‘True Detective’ Star Kali Reis Responds After Series Creator Nic Pizzolatto Slams Season 4

True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto is listed as an executive producer for season 4 of the hit HBO anthology series, but that hasn’t stopped him from airing his public criticisms of Night Country.

After the season finale dropped this weekend, series star Kali Reis fired back at Pizzolatto.

Pizzolatto has been all over Instagram lately, sharing posts that slam the series after Issa López stepped in as showrunner for the most recent season. Reis, who starred in Night Country alongside Jodie Foster, responded via X, writing, “That’s a damn shame…but hey I guess ‘if you don’t have anything good to share, s–t on others’ is the new wave.”

The posts that Pizzolatto shared call the season a “hot mess,” ripping its character arcs and “exploitation of legitimate real world issues that were wrapped in self-aggrandizing ‘solutions’ and tactless handling.” The post also called the season “lazy and nonsensical,” before naming López specifically as someone who “missed the mark.”

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Another post targeted the finale specifically, calling it “some of the sloppiest writing” and “insulting” to the True Detective name.

It’s not the first time Pizzolatto has criticized the season, either. Three episodes in, he commented on the show’s references to prior seasons, calling them “stupid” and adding, “I certainly did not have any input on this story or anything else. Can’t blame me.”

López responded in a Vulture interview last month, saying, “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. That’s his prerogative.”

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Reis hasn’t backed off her response, either, reposting a story from Variety about her remarks with the comment, “I said what I said.” Over the past day, she has also “liked” posts on X saying Pizzolatto “f–ked it up first, not Issa's fault” and, “If you can’t handle the way the industry works find another profession…He seems to be on a steady diet of sour grapes.”

Despite Pizzolatto’s criticism, True Detective: Night Country has received the show’s strongest reviews since season 1. That includes a 93 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 on Metacritic.