- "True Detective: Night Country" is the first season of the HBO series not written by Nic Pizzolatto.
- Pizzolatto criticized the new season in now-deleted Instagram comments.
- Issa López, the writer of season four, told Vulture that Pizzolatto was "entitled" to his opinion.
Nic Pizzolatto, the creator of the hit show "True Detective," hit out at the crime drama's fourth season, the first he did not write.
"True Detective: Night Country," which stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, was written by Mexican filmmaker Issa López.
The six-episode season centers around a group of scientists who die under mysterious circumstances that appear to have links to a previous cold case and a cult featured in the show's very first season.
But it appears that Pizzolatto, who holds an executive producer credit for the new episodes, was unaware of this before the season aired, and he seemed to criticize the narrative in some now-deleted Instagram comments.
Screenshots of the comments shared on Reddit show Pizzolatto appeared to distance himself from the fourth season, writing:"I certainly did not have any input on this story or anything else. Can't blame me."
He also called links in the show to earlier "True Detective" seasons "so stupid."
Responding to Pizzolatto's criticism in an interview with Vulture, López said his comments were "his prerogative."
"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," she said.
"I wrote this with profound love for the work he made and love for the people that loved it," she continued. "It is a reinvention, and it is different, and it's done with the idea of sitting down around the fire."
According to Esquire, Pizzolatto deleted his comments after receiving backlash from fans.
Pizzolatto and López did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment, which were sent outside of regular working hours.
Despite Pizzolatto's comments, the new season of "True Detective" currently holds a higher critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes than the first season.
After the latest season premiered, López urged people who enjoyed the show to fight back against the "bros and hardcore fanboys of S1" who were attempting to review-bomb it.
"So, if you liked last night's [episode] and have a Rotten Tomatoes account, maybe head over there and leave an audience review?" she wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, per Variety.
