True Detective: Night Country First Look: “It’s Cold and It’s Dark and It’s Female”

NOTE: This article is a republication- Source: Vanity Fair (by Hillary Busis).

Issa López loves a good murder—though not just any whodunit will do. “I’m not so much of a fan of the cozy mystery,” she explains. “I like the dark, fucked-up mystery.”

That’s what makes the Mexican filmmaker such a good match for True Detective, which is finally returning to HBO for its fourth season this January, after a nearly five-year hiatus. López loved the show’s critically adored first season—the complementary energy of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, the slightly supernatural flavor of the central crimes, the deep mythology (remember Carcosa and the Yellow King?). Like the rest of us, she was less all-in on seasons two and three. “And I never thought a fourth season was going to happen,” says López.

Then the show was revived, and López was asked to steer it—replacing original True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, who retains an executive producer credit on the new series. Her winning idea, as she told journalists at an HBO event on November 2, was to create a “dark mirror” of season one. “Where True Detective is male and it’s sweaty, Night Country”—season four’s subtitle—“is cold and it’s dark and it’s female.”

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