Watching “True Detective” (9 p.m. Sunday, HBO, TV-MA) has always been more like reading a challenging novel than watching a mere TV mystery. And with its fourth installment, “Night Country,” it moves into Nordic noir territory. Make that Arctic Noir.
Set in far north Alaska (but shot in Iceland), “Night” stars Jodie Foster as Det. Liz Danvers. To steal a line from the late columnist Jimmy Breslin, Danvers is a “stubborn as a stuck window.” She’s fiercely protective of her remote beat, the town of Ennis, where winter plunges the population into darkness for months at a time.
Ennis is divided into Indigenous locals who deeply resent the influx of miners. They fear that the mine has poisoned their water. It’s the kind of place where bars sell illegal home brew and fights are frequent. The lingering darkness mixes easily with mystical lore. It’s not unusual for locals to claim to see dead people, and listen to their stories and warnings.
Against this peculiar backdrop, eight men go missing. Scientists and technicians at the Tsalal laboratory, they had been studying the effects of permafrost on cell structure in search of a profound medical breakthrough.
Their disappearance, and the presence of one severed human tongue in their lab, offers disturbing echoes of an earlier murder of a female anti-mining activist, a case that has haunted Det. Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), an Indigenous officer who blames white racism for official indifference and the lack of follow-up. Despite mutual distrust, bad history and Danvers’ blatant contempt for Navarro’s Indian mysticism, they must collaborate on this latest mystery.
True to the “True Detective” franchise, characters are deeply flawed and multi-layered. Danvers is both hot-tempered and oversexed, to use a quaint expression. At the same time, she showers maternal interest on the daughter of a friend and a police protege. She has no problem fighting with her superiors or sleeping with them.
“True Detective” has never shied away from the strange and the occult. Or from bracing, profane dialogue that borders on the comical.
There is no shortage of black humor in this dimly lit mystery. Frozen corpses come to resemble statuary or waxworks, inviting bored officers to take selfies with the evidence, ignoring the fact that in a place like Ennis, the dead just might return with some harsh conversation.
Look for Irish actress Fiona Shaw (“Andor,” “Fleabag”) as a local woman very much in touch with departed spirits.
— “Monsieur Spade” (9 p.m., Sunday, AMC, TV-MA) dusts off the classic detective character created by Dashiell Hammett and immortalized by Humphrey Bogart in the 1941 film “The Maltese Falcon,” directed by John Huston and said to be the very first film noir movie.
Clive Owen (“The Knick”) stars as the California detective, now nearing retirement age and tying up loose ends, circa 1953.
He’s first seen delivering the young daughter of the deceased Brigid O’Shaunessey (played by Mary Astor in “Falcon”). Apparently, the femme fatale wanted the kid delivered to her deadbeat dad, a bad character located in the bucolic Southern France village of Bozouls.
There, Spade is met with hostility and a shotgun by the father’s mother, who denies all connection to the girl. A highway mishap has both Spade and his ward picked up by a beautiful heiress in a Rolls-Royce, and the magic of flashbacks tells us that eight years later, Spade is a wealthy widower and owner of that woman’s estate, with the child he could not “deliver” safely ensconced in a beautiful local convent school.
But now that the girl is soon to become a wealthy heiress, trouble returns in the shape of the evil man said to be her father.
The plot is further complicated by France’s troubled history. Spade’s rescuer and late wife had been married to a man accused of collaborating with Nazis. And the flash-forward brings the story to the early 1960s, when the country was divided by the brutal war in Algeria. President de Gaulle’s decision to grant Algeria independence inspired fascist elements to try to kill him and overthrow his regime (the basis for the book and movie “The Day of the Jackal”).
All these threads converge on Spade’s bucolic retirement, bringing menace and bloodshed even to the doors of the convent school.
Stylish, atmospheric and smart in a laconic style consistent with its main character, “Spade” is a co-production of Canal Plus (roughly translated as the HBO of France) and producers Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, a winning team since working on such series as “Homicide: Life on the Street.”
— Fans of “Downton Abbey” and “The Gilded Age,” created by Julian Fellowes, should not miss “Belgravia: The Next Chapter” (9 p.m., MGM+ Sunday, TV-14). A period melodrama set in the 19th century in the posh London neighborhood that provides its name, it shares themes with those two series and is based on the novel “Belgravia,” by Fellowes.
The first season of “Belgravia” was written by Fellowes, but this second chapter is not. But even the musical score sounds very much like that of “Downton Abbey.”
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Iowa hosts Indiana in women’s college basketball (8 p.m., Fox).
— A young woman vanishes after fleeing to meet the boy she met online in the 2024 shocker “Girl in the Video” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).
— Mothers play matchmakers in the 2024 romance “A Scottish Love Scheme” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): Commercial real estate’s historic plunge; a revolution in brain surgery.
— Potts’ pal pushes daisies on “Miss Scarlett and the Duke” on “Masterpiece” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
— The Detroit Lions host the Los Angeles Rams in a wild card NFL playoff game (8:15 p.m., NBC).
— Elton John and Hans Zimmer composed the score to the 1994 animated musical “The Lion King” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-G).
— The numbers don’t add up on “All Creatures Great and Small” on “Masterpiece” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-G).
— The reality series satire “The Curse” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA) concludes.
— News from home may scuttle Barbara’s big break on “Funny Woman” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
CULT CHOICE
A curious young man (Kyle MacLachlan) unravels a web of corruption in a seemingly placid small city in director David Lynch’s lush 1986 mystery “Blue Velvet” (8 p.m. Sunday, TMCX), starring Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern and Dean Stockwell.
SATURDAY SERIES
A teen’s fentanyl death on “The Equalizer” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … Pigskin prognosticators predict on “NFL Wild Card Special” (8 p.m., NBC) … Three episodes of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
Hannah is kidnapped on “FBI: Most Wanted” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “48 Hours” (10 p.m., CBS, r) … Two vintage helpings of “Saturday Night Live” (10 p.m., and 11:30 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
SUNDAY SERIES
On three episodes of “Yellowstone” (CBS, TV-MA): a change in the wind (8 p.m.); opening up (9 p.m.), damage control (10 p.m.) … Anthony Anderson and his mother host “We Are Family” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … “America’s Favorite Home Videos” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … Casserole-models on “Bob’s Burgers” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG … A wrong impression feels right to Peter on “Family Guy” (9:30 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14).
