Posted in: HBO, Max, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: HBO, max, nic pizzolatto, opinion, true detective, true detective: night country

True Detective: Nic Pizzolatto Not Taking "Night Country" Success Well

Issa López's Jodie Foster & Kali Reis-starring True Detective: Night Country is a ratings & critical success. Why isn't Nic Pizzolatto happy?

As far as single seasons of a series go, it would be hard to argue that the first season of Nic Pizzolatto's True Detective shouldn't be in the conversation. But when you have the conversation, make sure to include everyone who contributed to making that season a memorable one – because the season's success was defined by many more than just Pizzolatto. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga, series stars Matthew McConaughey & Woody Harrelson (leading an amazing ensemble cast), and the entire production crew are all shareholders in the show's success. But still, Pizzolatto gets the majority of the credit for the opening chapters of the anthology series – and we can understand why.

Of course, using that logic, we also blame Pizzolatto for the mess that was the second season – and no, it hasn't gotten better with age. As for the third season, we hope that Pizzolatto sends Mahershala Ali & Stephen Dorff fruit baskets every year on their birthdays for the way they elevated what otherwise would've felt like a four-episode limited series stretched out to eight episodes. If it seems like we have some issues with Pizzolatto, that's because we do – and it's because Pizzolatto continues to keep passive-aggressively trashing Showrunner Issa López's (Tigers Are Not Afraid / Vuelven) Jodie Foster & Kali Reis-starring True Detective: Night Country.

The fact that Pizzolatto wasn't involved with this season was already reason enough for some of those Season 1 worshippers to start trashing a season that they hadn't seen. But then López "dared" to want to show some love & respect to the themes and concepts established in the first season by expanding upon them in ways that worked not only for "Night Country" but also for the franchise overall. In other words, López and the team did an excellent job in carving out their own corner of the "True Detective" universe while also making the first season an even more interesting rewatch.

What López and the team also "dared" to do was achieve some television excellence – scoring 92% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics (61% with the audience after some serious review bombing by Season 1 worshippers), a ton of great reviews, and viewing numbers that continued to grow for each episode – with the season finale drawing 3.2 million across HBO and Max (a 57% increase from January season premiere). And yet, Pizzolatto just can't seem to help himself when it comes to trashing the anthology series he started and a season that he has an executive producer credit on.

We first covered Pizzolatto acting out on social media earlier this month. Based on Reddit posts featuring screenshots of responses he gave to some criticizing the season, Pizzolatto wasn't exactly jumping to López's defense when it came to Season 1 worshippers trashing "Night Country" – with comments like, "I certainly did not have any input on this story or anything else. Can't blame me" and "so stupid" in reference to the easter eggs this season that connected back to the first season.

Speaking with Vulture, López responded to the shots that Pizzolatto took at the season. "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. 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. Anybody that wants to join is welcome."

But that didn't stop Pizzolatto from continuing to share the hate when the season finale hit – and just to be clear, that would be bad enough. But what makes it worse is that Pizzolatto can't even take enough pride in his apparently anti-"Night Country" stance to keep his posts out there. If Nic's gonna hate, then maybe Nic should stand behind those posts, give them time to breathe – and allow social media a chance to respond. Thankfully, there were a lot more folks in the media waiting for Pizzolatto to launch another round and were more than ready to push back on it (as you will see below).

So why was all of this one-sided drama necessary? Why did Pizzolatto feel the need to undercut López, Foster & Reis's moment in the sun? Who knows – and at this point, who cares? But for those Season 1 worshippers out there reading this who believe that Pizzolatto can do no wrong, think about this. Over the course of a month where he tried to undercut the season's growing momentum, the number of viewers actually grew week-to-week. Sounds like someone might be talking but a whole lot of people haven't been listening. Here's a look at the tweet/x from NPR TV critic Eric Deggans, reposting some looks at screencaps from Pizzolatto's Instagram Stories that only seemed to share the bad stuff about "Night Country" for some odd reason…

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