The fourth season of “True Detective” is noticeably different from the past three. Set above the Arctic Circle rather than below the Mason Dixon Line, built around troubled women rather than traumatized men, written and directed by Mexican auteur Issa López with no apparent input from series creator Nic Pizzolatto … And it’s literally darker than the others. Subtitled “Night Country,” the main action takes place from Dec. 17 through the new year, when the sun never rises over the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska.
Yet formulaic elements from the HBO anthology’s earlier chapters are identifiable: Cops with pasts that threaten to derail whatever life they’ve got left.