It’s been a long time since any crime series has captivated me as much as “Detective: Nightmare” with Jodie Foster in the main role. One episode was enough and I was lost. From the very beginning, the plot and the picturesque scenery of a small town immersed in the darkness of the Arctic night effectively attract attention, and then maintain this interest very well. The plots are carefully presented and intrigued, so much so that you naturally want to follow the characters and find out the solution to a truly strange mystery.
“True Detective” with Jodie Foster is addictive as hell. Don’t try to compare it to the rest of the seasons
The problem is that die-hard fans of the anthology “” will not find the same atmosphere here as in the first and already iconic season with Matthew McConaughey and Woody about Harrelson. This is understandable, if only because Nic Pizzolatto, creatively responsible for the previous series, retired to the position of producer, and Issa López took over writing and directing the script (her 2017 film “Tigers Are Not Afraid” was considered one of the most interesting breakthroughs in the industry). She made sure that the new episodes included a lot of references to the first “Detective”. In fact, some people even think that there are too many of them. Because they don’t translate into action in any particular way and serve rather decorative functions. Nevertheless, “Nightland” is worth considering (and maybe even necessary) as a separate story, because even the next two seasons, written by the same Pizzolatta, could not withstand comparisons with the first series. For this reason alone, the decision to hand over the creative reins made sense, and it is hardly surprising that such steps were taken after the 2019 series.
López may not have fully recreated the aura of the first installment of “Detective”, but she undoubtedly proved that with a little rearrangement, you can still squeeze a lot out of the original formula and turn it into something terribly compelling. Because it focused more on its characters and plot than on exactly imitating the original. I even dare to say that the series would be equally good, if not better, even if it had not been included in the “True Detective” anthology. Because here all the elements combine together deliciously, although thanks to the Arctic scenery straight from Alaska, the atmosphere is definitely cold. Here we get a strong starting point for the whole story: on the first day of the polar night, an international group of researchers disappears from an Arctic research station “like forever”. Their phones are still there, the lights are on everywhere, a movie scene is on loop on the TV, an untouched sandwich is lying on the counter, and wet laundry is lying in the washing machine. There is a severed part of a human body lying on the kitchen floor, which strongly suggests to investigators that the disappearance may be connected with the unsolved murder of a local activist from years ago.
She certainly saw the potential in this story and took on the role of local commander Liz Danvers (she plays it brilliantly), who from the very beginning handles the case of a group disappearance with determination, inspired almost by intuition and impressive perceptiveness, which also translates into intimidating professionalism. In this respect, she is not far behind the relegated to the traffic police officer Evangeline Navarro, played by boxer Kali Reis, making her debut on the small screen (the former world champion did not let herself be intimidated by the fact that she works on the set with an Oscar winner and she does very well here, she has charisma and excellent camera experience). She is the one who presses and digs into the threads that are most inconvenient for the local authorities and the group that holds power, although this stubbornness has previously cost her professional degradation.
Because interlocking criminal cases are still not enough, Lopez sprinkled the plot with a thick sauce of horror atmosphere. In the town of Ennis, people see the dead and no one is particularly surprised there. Because, according to the heroine played by Fiona Shaw (Aunt Petunia from the Harry Potter series), it is in this tiny town at the edge of Alaska that the fabric of the world comes apart at the seams and various dimensions interpenetrate. And this has a major impact on what everyday life is like there, and as it turns out, even the police must somehow take it into account during their investigation. And indeed, Liz Danvers really tries to be rational to the point of pain and firmly insists that even the strangest events can be explained sensibly.
The great charm of the new “Detective” is that the script managed to gracefully combine various elements of genre cinema, sometimes showing them a little differently, putting them in a fresh context or using them in a non-standard way. This is a full-blooded crime story in which the main characters are flawed and a bit injured, and the local community, of course, has its secrets and conflicts. A difficult past and personal dramas, of course, help good detectives to effectively conduct an investigation, which often requires an unconventional approach. The setting of the action also drives the plot very well – in such a location and natural circumstances, many strange phenomena lose their strangeness and seem to be part of the order of things. That is why in the case of “Nightland” the elements of horror convention are so coherently combined with the rest of the motifs that paint a dark and atmospheric mosaic. Nothing to do but watch.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
