Word on the street is actor Nic Cage is in talks with HBO to star in the upcoming season of True Detective. The Oscar winner would play the lead role of Henry Logan, a detective in the Jamaica Bay, New York set season 5.
The news comes by way of Deadline’s sources, though HBO has not officially commented at this time.
True Detective’s last season, Night Country, marked a major departure for the series. Original series creator, Nic Pizzolatto was not involved. Mexican filmmaker, Issa Lopez, took on writing and showrunning duties. This led to a major tonal change and, in this critic’s opinion, a steep drop in quality. Jodie Foster starred as police chief Liz Danvers and Kali Reis starred as her partner and sometimes-rival, Evangeline Navarro. This marked the first female-led duo for the series, though one of the main detectives in Season 2 was Ani Bezzerides, played by Rachel McAdams. John Hawkes played police officer Hank Prior and Fiona Shaw played Rose Aguineau, a former paramour of Rust Cohle’s father, Travis.
Night Country took place in Alaska during its endless winter night. The darkness and deep winter chill gave the show an eery vibe which I liked a great deal. I also really loved Hawkes’ original song, “No Use” that he wrote for the show, and to this day wish they’d used it for the opening credits rather than a Billie Eilish song. I mean, honestly this song is better than any other thing in Night Country and it’s not even close:
Beyond the strong cast, cool setting and one great song, however, Night Country was a total disaster – one that Jodie Foster could not save. The problems with the show were numerous, including:
- An almost complete lack of compelling detective work, previously a staple of the series (it’s in the title, after all). Most of the actual detective work was done by uniformed officer, Peter Prior (Finn Bennett). The bulk of the investigation took place via Google searches.
- The actual reveal was hokey and preposterous. The mystery was solved via coincidence and the outcome was deeply unsatisfying.
- Lopez teased us with the supernatural, but in the end the events could neither be fully explained by supernatural phenomena or mundane events. Rather than provide a clear explanation, the show left it a mystery.
- The portrayal of indigenous people was riddled with stereotypes and other problematic story elements, including the glorification of suicide.
- The writing was universally awful, with cringe-inducing dialogue, awkward sex scenes and one-dimensional characters who were almost entirely unlikable.
- The entire season was littered with references and callbacks to Season 1, including exact quotes spoken by totally new characters for no reason beyond serving as “memberberries” and Easter Eggs. The one potentially interesting link to the first season was the Tuttle family’s involvement in the mining operation and this was left almost entirely unexplored.
The list goes on. I remain convinced that these problems were partly due to the writers and producers and partly due to HBO meddling. The series was originally supposed to be its own thing, but HBO wanted it to be part of the True Detective franchise since an established series is going to draw more attention than an original. This is why all the Season 1 references felt so shoehorned. Perhaps as a standalone series it would have fared better, though I have my doubts.
If Jodie Foster couldn’t save Night Country (despite winning an Emmy for the role, which remains baffling to me) then I see no reason why Nicolas Cage will be able to save Season 5, if he even takes the part. Of course, it’s always possible that Lopez has learned from the mistakes of Season 4 and will return with a much better, tighter, more coherent script next time. I just won’t bother getting my hopes up. In my experience over the years, very few shows ever get better with time. The rare exception to this, in recent memory, is The Wheel Of Time, which got better each season and came out with a pretty great Season 3, whereupon Amazon cancelled it to keep the atrocious Rings Of Power alive.
Even under Pizzolatto, True Detective struggled to compare to the first season. Season 2 is a fascinating mystery, but far too convoluted for its own good (and some casting choices did not work the way Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle and Woody Harrelson’s Martin Hart did). Season 3 was solid but somewhat forgettable (perhaps ironically). But Season 1 was lightning in a bottle.
I still think the following seasons would have benefited from sticking to the format used in Season 1 while changing locales. Multiple timelines. A present timeline with interviews either from police or journalists giving viewers both context into the past timeline and establishing unreliable narrators. A mystery that unfolds over the span of years or decades. Season 3 did this to some extent, but it lacked the structure of Season 1, and the narrative tightness that created so much of the first season’s tension and uncertainty.
Do I want Nicolas Cage to take the role? Yes and no. I’m not sure he should, given how bad Night Country was, but I’d love to see him in a mystery series. A quality mystery series with the weirdness of True Detective.
Season 5 is slated to begin production in 2026 with a 2027 premiere. I’ll happily eat my hat if it ends up being great. But we shall see . . . .
I made a video about this news, which you can watch below:
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