REVIEW
Carol Schaye
- Jodie Foster as Chief Liz Danvers
- Kali Reis Officer Navarro
- Fiona Shaw as Rose Aguineau
- Finn Bennett as Officer Peter Prior
- Isabella Star LaBlanc as Leah Danvers
- John Hawkes as Captain Hank Prior
- Christopher Eccleston as Captain Ted Connelly
- Issa López, director, writer and producer
*(True Detective is an American anthology crime drama television series created by Nic Pizzolatto. The series, broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States, premiered on January 12, 2014. Each season of the series is structured as a self-contained narrative, employing new cast ensembles, and following various sets of characters and settings.) * Wikipedia
There is next to nothing I can find to complain about in this version of the anthology, “True Detective Night Country”. Well next to nothing. With a 60-million-dollar budget for a television series (6 episodes), if it didn’t deliver, someone was going to have a career-ending experience.
Two women police officers (one a sheriff and the other an ATF officer) are assigned to solve a weird case of 8 scientists found naked, frozen, and dead in the Alaska tundra, outside their town of Ennis, Alaska.
Initially, there is friction between the two lead characters Jodie Foster as Chief Liz Danvers and Kali Reis as ATF Officer Evangeline Navarro. We aren’t informed for a while what caused the friction.
In the middle of this mess of frozen dead bodies is Finn Bennett (Officer Peter Prior), who is learning police work from Danvers and greatly admires her. Bennett gives a fabulous performance, without a moment’s break in character. Alongside major talent, he holds his own.
Playing his father who is also a police officer is John Hawkes (Captain Hank Prior) who is fascinating as a lonely, desperate man.
Foster, the winner of two Academy Awards is usually dependable. A Yale Drama graduate, Foster knows how to build a character who is at once abrasive and endearing at the same time. Chief Danvers is a complicated dynamic woman. My issue with Foster has always been she is hung up at the mouth. An actor hung up at the mouth, needs to practice allowing emotion through opening their mouth which Foster doesn’t do (her mouth is always clinched).
Finally, when the two stars, police officers, join together to solve the mystery of the deaths, we cannot look away. They are that good together.
Reis (Officer Navarro) was a professional boxer, before beginning her acting career. She is a natural.
“True Detective” demonstrates a respect for and awareness of the indigenous people of Alaska and their beliefs. One of the two lead characters is indigenous Reis (Navarro) and she is respected, tough, and smart.
Shot in Iceland and Alaska, the constant night darkness, fabulous cinematography, and meticulous attention to set decoration, is like a character in itself. The weather, the ice, and the endless night darkness, present conflicts along with the mystery of the murder, the writers have used these elements well.
It is a tribute to the director (and the seasoned performers) that she cast relatively new actors (Reis and Bennett) to work with seasoned professionals like Foster and Hawkes getting outstanding performances and character development from them.
While watching episode five of the six one-hour episodes, it occurred to me that in this “True Detective”, the casting is upside down. Perhaps it is a tribute to Jodie Foster’s power but it is never mentioned that the two lead cops on the case are women, it is never mentioned that although they both have men, they have sex with, their job and the case comes first, that they are both the bread earners in their homes (Foster’s character has an adopted daughter) they both are often the smartest alpha people in the room (along with Finn Bennett) Young Officer Peter Prior. Neither the writer nor the actors play upon sexist preconceptions or female sexuality to advance the story. This is the way I like my television and my film. Not lecturing, not complaining, just being. Both male characters and female characters do bad things, women are not elevated to special status, just equal status. I suspect that the budget and the good story are due to Foster’s involvement. The female lead characters are complicated and conflicted. Their work is very important to them. Even minor characters, Officer Prior’s wife, is aspiring to a career that his work interferes with.
Thank you, Jody Foster.
“True Detective” can be seen on HBO.
Carol Schaye has had several short stories published by McFadden’s Women’s Group, Sierra Nevada Ally and other publications. Carol has written for two west coast newspapers and has worked extensively in television. A fan of Flannery O’Connor, Carol studied acting with Lee Strasberg and Austin Pendleton and writing with Salem Ludwig. She attended Marymount College majoring in theater.
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