True Detective Season 4 star claps back at show’s creator

Chris Tilly
Kali Reis wearing a wooly hat in True Detective: Season 4.

True Detective Night Country star Kali Reis has roasted the show’s creator on social media following negative posts about Season 4.

True Detective Season 4 – aka Night Country – has been a major success, the sequel series achieving the best score for any TD series on Rotten Tomatoes. And also the biggest ratings ever for the thriller on HBO.

We are fans, giving the season 5-stars in our spoiler-free review, and writing: “A story so dark shouldn’t be this much fun, but Night Country is a cracking whodunnit that will keep you guessing until the final few reels. It’s also the best True Detective since Season 1.”

But Nic Pizzolatto – who created True Detective, and oversaw the first three seasons – clearly didn’t like what he saw, taking to social media to share negative reactions.

True Detective Season 4 star claps back at show’s creator

When one of those posts was brought to the attention of Kali Reis – who plays Navarro in Season 4 – she posted the following tweet: “That’s a damn shame… but hey I guess ‘if you don’t have anything good to share, sh*t on others’ is the new wave.”

Reis was responding to someone tweeting: “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.”

Which in turn, was a reaction to Pizzolatto sharing posts that claimed Season 4 “butchered and misappropriated” his dialogue, via “some of the sloppiest writing I’ve ever watched.”

Showrunner responds to Night Country criticism

This isn’t the first time there’s been issues between the True Detective showrunners past and present. Pizzolatto previously posted disparaging remarks about Night Country, and even changed his Instagram bio to read: “True Detective S1-3 (NOT Night Country).”

In response, Season 4 writer/producer/director Issa López told Vulture: “I believe that every storyteller has a very specific, peculiar, and unique relation to the stories they create, and whatever his reactions are, he’s entitled to them.

“That’s his prerogative. I wrote this with profound love for the work he made and love for the people that loved it. And it is a reinvention, and it is different, and it’s done with the idea of sitting down around the fire, and [let’s] have some fun and have some feelings and have some thoughts. And anybody that wants to join is welcome.”

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About The Author

Chris Tilly is the TV and Movies Editor at Dexerto. He has a BA in English Literature, an MA in Newspaper Journalism, and over the last 20 years, he's worked for the likes of Time Out, IGN, and Fandom. Chris loves Star Wars, Marvel, DC, sci-fi, and especially horror, while he knows maybe too much about Alan Partridge. You can email him here: chris.tilly@dexerto.com.