True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, like his no-filter character Rust Cohle, can’t seem to keep his opinions to himself. Despite retaining an executive-producer credit on True Detective: Night Country, the fourth season of the show and the first installment to air in five years, Pizzolatto had no writing or directing responsibilities. Instead, filmmaker Issa López has directing and writing credits on the newest six episodes, set in Alaska and starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis. The season premiered to positive reviews, but when Pizzolatto replied to Instagram commenters asking about López’s season, he got a little, well, icy.
Reddit has screengrabs of the comments in which Pizzolatto — whose second and third seasons of True Detective were nowhere near as critically successful or widely watched as the first — distances himself from Night Country, calling its narrative connections to earlier iterations of the show “so stupid†and declaring, “I certainly did not have any input on this story or anything else. Can’t blame me.†Night Country has a 93 percent critical rating and a 67 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, both of which are the highest numbers since season one. (The Los Angeles–set second season with Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, and Taylor Kitsch has a 47 percent Tomatometer and a 22 percent audience score, although it has its notable defenders. The Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff–led third season is rated at 84 percent and 51 percent, respectively.)
During a recent interview with López — who spoke before Night Country’s release about how the supernatural elements of the first season inspired her more horror-influenced take — she responded to Pizzolatto’s hostile remarks. “I believe that every storyteller has a very specific, peculiar, and unique relation to the stories they create, and whatever his reactions are, he’s entitled to them. That’s his prerogative,†López told Vulture. “I wrote this with profound love for the work he made and love for the people that loved it. And it is a reinvention, and it is different, and it’s done with the idea of sitting down around the fire, and [let’s] have some fun and have some feelings and have some thoughts. And anybody that wants to join is welcome.â€
Despite Pizzolatto’s comments, López has her supporters. She was specifically invited by HBO’s head of drama, Francesca Orsi, to pitch an idea for the fourth season that became Night Country, and both Foster and Reis have praised the collaborative process she brought to the series. “The first time I even met Issa, on Zoom, as soon as I saw her, I’m like, ‘Whoa, this woman is a powerhouse,’†Reis says. “She’s somebody that just commands respect. She’s so intelligent, smart, knows exactly what she wants, knows how she needs to get it, knows what she needs out of people as a director. She knows how to speak everybody’s language.â€
Night Country’s fourth episode, “Part 4,†premieres on HBO on February 4.