Murder-mysteries are so hot right now. Post-White Lotus, Knives Out and the Poirot revival, you can turn the channel without encountering a surprising corpse and a small army of sleuths sniffing around for a culprit… and we’re so very here for it.
One murder-mystery that’s more icy cold than red-hot is season four of HBO’s mercurial True Detective series. Originally created by Nic Pizzolatto and getting off to a flyer with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey’s cops slipping down an occult rabbit hole in its first season, it’s gone off the boil a bit since then. But the new fourth season, written and directed by Issa López, set in a perma-dark Alaskan town and starring Jodie Foster, is a major return to form.
Read on to find out the who’s, what’s, and, most specifically, where’s of True Detective: Night Country.
Is Ennis, Alaska a real place?
Do not head to Google Maps, because there’s no such place as Ennis. Like Northern Exposure’s town of Cicely, Ennis is a purely fictional Alaskan settlement that was created for the show. If you’re looking for the next best thing, and don’t mind a very long schlep, North Slope Borough, a town on the most northern point of Alaska that has a 50 percent indigenous population, is a major inspiration for Ennis.
Where was True Detective season 4 filmed?
So if not Alaska, then where? Like Interstellar, Game of Thrones and The Northman, True Detective: Night Country found its frosty, otherworldly landscape in Iceland, with Reykjavik’s RVK and Fossa Studios used in the show, and other scenes filmed on the island’s north coast at Akureyri, ‘the capital of the north’, and the smaller fishing village of Dalvik.
Who’s in the cast for True Detective: Night Country?
Headlining the show is Jodie Foster in – believe it or not – her first TV lead role for 50 years. She plays cynical and hardbitten but (very) secretly soft-hearted local cop, Liz Danvers. She’s called into action when a team of scientists mysteriously disappears from the Tsalal Arctic Research Station, and soon finds herself in an uneasy partnership with fellow cop Evangeline Navarro (boxer-turned-actress Kali Reis, Wind River: The Next Chapter).
Providing an unwelcome voice in the investigation is Danvers’ superior and ex, Ted Corsaro, played by Christopher Eccleston. Meanwhile, Oscar-nominee John Hawkes is her truculent underling Hank Prior and Finn Bennett is his son, and fellow cop, Peter Prior. Adding more acting firepower is legendary British actress Fiona Shaw, who plays mysterious Rose Aguineau, a widow who lives near the town’s ice sheet.
A cold case – the brutal murder of an environmental activist in the not-too-distant past – and the town’s mining corporation, add a substrata of ecological anxiety and racial injustice to the increasingly murky investigation, and the show.
Who wrote the theme tune?
Billie Eilish’s aptly-themed song ‘Bury a Friend’ is the show’s main theme. The song appears on the American pop sensation’s 2019 album ‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?’.
How to watch True Detective season 4
True Detective: Night Country is now airing on HBO and HBO Max in the US, with episodes landing on Sundays at 9 pm ET / 6 pm PT. In the UK, you’ll find new episodes on NOW and Sky Atlantic every Monday.
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