HBO has officially renewed True Detective for a fifth season! This is after the fourth season, subtitled Night Country, got the highest ratings of any season so far, averaging 12.7 million viewers across all six episodes.
Each season of True Detective revolves around a different set of characters solving a different crime in a different place. Night Country took us to the remote Alaskan town of Ennis, which is shrouded in night for weeks at a time. Jodie Foster and Kali Reis led the show as officers Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro. This was the first season where True Detective showrunner Nic Pizzolatto did not serve as showrunner, with filmmaker Issa López taking over. She'll be coming back for season 5.
Night Country felt a bit different from past seasons, which made sense given the change in cast and crew. It was a little more outwardly horrific and a little less relentlessly grim, but it was a still a good, spooky time with a really fun twist ending. I enjoyed it and I'm interested to see what Lopez and her team can do now that they have some experience under their belt. I think Night Country was the quiet refresh the series needed right now.
Original True Detective showrunner Nic Pizzolatto still angry, still posting
Pizzolatto does not agree with me. He's no longer involved in the production of the show and has been disparaging Night Country since early on, calling it "so stupid" and sharing venomous reviews from fans bemoaning how far the show has fallen since the days when Pizzolatto was in charge and everything was awesome.
Pizzolatto is still an executive producer on True Detective, by the way. That means he's still benefiting monetarily from Night Country even as he tears it down online, which is worth mentioning given that he's now framing himself as a victim on his Instagram, where he made a post where people can leave "all your trolling/support/infighting around True Detective and the absolute moral degeneracy and misogyny of anyone who did not think it was good."
"I'd say "stay civil" but of course civility has no place when criticism of a television show indicates some form of Hitlerian evil that must be stamped out. So roll on, tide. Satire is welcome, and do try to have a nice day"
Clearly, Pizzolatto is upset he's been getting pushback for disparaging the show online. At this point, the best move would be to stop engaging with the critics, who are going to mock and troll you no matter what you do, doubly so if you whine and moan about someone else's work even as you accept the money that work is generating; the internet has been around long enough that we know it's not a great place for good faith discussions.
But Pizzolatto is still in the comments, replying away. Sometimes he's generous with people, telling one commenter who admitted to enjoying Night Country that "I support you." At other times, he's Petty LaBelle. He's living at Petty-coat Junction. "I only apologize if I’ve done something wrong,” he replied to one person who asked why he hadn't apologized for creating hate against the season. “I didn’t create anything of the kind. It was there from the first ep." He might as well have said, "I'm sorry if you're too sensitive."
I've been around the internet long enough to know when someone is digging themselves into a hole. Giving Pizzolatto the benefit of the doubt, there may well come a day when he gets some distance and perspective on this situation and realizes how cringey and embarassing he was being. You can't solve a comment problem with more comments, especially when you're still angry; it's like trying to put out a grease fire with lighter fluid. The sooner he disengages, the sooner the healing can begin.
In the meantime, congratulations to Issa López and her crew on the renewal! Consider me interested in what comes next.
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h/t The A.V. Club