‘True Detective: Night Country,’ ‘Choir’ and more to stream this weekend

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who remembers the chokehold Carcosa had on the culture.

Though the latest iteration of “True Detective,” “Night Country,” hasn’t quite focused the public’s attention the way those creepy stone ruins did when Season 1 aired in 2013, Screen Gab editor Matt Brennan, who’s been catching up on the new version, explains how it does its central location, Ennis, Alaska, one better than the Louisiana original.

Also in Screen Gab no. 117, “Free Solo” climber Alex Honnold stops by to discuss his new series, “Arctic Ascent,” plus two family-friendly streaming recommendations for your weekend.

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Must-read stories you might have missed

Showrunner Francesca Sloane with actors Maya Erskine and Donald Glover of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”

(Annie Noelker / For The Times)

When do spies use the bathroom? ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ looks at quotidian life of married assassins: Donald Glover teamed up with Maya Erskine and “Atlanta” writer-producer Francesca Sloane to reimagine “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” as an exploration of marriage and commitment.

Review: A glamorous squad and gossip fuel Ryan Murphy’s ‘Feud: Capote vs. the Swans’: In the second season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, Tom Hollander plays Truman Capote, and Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Molly Ringwald, Calista Flockhart and Demi Moore the women who are in and out of his life.

‘Family Guy’ 25th anniversary panel among PaleyFest 2024 lineup: The 41st PaleyFest LA will celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Family Guy,” as well as events for “The Morning Show,” “Loki,” “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and more.

‘Vanderpump Rules’ executive producer Alex Baskin on ‘Scandoval’ and what’s in store for Season 11: Alex Baskin, the executive producer of the Bravo reality show, looks back at “Scandoval” and discusses what fans can expect for Season 11.

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

The Detroit Youth Choir perform at Carnegie Hall in “Choir.”

(Zach Dilgard / Disney)

“Choir” (Disney+)

As someone who grew up on arts-centric teen movies like “Center Stage,” “Sister Act 2” and “Take the Lead,” I thoroughly enjoyed “Choir” (Disney+), a gentle, feel-good docuseries about the beloved Detroit Youth Choir, the group that famously brought “America’s Got Talent” host Terry Crews to tears. Executive produced by Jason Blum, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, the six episodes follow the group through emotional auditions and strenuous rehearsals as they prepare for a prestigious performance at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Bravo to the show’s creators as well as Anthony White, the choir’s honest but encouraging director, for keeping the focus off divisive interpersonal drama and more on the students’ individual efforts to work hard, project their voices and exude confidence — on and off the stage. —Ashley Lee

A scene from “Orion and the Dark.”

(DreamWorks Animation)

“Orion and the Dark” (Netflix)

The world can be a scary place, even if you aren’t as prone to overthinking your (sometimes irrational) fears as Orion. The anxious fifth-grader is afraid of seemingly everything: talking to his secret crush, clogging up the toilet and standing up to his school bully; “murderous gutter clowns,” bug bites and, most of all, the dark. Based on the children’s book by Emma Yarlett, DreamWorks Animation’s “Orion and the Dark” is a family-friendly film about facing your fears (with reassurances that it’s OK that it’s not an easy thing to do). For Orion, this includes going on an overnight adventure with Dark, the personification of his biggest fear, and the other night entities — characters that embody other abstract ideas such as Insomnia, Unexplained Noises and Sweet Dreams. Directed by Sean Charmatz, the ambitious film boasts a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and also tackles meta-narratives and existential dread — and even features a David Foster Wallace joke. —Tracy Brown

Catch up

Everything you need to know about the film or TV series everyone’s talking about

Jodie Foster, left, and Kali Reis in “True Detective: Night Country.”

(Michele K. Short / HBO)

The stomach-turning sight of its primary crime scene is just the tip of the corpsicle: “Night Country” (HBO, Max) thaws out “True Detective’s” signature blend of world-weary cynicism and cosmic horror, on ice since 2019, by transporting it to the Arctic Circle. Returning to first principles, creator Issa López holds our interest in the disappearance of eight scientists from a secretive government-funded laboratory by directing our attention instead to the pair of cops tasked with investigating — Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster), the ornery police chief of Ennis, Alaska, and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), her former partner.

From this quarrelsome nucleus, concentric circles of troubled siblings, willful stepchildren, wary neighbors and spurned lovers radiate outward until the series’ protagonists seem inextricable from the sunless outpost they inhabit, “where the fabric of all things is coming apart at the seams.” Indeed, if “Night Country,” inspired by the eerie symbology of Nic Pizzolatto’s Louisiana-set first season, enjoys a signal advantage over its predecessor, it’s this sense of place as denser, richer, than any iconographic shorthand. Here, “setting” is not a synonym for “backdrop” but a fixed position in time and space, a set of geographical and social coordinates — colonialism, white supremacy, wealth extraction; contaminated water, cancer, stillbirth — that shapes both the crime and its potential solutions. Which is to say “Night Country” may be the best iteration of “True Detective” yet. —Matt Brennan

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Alex Honnold on a glacier in “Arctic Ascent.”

(Matt Pycroft / National Geographic)

Nearly seven years after his “free solo” of Yosemite’s El Capitan and five after the documentary it inspired won the Oscar, Alex Honnold hasn’t changed: “I still spend most of my time climbing, I’m in the same relationship, I have the same friends,” he says. That doesn’t mean he’s staying put, though. In his new series “Arctic Ascent,” premiering Sunday on National Geographic and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, Honnold journeys to Greenland with a team of scientists and fellow climbers to summit Ingmikortilaq, a 3,750-foot-high seacliff, and study the effects of climate change on the icy landscape. Honnold stopped by Screen Gab recently to talk about what he wants to see from climate change documentaries, what he’s watching and more. —Matt Brennan

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

My wife and I just finished watching the first two seasons of “The Bear” [Hulu] and we really enjoyed them.

What is your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

I don’t watch many shows or movies more than a few times. There are some classic films that I always enjoy, like “The Matrix” [Max] or “Gladiator” [AMC+] or things like that, but I wouldn’t say that I watch them for comfort. There’s so much out there that I generally prefer to roam.

This year will mark the fifth anniversary of “Free Solo” winning the Oscar for documentary feature. In what way did that change your life the most? Is there anything you expected to change that didn’t?

“Free Solo” [Disney+, Hulu] definitely had a huge impact on my life, but mostly in ways that I expected. I’d already made enough climbing films over the years that I had some sense of what it was like to be in the public eye. “Free Solo” just turned things up to 11. But it didn’t really change any of the core aspects of my life — I still spend most of my time climbing, I’m in the same relationship, I have the same friends.

“Arctic Ascent” features its share of thrills, but its core mission involves studying the effects of climate change in Greenland. In your view, what have been the most effective films or TV shows to deal with the subject, in terms of educating the viewer or even spurring them to action?

There are the obvious environmental titles like “An Inconvenient Truth” [Prime Video] or “Cowspiracy” [Netflix] or other popular documentaries, but I’m not sure if those actually inspire the most action. I think that environmental films/TV often do a good job of showing the negative side of a problem, but I’m often more inspired by positives. I think there’s a real place for TV that highlights the beauty and inspiration of nature while not shying away from the challenges (anthropogenic climate change). Like “Planet Earth” [Max] with an emphasis on climate.