In television, we are constantly reminded that shows are never really gone, especially if their popularity and cultural iconography can be used to generate interest. Even if a new show could be called something completely different, attaching it to something that already exists is the way of Hollywood and television today.
Two recent shows, True Detective: Night County and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, are examples of this phenomenon. Both shows are, to varying degrees, different takes on established properties. Both shows could have been called something completely different and still been fine as new shows, but they wouldn’t get made today as easily and with the big budgets they have if they were original ideas. They might differ in how they acknowledge and live up to what came before them and how successful they ultimately are, but they are likely what prestige shows will be going forward in this TV era.
True Detective: Night Country is a new take on the prestige crime anthology that Nic Pizzolatto created. New showrunner, writer, and director Issa Lopez is at the helm for the series’ fourth season. It stars Oscar winner Jodie Foster and newcomer Kali Reis as detectives trying to solve the deaths of a group of scientists and its connection to the death of a native woman in the town of Ennis, Alaska. Foster and Reis both play troubled but gifted investigators who have a long history and don’t really like each other all too much, but a particularly unique and troubling case forces them to work together.
This season effectively uses horror elements drawing on obvious inspirations from a movie like The Thing, playing on the isolation and unknown in the icy perpetual darkness of the region, something new for the series. People in the town of Ennis routinely see ghosts. There is a spiritual element to the makeup of the town and its inhabitants, with a strong native population. This is the source of conflict, with a mining operation that buoys the local economy and employs the majority of people living there, but also poisoning residents and destroying the land. When the science station is found empty, and its inhabitants are found frozen, it kicks off a flashpoint moment for this community.
Things get a little shaky as the show tries to connect itself to the first season of True Detective. Not only does it feel forced and an effort to win over the Reddit-brained viewers that obsessed over the first season, but it also cuts the legs out from under what could be a show that stands on its own instead of putting so much effort into something that is kind of nonsense. It’s an unnecessary connection among a few other connections that seem like fan service used because audiences can’t be trusted to consume something without being reminded of what came before.
The show would be better served without all the connective tissue and lean into its strengths, like its horror elements. When the reveals happen early on in the season, it stops all the unique momentum the show was building, losing some of its intrigue.
The show is good overall and interesting, but it has pacing problems and subplots that seem like filler. It is almost too committed to being as True Detective as possible instead of doing its own thing, and it’s hard to ignore. All the elements for a great crime drama are there, but it just feels like Night Country is weirdly too faithful to what came before and also not focused enough on the mystery at hand. It’s possible it can stick to the landing, but it’s a tall task to accomplish with just two episodes left.
True Detective: Night Country is streaming on HBO and Max.
Speaking of doing your own thing and being great, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, created by Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover, uses the IP it’s based on to create something that stands apart and elevates what was a shallow but star-studded piece of culture. The series is a reboot of the Brad Pitt and Angelia Jolie romantic action flick of the same name, a movie that is not remembered for being a particularly good film, but the drama surrounding its stars and the fact that they were the hottest two people in Hollywood at the time. The reboot, which stars Glover alongside Maya Erskine, completely reimagines the story as a complicated love story wrapped up in a highly sophisticated (and expensive-looking) espionage thriller.
The series follows Glover and Erskine as John and Jane, who are recruited by a mysterious company they communicate with through text with to become Smiths, spies in an arranged marriage who are given dangerous missions to complete that range from intercepting and delivering a package to drugging and kidnapping a billionaire to get sensitive information.
As the show goes on, their relationship deepens from strangers who have to work together to lovers as they travel from exotic locale to exotic locale doing cool spy stuff and wearing very nice clothes. The show becomes more of an examination of marriage and relationships than a spy show, and that’s its greatest strength. The development of John and Jane’s relationship while being mixed up in the high-risk job that they have where failure is not an option is a slow burn at first but very compelling.
The creatives behind the show took a simple premise and imbued it with a ridiculous amount of creativity and depth and, with presumably a blank check from Amazon, tried to make the coolest show they possibly could, and they mostly succeeded. Its action-packed, emotional performances for its two stars are phenomenal, and its guest list is impeccable, featuring drop-ins from the likes of Paul Dano, John Turturro, Parker Posey, and Wagner Moura.
The show has also clearly benefited from a vetted and experienced creator in Donald Glover, who created one of the best shows of the last ten years in Atlanta and has a distinct voice in his works and the ability to empower the other creatives he works with like Hiro Murai and the other directors who worked on the show and the writing staff headed by his co-creator Sloane who was a writer on Atlanta. The show feels whole and considered. There’s no fluff or filler. Every episode is unique and a piece of a story and relationship that feels considered on every level.
It wasn’t a surprise the show was good, considering who was involved, but it was surprising how good it actually was. Mr. & Mrs. Smith took the intellectual property it had to use to get made and went for it. If this is what TV is going to be, endless IP rehashes, then hopefully, we will get more daring takes on these preexisting stories. Whether they work or not, at least we won’t be bored watching.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
