*Caution: Mild spoilers ahead for True Detective: Night Country up through “Part 3.”*
HBO’s Sunday night programming—from The White Lotus to The Last Of Us—always tends to get the gays talking, and the latest entry of anthology crime drama True Detective is no exception
Subtitled “Night Country,” the season (written and directed by Tigers Are Not Afraid filmmaker Issa López) takes the action to the frigid, remote town of Ennis, Alaska where a group of group of researchers mysteriously disappears, only to be discovered out on the arctic tundra, frozen in an ungodly “corpsicle.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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Where previous iterations have played things pretty “straight,” mostly focusing on hetero egos as straight male detectives (Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in the acclaimed first season) begrudgingly work together to solve some heinous crimes, Night Country promised something a little more…. gay, to put it bluntly —if for no reason other than the fact that it starred LGBTQ+ actors Jodie Foster and Kali Reis.
Foster (freshly Oscar and Queerties-nominated for her supporting role in Nyad) plays hard-nosed police chief Liz Danvers, reluctantly teaming up with Reis’ (a former boxer-turned-actor) Trooper Evangeline Navarro. The two don’t get along at all and we’re frequently reminded they had some sort of falling out in the past—though seemingly not a romantic one.
In fact, Foster’s Danvers is shown to have slept around with just about every man in town, whether they’re married or not. And Navarro has a regular hookup appointment with handsome, bearded bartender Eddie Qavvik (Joel Montgrand)—however, in the most recent episode, Danvers does make a quick jab about her partner’s prior interest in women.
So, we’re just a little bummed True Detective neglected to deliver on the sapphically charged season we thought we were going to get (unless that’s another yet-to-be-revealed twist in the remaining three episodes). And we’re not he only ones to feel that way:
How different a movie would it have been? And how might it have changed her career?
Untapped lesbian potential aside, True Detective: Night Country at least had the good sense to give the queers a new twink to obsess—and argue—over: Officer Peter Prior, played by emerging British-Irish actor Finn Bennett.
First things first: No, Prior isn’t gay either. He’s a young father, married to an indigenous woman named Kayla (Anna Lambe), and in way over his head trying to help his demanding boss Danvers with her case, while also butting heads with his father, police captain Hank Prior (John Hawkes), who is clearly hiding some secrets of his own.
But, in a town of burly, surly people just trying to get through Alaskan winter—nearly two months with no sunlight—Bennett’s young, clean-shaven, and optimistic (at least, he hasn’t been broken yet) Prior stands out all the more. He’s even been dubbed by some fans as “Twink Detective.”
But is Officer Prior too good for this world, too pure? Viewers are definitely worried given (a) the rookie cop’s positioning between his father and Danvers’ antagonistic relationship, (b) the recent allusions to he and Danvers’ “oedipal” relationship, and (c) the series’ general history of bleakness and despair.
In a recent interview with The Standard, Bennett hints at things “unraveling” at the series’ midpoint and Prior finding himself pulled “in different directions.” So, let’s pray for pray for the little guy, shall we?
Bennett, on the other hand, seems to be doing just fine. The 24-year-old actor is receiving praise for his performance opposite acclaimed veteran actors like Foster and Hawkes, and definitely has a bright future ahead. His other credits include the Annette Bening romantic drama Hope Gap, the Ben Whishaw thriller Surge, Netflix‘s crime series Top Boy, and an upcoming horror fetaure called Somewhere In Dreamland.
The mystery continues on Twink True Detective: Night Country, with new episodes airing on HBO and streaming on Max every Sunday.
