The anthology series, True Detective, has a rare problem. And it has become a classic with a dazzling first season that marked a milestone for HBO. Something already complicated in a brand destined to create high-quality productions. But in the case of screenwriter Nic Pizzolatto’s story released in 2014, the bet was total.
With Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as protagonists, the story, with Gothic overtones of a crime that became a supernatural event, not only captivated critics. At the same time, it became a cultural event that made it clear that The usual police dramas could also be works meditated on the human condition.
The quality of the plot reached such high points that it turned the next two into mere imitations of that success. The second, released in 2015 and the third in 2109, never reached the level of complexity and visual section of the initial one. Something that ultimately does not happen with True Detective: Polar Nightthe most recent and the only one that is similar in tone and narration to the first. The story returns to its roots of a mysterious case that could be both a supernatural fact to be discovered, like an elaborate crime. In the intermission, the script analyzes its characters, this time two female agents who must explore brutal murders while trying to survive.
True Detective: Polar Night
True Detective: Polar Night rescues the essence of the celebrated first season and takes the story, finally, to the horror genre. The result is a tough, dark story with ambiguous characters, which uses Alaska’s eternal night to narrate a crime. The script reaches its best moments when it explores its mystery. The worst, when he tries to be more philosophical than direct. Rarely does it achieve a balance between both points.
Directed and written by Issa López – based on Pizzolato’s idea – the series finally assumes that it belongs, in large part, to the horror genre. Which pushes her to leave behind insinuations and half-truths, to consider a sinister idea. A group of scientists died in the frozen territories of Alaska and the conditions in which the bodies are found, they assume that they are more than a murder. In fact, the big question that the series asks is when they actually died and what happened minutes before that. The answer is a brutal enigma that leads to the eternal night of the frozen territory. But also, to question the humanity of the possible murderer.
A luxury cast for a bloody series
Danvers (Jodie Foster) is the police chief of the small, isolated town where the events occur. He has seen worse things, but never stranger things: a gigantic block of ice contains the corpses. So the story spends much of its first and second chapters pondering how they got there and how to get them out. The solution is to melt the ice with direct spotlights. The entire sequences, shot with the gloomy tone of a horror film, are sustained by long silences and the feeling of urgency to know what happened. Meanwhile, something lurks in the dark that will last months. Between polar bears and orange bursts in the night sky, there is a killer.
Navarro (Kali Reis) tries to help with his technical knowledge; However, her past with Danvers—an embarrassing professional event that put both of their careers on the line—makes it complicated. Little by little, the script explores the ethnic differences of the women, the way in which both are perceived only for being female agents and the fear of the people. In particular, the story — so well written that the secret never shows even a little — leads to strange places about the crimes. The victims suffered torture before dying, although it is not obvious, nor is it shown, what type. The agents deal with uncertainty, the fear of the people and, at the same time, the demands of each other.
On this occasion, True Detective makes the smart decision to turn its central mystery into one that is more than a crime to solve. At the same time, it is a circumstance that can endanger miners, indigenous people and even visitors, in the middle of the three-month night in the area. One thing is obvious, what caused the deaths is brutal, it will not stop immediately and both Danvers and Navarro will have to expect the worst. Much more so when the temperature becomes more violent and the criminal – or whatever he kills – becomes part of the rigors of nature.
Terror in a police environment
True Detective: Night polar bases its visual effectiveness on turning the snowy landscapes — of Iceland, camouflaged to imitate Alaska — into terrifying places. The characters become smaller in white immensities and the snow becomes whirlwinds that attack like living creatures. Although the technical section will never be able to match what surprised the first season – the comparison is inevitable – it does have its own identity. Furthermore, it is clever enough to narrate the issue of the environment as an enemywhich makes several chapters of the series a war against the environment.
Overall, the series is sober, intelligent and well-acted. His great contribution to the anthology is to bring terror as a real and not suggested part of the story. It may sometimes fail to use very elaborate devices to avoid giving details — towards the third chapter, the feeling that a secret is being kept becomes tedious — but it quickly regains its rhythm. Compared, True Detective: Polar Night It wins out over the rest of its predecessors, by having more visual and narrative personality. In particular, be more precise and avoid commonplaces.
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Without being perfect or reaching the masterful surprise of the initial season, the fourth of True Detective is effective and much better constructed than seasons two and three. Which makes it a starting point, perhaps for a new journey through a world built almost by accident. Nick Pizzolato’s series is back and in top form. That will always be good news.