True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto recently had some not particularly flattering things to say about the fourth season of the HBO series, Night Country, and following Sunday's finale, he has once again taken to social media to share some of the negative reactions from viewers.
Though he has since deleted the Instagram post (of course), Pizzolatto highlighted comments referring to Night Country as a “hot mess” that “butchered and misappropriated” the first season’s “all time classic dialogue,” among other things.
Upon being made aware of the post, Night Country star Kali Reis (Evangeline Navarro) took to Twitter to share her reaction.
“That’s a damn shame,” Reis wrote. “But hey I guess if you don’t have anything good to share, shit on others’ is the new wave lol.”
New showrunner Issa López, who co-wrote and directed all six episodes of the new season, weighed in on Pizzolatto's initial comments last week, and gave a very classy response.
“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. 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.”
Night Country - and the finale especially - did prove to be fairly divisive, but if Pizzolatto is attempting to spin the season as some sort of failure, the viewing numbers definitely don't support it.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the finale drew the season’s largest first-night audience, bringing in 3.2 million cross-platform viewers. These figures reflect “the first airing on HBO, two replays later in the night and streaming on Max.” Night Country has averaged 12.7 million total viewers per episode, making it the most watched season of the show yet.
"When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice."