Time is a flat circle, wails the potential perp.

And we are all stuck in it!

(Pre-existing IP is a flat circle, and Warner Bros.

Jodie Foster, Kali Reis - True Detective: Night Country

Jodie Foster and Kali Reis in ‘True Detective: Night Country’.Michele K. Short/HBO

Discovery, like most studios, is stuck in it.)

MeldingNight CountrywithTrue Detectivedoesnt harm Lopezs story, though Im not convinced it needed the quote-unquote help.

Night Countrymakes it clear from the outset that men are not the ones who get things done in Ennis.

True Detective: Nigh Country grab

The spooky spiral in ‘True Detective: Night Country’.HBO

The mayos like syrup, Danvers counters.

Mayo doesnt go runny until a couple days out of the fridge…

The things you learn when your kid leaves their lunch in the backseat of the car.

Jodie Foster, Finn Bennet - True Detective: Night Country

Michele K. Short/HBO

In our first introduction to Trooper Navarro, she subdues a burly, abusive drunk with comically little effort.

Adds the delivery driver who reported the scientists missing, You see people who are gone sometimes.

Its a long f—ing night.

Even the dead get bored.

Its meaning is elusive, but Rose warns Navarro that the mark is older than Ennis itself.

Danvers rejects such theories, and the two engage in several patentedTrue Detectivedrive-and-talk debates.

Theres a real explanation for this.

You have my sympathies!).

TheTrue Detectivetouches, namely the mysterious spiral, dont enhance the story.

(No spoilers, but the reveal is viscerally satisfying.)

That’s the biz.