True Detective creator roasted as “pathetic” after slamming Season 4

True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has been slammed as “pathetic” after ripping into Issa López’s Season 4.

Season 4 of True Detective, officially subtitled Night Country, reached its epic conclusion over the weekend, wrapping up the mystery of the Tsalal researchers and Annie K. Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) were our mismatched detective duo, taking the place of Season 1’s Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson). 

While the first chapter of the series is widely regarded as being some of the best TV of the past decade, the second and third (especially the second) didn’t match up to their predecessor. Night Country made a major change, with López taking over from Pizzolatto – and it’s been largely praised by the critics, earning 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

As we said in our five-star review, Season 4 is “the best True Detective since Season 1.” But one person who doesn’t seem to agree is Pizzolatto, and he’s getting heat for sharing his thoughts online. 

True Detective creator called “pathetic” for slamming Season 4

In an Instagram post, Pizzolatto shared a viewer’s scathing reaction to the True Detective Season 4 finale, which describes it as “some of the sloppiest writing I’ve ever watched.” Even though he deleted the post, a screenshot has been doing the rounds, and the creator is getting slammed as “pathetic.”

The post Pizzolatto shared reads: “Just want to send love to @nicpizzolatto. I can only imagine how it feels to have his all time classic dialogue butchered and misappropriated like it was last night. 

Instagram/@nicpizzolatto

“And the interview where she says they exist in the same universe. No they do not!!! Last night’s finale was some of the sloppiest writing I’ve ever watched. So insulting calling it True Detective, and beyond disrespectful invoking ‘time is a flat circle.’ 

“Rewatching S1… I feel this may be blasphemy, and it may be due to 20 more years of rewatches, but it hits me harder than Twin Peaks right now. S1E1 is perfect. Every beat. It’s mind blowing how loaded it is. 

“Every decision had the entire show’s central ideas in it. The layering in these scenes, the subtext in the dialogue that you only know later, wow. Unlike 99% of TV, they were not making this up as they went along. The entire idea was in every shot. I am so thankful. I bow. Cleansing my palate now with a full S1 rewatch.”

Pizzolatto is under scrutiny for sharing this entire message on his Instagram page. “I haven’t seen the new season of True Detective so I have no opinion on it, but there has to be classier ways of handling a season you definitely made money on than this,” wrote one on X, to which another replied, “This is so f*cking pathetic lmao.”

TV critic Phillip Maciak added: “You may have liked the True Detective finale or you may have hated the True Detective finale, but one thing is indisputable: Nic Pizzolatto is on Instagram, posting other people’s stories about how Issa López ruined the franchise like an absolutely enormous baby.”

Even those who weren’t too keen on Season 4 are chiming in, including one Redditor who said: “This season was really rough but I wish Nic would just take the high road for all of this. It’s not a good look for him (I get that he’s upset). I’m sure HBO doesn’t like him fanning the flames. You don’t see George Lucas sh*tting all over Rian Johnson.”

This is far from the first time Pizzolatto has let his thoughts known about Night Country. Amid its premiere last month, he changed his social media bio to read: “True Detective S1-3 (NOT Night Country).”

He was called “petty” back then and it’s a similar situation with this latest stunt. As said by another spectator: “He has the right to dislike it, but it’s so wild seeing him move like this on social media as if True Detective Season 1 isn’t still the last relevant thing he’s done.”