'True Detective' Season 5 Show Runner, Issa Lopez, Promises to Give Us Some "Really Fucked Up Stuff"

NY Post - “True Detective” fans can expect plenty of “really f – – ked up stuff” in the series’ upcoming fifth season, showrunner Issa López has exclusively told The Post.

“Well, what I can say is there’s going to be -— my God! — there’s going to be some important connections between everything that happens in Ennis, Alaska, and the characters in Ennis, Alaska, and what happens in the new [season],” López revealed, referring to the small town where “Night Country” takes place.

López also confirmed that “Night Country” and the upcoming fifth season exist in the same universe as the first three installments of “True Detective.”

“It’s very important for me, and I worked a lot in ‘Night Country’ about this, to create the feeling that this is the same universe; that the events that happened in the first season, and the weird s – – t that happens in the first season affects this sensation of, ‘There’s something bigger than us and darker than what we can imagine behind the scenes,'” she explained.

“And that is happening in this [next] season too. And it’s it’s connected to the original idea of ‘True Detective,’ of this dark reality behind the scenes of what we think is our reality.”

When asked whether it would be fair to say that we can expect some dark, weird things to be happening in the next season, López told The Post, “Absolutely. Very fair. Really f – – ked up stuff.”

Great to see after a mediocre season with a wildly disappointing finale, the people who brought us True Detective will be getting back to their roots with some really fucked up stuff. Honestly, I can't even remember how last season, 'True Detective: Night Country' ended. I believe it had to do with ice ghosts. The whole show led up to Jodie Foster fighting the White Walkers on a frozen lake or something like that.

But based on what I'm hearing, I'm confident Season 5 will be different. Show runner Issa Lopez has a good head on her shoulders. When the narrative surrounding your show is that it's never quite been able to live up to what it originally was. When you can't bring Matthew McConaughey back to crush a pop can and say "time is a flat circle" again. You remember what they taught you at Mexico National University Film School. You get yourself a big name actor, and make that actor do some really fucked up stuff. 

Really fucked up stuff is what people want to see. Long drawn out scenes of graphic sexual abuse and domestic violence. Realistic shots of intravenous drug use. Innocent animals being harmed. Child sacrifices to ominous unseen deities. Gratuitous blood and guts. Leave the viewers with as many unsettling images seared into their brains as humanly possible, whether those images are critical to the plot or not.

We still have no idea what Season 5 will be about. Although Lopez did pull back the curtain a bit. On top of prepping us for some really fucked up stuff, she says Season 5 will have connections to Season 4. She even revealed that it will be set in the same universe as the rest of the True Detective seasons. Which is earth. Earth but with ghosts.

I was actually shocked to learn that True Detective: Night Country (season 4), received solid critical reviews. I suppose looking back I didn't dislike the show from start to finish. But the finale gave us nothing. I felt zero satisfaction upon the completion of True Detective's snow season. When there's zero pay off in the finale, it makes you look back on the whole season as a disappointment.

I did enjoy season 3 with Mahershala Ali. I hardly remember what it was about other than a murder in the Ozarks, and that it was told via flashbacks over the course of multiple decades. But I know I was fairly satisfied coming away from it.

Issa Lopez wasn't involved in Season 3, but maybe True Detective as a whole is an "every other season is good" type of show. If that's the case, then we should have high hopes for Season 5. Regardless, we can all look forward to a collection of yet-to-be-named actors (hopefully good ones) playing honest detectives who get involved in some really fucked up stuff.