4/5
We Own The Night.
6 Episodes. Starring: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Isabella Star LeBlanc, John Hawkes & Christopher Eccelston. Showrunner: Issa López. On: Max.
30 days of night like a Josh Hartnett vampire horror. The fictional town of Ennis, in an Alaska Maggie Rogers would not want to sing about, is plunged into darkness with a 'Wind River' like isolation that will chill you to your core. Feeling like 'Fargo', all the way down to the fur on Frances McDormand's hat now passed to Jodie Foster, Issa López's show running fourth season of 'True Detective' (dubbed 'Night Country', giving us a 'Far From Home' memory) might not sit well with anthology creator Nic Pizzolato. But stare through the frozen lake's ice with a flashlight, and executive produced by him, and the originals Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, you can see it's the most formidable since the first season. With echoes of all the strange and surreal substance snaking through like the scrawls and scribbles that circle around flat highways and smashed tins of beer. And that's with all due respect to the stunted second season with standout performances from Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch and Vince Vaughn. Not to mention the big, redemptive third with double Oscar winners Barry Jenkins and Marhershala Ali.
Haunting like the Billie Eilish theme and her voice that shivers throughout, 'Night Country' is a modern masterpiece of television. What else for the "regular a##" TV like 'Chappelle's Show' said of HBO? What a time to be alive and couch potato-ed in front of the tube on a couch. With this, their greatest drama ending as the final series of their best comedy 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' beginning. Making your pretty, pretty dreary January good. Carrying a subtitle for the first time, and this occasion, standing at only six episodes, 'True Detective' season four wonders over eight men who went missing from a research station only to turn up naked in the ice for the most horrific amalgamation of body parts you've seen since 'The Thing'. And with no dog in sight to blame as the Billie bad guy, all frozen fingers point to each other until the frostbite sets in. As no one is innocent in this world of truly beat cops who hand their badges and guns in like a confessional and have more hiding in their desk draw than just a nip of a hip flask to chase their damn good coffee with. This show that takes inspiration from everything from 'Twin Peaks', to the very news we see for real, represents more than just its two strong leads, but a whole community forgotten and pushed to the margins. All until hell freezes over, never to return once it all thaws in bitter neglect and the harsh truth of those that forget.
Don't call this a Jodie Foster comeback. The 'Taxi Driver' and 'Inside Man' legend has still been here for 'Money Monster's and a few hands of 'House Of Cards' directing for years. But with this and the should have been more Oscar nominated 'Nyad' biography on Netflix with Annette Benning as Diane, Foster is on the form of her life. Like when she shot straight on 'The Brave One' vigilante justice before the 'Wick' era, or cropped up on 'Elysium'. With this and the legendary 'Silence Of The Lambs', Jodie cops detective roles like no other. Even Jackie Chan doesn't have this many police stories. And fostering an incredible performance, she also holds the most contentious and compelling, one-two punch partnership since Woody and McConaughey. Bruising boxer Kali Reis knows not to pull a single punch (sometimes literally), and this 'Country' is just as much hers, as it is Jodie's. And guess what? She's about to star in 'Wind River: The Next Chapter'. 'Killing Eve' great Fiona Shaw stirs this series. As does an accented and almost unrecognizable 'Doctor Who' in fellow great Brit, Christopher Eccelston (almost harder to tell than when he was an elf in 'Thor-The Dark World'). But it's veteran actor John Hawkes who continues to show his real, great self, like his billboard moment 'Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Not to mention the kids that are more than alright, like Jodie's character's Foster daughter Isabella Star LeBlanc (no relation, friends). Or a breakout Finn Bennett with easily the most crucial and heartbreaking moment of the season, acted to perfection with no seduction, Mrs. Robinson. As the gritty ice cracks, the cleverly used static of the HBO show refuses to. All for the coldest, boldest series yet. Night. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'True Detective', 'Wind River', 'Fargo'.
No comments:
Post a Comment