes — the first a flashback, the second a shaky cell phone video. But in the flashback, Annie and her friends are helping women through labor at a birthing center, and the screams are part of the natural, often happy, circle of life. And in the selfie video, Annie’s screams appear to be…

This post contains spoilers for this week’s episode of True Detective: Night Country, now available on HBO and Max. When the first True Detective season concluded 11 years ago, a lot of the finale discourse revolved around the lack of any supernatural elements after the previous episodes had been laced with references to Robert W. Chambers’ horror stories about the King in Yellow. That the killer was an ordinary, if evil, human being disappointed some viewers who had spent weeks theorizing, while True Detective…

This post contains spoilers for the premiere of True Detective: Night Country, which is now available on HBO and Max. Early in True Detective: Night Country, we are told that it is December 17, aka the date of the last sunset of the year in the remote northern town of Ennis, Alaska. For a stretch each winter this close to the top of the world, the darkness is inescapable, making it impossible to differentiate day from night without a watch or other device that tells you whether it’s a.m. or p.m. It’s an evocative…

Liz Danvers, chief of police in the remote Alaska town of Ennis, and heroine of True Detective: Night Country, is fond of telling other cops they’re asking the wrong questions, prodding them over and over until they ask the right one. With Night Country, there’s only one question: Was it worth resurrecting the long-dormant True Detective franchise — and without its original creator, Nic Pizzolatto?  The new season, created, directed, and largely written by Issa López (Tigers Are Not Afraid), and starring Jodie…