Is 'True Detective: Night Country' set in a real place? Kind of. Here's what to know

Are you shivering because it's cold out, or because "True Detective" Season Four is on?

The latest seasons of the show is set in the town of Ennis, Alaska, located 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle, as a banner of text makes clear early on in the Jan. 12 premiere.

Ever since its season, which starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, “True Detective” focuses on a different mystery that grips its lead detectives and brings them to unexpected revelations (and unwelcome emotional places).

With Jodie Foster as the lead, and Issa López as the new writer and director, the fourth season follows the disappearance of eight men from a research station and how it might be linked to the unsolved murder of an indigenous woman. There's also a ghost named Travis.

The show may inspire a binge watch, but travel plans are perhaps less likely, unless round-the-clock night and polar bears have appeal. Here's what to know about the real location of "True Detective" Season Four.

Ennis, Alaska is modeled on real towns like Utqiaġvik, formerly known as Barrow

Ennis isn't a real town, but the show was based on a real area in the northernmost state: North Slope Borough, Alaska.

North Slope Borough is the northernmost area or county of Alaska, and the barren and cold feel provided a major inspiration for the eerie setting of Ennis.

At 95,000 square miles, a land area larger than the state of Utah, the region is sparsely populated: The U.S. Census estimates the population of the region at just over 11,000 people. Utqiaġvik, the northernmost town in the U.S. formerly called Barrow, is a hub of the region, with 5,000 people.

Note that Utqiaġvik, population 5,000, is not Ennis. For one, Utqiaġvik is 100 miles more north than the fictional Ennis. The town also banned the possession of alcoholic beverages in 1995; in the show, there’s a liquor store. Further, Utqiaġvik doesn't have paved roads or traffic lights; Ennis appears to have both.

What is the 'long night', and is it real?

The show gets its name from the concept of a Polar Night, a phenomenon that occurs at the north and south poles, where night lasts all day during the winter,

Utqiaġvik, for example, experiences no daylight for 65 days in the winter. Similarly, the sun never sets for 65 days in the summer.

Here's where 'True Detective' was filmed

Even though North Slope Borough acted as inspiration to the fictional setting, it wasn't filmed there either. Instead, the cast and crew shot the season close to 3,000 miles away in Reykjavík, Iceland.

Foster spoke about filming the season during her appearance on "The Jimmy Kimmel Show" on Jan. 9.

"The area of Alaska that we needed to go to is sort of inaccessible,” Foster said. “They barely have any roads, and it would have been too difficult. The weather is much colder there than it is in Iceland, so we shot everything in Iceland, which couldn’t have been a more amazing, extraordinary place.”

Foster added that, though they saw only a few hours of sunlight per day over the winter, the northern lights would sometimes turn the night sky green while filming.

"It's very spooky and, of course, the environment is like nothing else that we usually come into contact with," Foster said.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com