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I really wanted to like the first season of True Detective. Released in 2014, it had so many of the things I look for: a compelling murder mystery, philosophical questions and a stellar cast with genuine chemistry. But halfway through, I lost interest. And so it was with seasons two and three – something just didn’t click. That is until season four, Night Country, which I have been racing through at an ungodly pace. This time the lead detectives are women (which probably plays no small part in my renewed enthusiasm), played by the inimitable Jodie Foster and former world champion boxer, Kali Reis.
Foster is, as you’d expect, brilliant. But it’s relative newcomer Reis who has me hooked. This season is set in Ennis, a fictional mining town in Alaska, during a polar night. The local Indigenous community, Iñupiat, (a real group of Indigenous Alaskans) have formed families and social ties with incomers over the years, but their coexistence is not without hurdles. The disappearance of a group of scientists from a local research lab brings to the fore a forgotten case of the murder of an Indigenous woman. Reis plays the Indigenous detective determined to seek justice for the forgotten victim, a local woman named Anne Kowtok.
Our reviewer, Dr Agata Lulkowska, who has made films both with and about indigenous communities in Colombia and the Peruvian Amazon, was impressed by how the show’s creators have gone beyond cheap and overused stereotypes to allow for a more realistic depiction of contemporary indigenous lives.
Read more: True Detective: Night Country's indigenous representation offers hope for decolonising television
True Detective: Night Country isn’t the only new TV show spotlighting indigenous characters. Echo, the latest Marvel series to come to Disney+, tells the story of Maya Lopez, a Deaf, Native American woman with extraordinary powers.
Marvel fatigue has well and truly set in for many viewers. With so many television shows and films to keep up with, staying in the loop of the Marvel cinematic universe seems to come with a lot of homework. But Echo is a breath of fresh air, enjoyable as a contained piece of storytelling with some subtle and unusual creative choices that reflect its unique protagonist.
In one early scene, as Lopez finds herself locked in a fight for her life, the only sound is her rapid heartbeat intertwined with her adversary’s until, eventually, only her own remains. Our reviewer, Kevin Buckle, who is profoundly Deaf himself, called Echo a one-of-a-kind superhero – and an inspiration to the Deaf community.
Read more: Marvel's Echo is a one-of-a-kind superhero – and an inspiration to the Deaf community
Nostalgia bites
This month The Sopranos celebrates its 25th anniversary. It’s widely considered one of the best TV shows ever made, but when the first episode aired, as our writer Jane Steventon explains, the show’s creators had no idea that it would become such a cultural behemoth. In fact, creator David Chase was simply hoping it would last beyond one season.
Growing up, an intimate knowledge of the show’s unconventional “bad guy as protagonist” plot was something of a calling card for every cool culture buff I knew. And not much has changed in the years since. The Sopranos’ fingerprints are all over contemporary television. It’s hard to imagine audiences rallying behind problematic protagonists such as Breaking Bad’s Walter White, or Mad Men lothario Don Draper had the world not first been introduced to Tony Soprano.
Read more: The Sopranos at 25: mafia tale of murder, mayhem and family created a golden age of television
If binging The Sopranos doesn’t provide enough nostalgia for one weekend, the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath is currently showing a “quirky and original” exhibition of Ladybird book artists. Now frequently parodied as The Ladybird Book About… hipsters, Brexit, mindfulness (fill in your own trendy topic here), the original series was a stalwart of British children’s reading lists throughout the 20th century.
The story of Ladybird’s success is one of war-time ingenuity. Paper rationing during the second world war posed a problem for publishers. But Ladybird discovered that if they took the largest piece of paper available at the time, and folded it in a particular way, they could make an entire miniature Ladybird book from just one sheet. It was a winning formula.
The show brings together books, artefacts, proofs, letters and original artwork by some of the most highly regarded Ladybird artists of the time. Exquisite originals of some of the artists’ original work hangs on the walls, still as vibrant as when they were first painted.
Monks on mushrooms
More exquisite artworks are on display at the immersive Book of Kells Experience at Trinity College Dublin. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the intricate manuscripts of the Book of Kells, a late-eighth century illustrated copy of the four gospels of the New Testament.
So bizarre and ornate are the book’s illustrations that some scholars have suggested the monks who created them must have been indulging in magic mushrooms. The figures of Matthew and John introducing their respective gospels have creepily vacant stares. Letters are formed from distorted men, birds and beasts, their bodies and limbs extended and entangled to create decidedly surrealist openings to important gospel texts. One panel on the page that opens the Gospel of Luke appears to depict an all-male bacchanalian gathering.
But, as art historian Rachel Moss explains, there are a few details that leave her unconvinced. It seems a stretch to believe that monks under the influence of psychedelics could create the incredible micro symmetry in some of the designs. One panel measuring just 8cm by 4.5cm, for example, depicts three lions, four humans, four snakes and 13 birds, with perfect symmetry throughout – an almost superhuman feat.
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