I Watch TV: True Detective Night Country

 

True Detective: Night Country

In the town of Ennis, Alaska, above the Arctic circle, the sun doesn’t rise for several days during midwinter. The police know that strange things happen during this time. This one’s stranger than usual; when a delivery lorry arrives at the Tsalal Research Station all eight of the scientists are missing, with lights left on, food left on tables and a DVD player skipping on a scene. Most extraordinarily the investigators find a severed human tongue. Police Chief Liz Danvers is going to have more than usual weirdness to deal with.

State Trooper Evangeline Navarro hears of the tongue and connects it to a cold case, the murder of Annie Kowtok, an indigenous Alaskan and environmental activist, killed several years ago and found with her tongue missing. Navarro believes the case was swept under the rug, blaming Danvers. At one time Danvers and Navarro were police partners, but then fell out and Navarro transferred to the state police, as opposed to the town police.

At first Danvers tries to keep Navarro off the case but when Captain Connelly – Danvers’ rival and lover – comes into town to take the case away from her they team up. The town is a mining town, but it’s also a fishing town and this is Alaska so people do hunting and more. The mine is causing pollution in the water, something the mining company denies. Annie Kowtok was a midwife as well as an activist and there are an enormous number of miscarriages and still births.

The investigation moves through the town from top to bottom and looking into past and present. And perhaps future as well; Navarro’s sister sees things, and when the scientists are found out on the ice it’s because a local woman is led to them by a ghost. There’s strange symbols and a one eyed polar bear lurking.

Does this come together as well as True Detective Season One? No, but then again nothing does, not even the other seasons of the show. This is a fine, slightly weird detective mystery, filled with oddness, secrets and misdirections, and held together by Jodie Foster’s central performance as Liz Danvers. Did I hope for more? Well every episode had at least one really good bit, which is as much as I should have hoped for from a TV show.

Watch This: Clever, stylish detective show with occasional flashes of brilliance
Don’t Watch This: So many loose ends and poorly answered questions