Nic Pizzolatto vs. Issa López: The ‘True Detective’ EP Feud Shows Off ‘Night Country’s Most Cunning Trick

Now that the dust has settled on True Detective: Night Country, the biggest question fans have might not have anything to do with Navarro’s fate or Annie K’s tongue, but what the heck is going on with Nic Pizzolatto and Issa López? Throughout the course of the HBO show’s six week run, we’ve known, thanks to multiple social media posts, that the original creator of True Detective, Nic Pizzolatto, was not a fan of new showrunner Issa López’s vision for the anthology series. Pizzolatto’s snipes at True Detective: Night Country crescendoed after the Season 4 finale, with the writer sharing supporters’ negative reviews and adding his own two cents (with a super long text block) on Instagram, calling Season 4 a “hot mess” and complaining that the conclusion on served to prove “Men=Problem.”

What’s fascinating to me, as a TV critic who enjoyed López’s take on the True Detective formula just fine, is that Pizzolatto’s venom towards the season ironically highlights True Detective: Night Country‘s most deft trick. López revealed to journalists all the way back at a November 2023 WarnerMedia press event that she wanted True Detective: Night Country to be a “dark mirror” of the first season.

“True Detective is male and it’s sweaty. Night Country is cold and dark and female,” López said. “I thought it would be easier to remind us of what we loved about that show by doing the absolute opposite.”

True Detective: Night Country has indeed served as a photo negative of the original True Detective series, from the color palate to the casting. But the boldest trick López pulled off was reflecting the inherent misogyny of Pizzolatto’s world through Night Country‘s inverted lens. It makes sense that Pizzolatto would loathe a version of True Detective that was designed to be the total tonal opposite of his creation. However Pizzolatto’s very public reaction is ironically adding to True Detective: Night Country‘s “dark mirror” act.

When the first season of True Detective premiered in 2014, it became a massive critical and commercial hit for HBO. Like many critics, I was struck by the nuanced performances of stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as well as Cary Joji Fukunaga’s dazzling directorial tricks. The story, however, I had a bit more trouble sinking into. Not because I don’t like crime stories, psychological thrillers, or supernatural horror, but because of an omnipresent hum of misogyny that I simply couldn’t silence. Pizzolatto had a knack for creating profound portraits of men wrestling with demons, internal and external, while the female characters only existed as wives, mistresses, daughters, or victims. That is, as appendages to the men. So I didn’t feel like Pizzolatto’s run on True Detective was necessarily “for me.” I could appreciate it, but I feasted, instead, on the likes of Hannibal, Mindhunter, and HBO’s later hit Mare of Easttown.

Cut to True Detective: Night Country, the first season of the HBO franchise made without Pizzolatto’s input. Instead, HBO turned to Mexican auteur Issa López, who was already developing a “Western in the ice,” and tapped her to weave her concept into the world of True Detective. She did so with Easter eggs galore and her aforementioned “dark mirror” concept. Instead of following two male detectives in the sweltering south, True Detective Season 4 would spotlight two women solving a crime in the frigid north. The male characters are secondary, in terms of billing and screen time. The season ends with Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) cooly covering up that a bunch of cleaning ladies murdered the scientists who had, in turn, killed Annie K (Nivi Pedersen), a midwife and environmental activist.

I find it interesting that Pizzolatto’s opinions of the season are that López couldn’t hack it, that the season’s highlights were nods to his work, and that the message was “Men=Problem.” He’s correct that the show definitely doesn’t show men in the most heroic light, but they’re not all bad. Young cop Peter Prior (Finn Bennet) and local bar owner Qavvik (Joel Montgrand) stand out as good guys, though they exist in supporting roles to Danvers and Navarro. I wouldn’t say men are the problem in True Detective: Night Country. They’re just not as important as the women. It’s the reverse from Pizzolatto’s run. It’s Issa López’s “dark mirror.” And it makes sense that Pizzolatto wouldn’t like it.

As if to continue with the bit, though, López’s reactions to Pizzolatto’s very public complaints of her work have made her come across as his polar opposite. When Vulture‘s Roxana Hadadi asked López about Pizzolatto’s first round of complaints, she offered a diplomatic, empathetic 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,” 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.”

Maybe I personally felt more welcome sitting down around Issa López’s proverbial fire than I did at Nic Pizzolatto’s, and that’s why I dug it more. Maybe Pizzolatto and his fans don’t feel so at home there, so that’s why they think it sucks. I just think it’s profound that HBO has allowed a filmmaker like López the opportunity to play with Pizzolatto’s world in this way. What’s more incredible is that HBO has offered a platform for both creators to share their vision to an audience. Not every artist’s work should be for everyone and not everyone is going to connect with a great artist’s work. By creating a season of True Detective that challenges the franchise’s foundations, Issa López has actually expanded the show’s fanbase by welcoming more folks by the fire. That’s something that even True Detective: Night Country‘s haters should be great celebrating.