True Detective: Night Country - A New Era of Detective Drama

Introduction

Foster takes on the role of detective Liz Danvers.

Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Navarro (Kali Reis) walk down a hospital hallway in True Detective season 4

Addressing the Comparisons

True Detective: Night Country showrunner Issa L\u00f3pez addresses comparisons between the new season and Silence of the Lambs. After first airing in 2013, HBO's hit detective drama returns for its fourth outing next week, introducing a new story and set of characters to follow.

In a recent interview with The A.V. Club ahead of the True Detective: Night Country release date, L\u00f3pez addresses the comparisons that are being made between the show and Silence of the Lambs. The comparisons mostly involve Foster, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as FBI agent Clarice Starling in the 1991 film.

Check out L\u00f3pez's full comment below:

'From the beginning, she was in my mind because, number one, we all want to see her more, we miss her, and having her in a TV series was going to give us all the chance to enjoy her for a longer time. And knowing the beast of an actor she is, because she is a beast, giving her the canvas to work at that level would be incredible.

And after rewatching True Detective, I was like, \ \u2018This reminds me enormously of Seven.' So then I rewatched Seven, which is masterful, and was like, 'Oh, this reminds me of The Silence Of The Lambs.' And that\u2019s the genealogy: The Silence Of The Lambs begets Seven begets True Detective begets Night Country. So why not go to the origin of it all?

'We haven\u2019t seen Jodie as a detective since [Silence], and it\u2019s a very different character. But it is Jodie Foster and she is really, really finding the meat and the nerves and the soul of this new character. And we\u2019ve never seen her, I think, the way we\u2019re going to see her in Night Country. So that was a no-brainer.'

Differences from Silence of the Lambs

On the surface, there are some similarities between True Detective: Night Country and Silence of the Lambs. Both are exceedingly dark tales following an investigator played by Foster as she tracks down a sinister killer. When it comes to details, however, the two properties become very distinct.

Night Country is the first season of the show not to be penned by series creator Nic Pizzolatto, though he remains onboard as an executive producer.

A key aspect of every season True Detective is two disparate detectives working together to solve a crime. In Silence of the Lambs, by contrast, Clarice's 'partner' on the Buffalo Bill case is Hannibal Lector, a captured serial killer. True Detective: Night Country's Alaskan setting, too, is a stark departure from Silence of the Lambs' Baltimore, as is the show's clear interest in cults.

While Danvers remains somewhat mysterious as a character, she will likely end up being quite different from Clarice. Foster, after all, is now 61 years old and won't be playing a new recruit this time around, with trailers suggesting that Danvers is an experienced, world-weary cop. That being said, however, True Detective: Night Country is shaping up to the creepiest and most unsettling season yet, two qualities that Silence of the Lambs has in spades.

The new season of True Detective premieres on January 14 on HBO.