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      ‘True Detective’ Season 4, Episode 4 Recap: The Monster Under the Bed

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      Danvers wrestles with her demons. Navarro does, too, but hers appear to be of a different sort.Season 4, Episode 4: ‘Part 4’There’s a classic bit on “The Simpsons” where a panel of children are seated as a focus group for “The Itchy & Scratchy Show” and asked what they want to see from the long-running cartoon, which has started to flag in the ratings. After an exasperating series of responses, the moderator sums up his findings: “So you want a realistic, down-to-earth show that’s completely off the wall and swarming with magic robots?”That’s what “Night Country” is starting to feel like as it heads down the backstretch. It is a realistic, down-to-earth police procedural that’s swarming with supernatural beings and lots of storytelling bric-a-brac. To an extent, that’s part of the “True Detective” brand, to flood the zone with enough symbols, Easter eggs and plot tributaries to keep the Subreddits humming all season with theories about which ones will pay off and which ones will wriggle off with the other red herrings. As the season’s showrunner, Issa López, and her writers start to bring the season to a close, there’s already some evidence that the show has spread itself too thin, despite an abundance of laudable elements.Take the fate of Navarro’s sister, Julia (Aka Niviana). The image of this lonely, troubled young woman spending her last moments among the icebound wreckage before walking naked into the dark is a haunting one. One of the great strengths of “Night Country” — and the three Nic Pizzolatto seasons of “True Detective” before it — is how beautifully it can conjure these modern noir images from distinct locales.And yet, so little narrative real estate was given over to Julia until this final episode that her death feels more like a device than an emotional payoff. In a pre-credits scene, we witness Danvers’s compassion in scooping her off the streets and bringing into the station, which brings her closer to Navarro. As for Navarro herself, the heaviness of this loss is a family curse that now threatens to swallow her, too.The most touching moment in the episode is a much smaller one. When Navarro gets the call from the Coast Guard about Julia, she and Peter have just finished a harrowing mission back to the nomad encampment on Christmas Eve. She suppresses her devastation when Peter asks if everything’s OK and sends him off to be with a family that is still intact. Her emotional generosity is a subtle payoff to a relationship that has been building around these two interconnected cases; the further “Night Country” strays from the grit-and-grind of police work, the less resonant it becomes. The mysteries around Annie’s murder and the frozen scientists link up so beautifully to the tensions within Ennis that the continued sprinkling of specters, flashbacks and various uncanny events has gotten distracting. There are many questions still to answer and only two episodes left.To that end, this week’s episode does address some of the business at hand. The “Blair Witch”-style video on Annie’s phone, presumably documenting the last moments of her life, includes whale bones frozen in the ice behind her, indicating an ice cave system the detectives are keen to locate. A team from Anchorage finally arrives to take the bodies away, despite Danvers’s desire to poke around them a little more for clues. (In sharing the news that the men were dead before they froze to Captain Ted, Danvers admits to doing “an independent pre-forensic evaluation,” which sounds better than saying that Peter’s veterinarian cousin looked at them.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Nikki Haley Appears on ‘Saturday Night Live’

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      Ayo Edebiri hosted in a show that focused much of its energy on politics, along with Taylor Swift conspiracy theories and a “Dune” popcorn bucket.“Saturday Night Live” resumed its election-season tradition of bringing on political candidates to play themselves, inviting Nikki Haley for a cameo in its opening sketches this weekend.Haley, who has tried to make use of comedy and popular culture as she trails former President Donald J. Trump in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, appeared in a segment that was presented as a CNN town hall event with Trump (played by the show’s resident Trump impersonator, James Austin Johnson).Johnson fielded questions from other “S.N.L.” cast members, explaining how he planned to beat President Biden and would “stop Taylor Swift from infiltrating the Super Bowl.” The town hall moderators then introduced a question from an audience member “who describes herself as a concerned South Carolina voter.”That voter turned out to be Haley, the former governor of South Carolina (as well as an ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration). “Yes, hello,” Haley said to Johnson. “My question is, why won’t you debate Nikki Haley?”“Oh my God, it’s her!” Johnson said. “The woman who was in charge of security on Jan. 6. It’s Nancy Pelosi.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jesse L. Martin Is Watching You

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      The classically trained actor taps into his powers of observation to play a behavioral science professor in the NBC series “The Irrational.”Jesse L. Martin can tell when you’re lying. You might look away, he said. You might look down. Your nose will perspire and you will feel compelled to touch it. “There’s also intense eye contact,” he said, demonstrating this across a low table in the bar of a downtown hotel last week.Martin, an actor who spent his young adulthood in New York but has since relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia, was in town for a few days to promote “The Irrational,” the NBC procedural in which he stars. (The final episodes of its first season are now airing; the network has already renewed it for a second.) Martin, 55, plays Alec Mercer, a professor of behavioral science at a fictional university. Somehow Alec spends more time assisting the F.B.I. than he does in the classroom. (That’s tenure for you.) He solves each week’s case by applying one or more behavioral science concepts — the halo effect, the Barnum effect, paradoxical persuasion.Almost pathologically observant, Alec is based on Dan Ariely, a superstar in the field of behavioral science, and Martin has absorbed a morsel of those powers. Looking around the room over the top of a club sandwich, he could tell at a glance who was an artist, who was wealthy (“It has everything to do with all the ways they don’t show it,” he said.). The chicken, he observed, was “kind of dry.”That day, he was dressed elegantly, if playfully, in jeans, a white shirt, a black blazer, a burgundy pocket square and the knit golfing cap he often favors. (Martin has always been a hat guy.) His other accessories: an easy smile and a gleam in his eye that softens many of his characters. Acting is arguably lying for a living. Martin — a member of the original Broadway company of “Rent” who then spent nine seasons on NBC’s “Law & Order” and eight on the CW series “The Flash” — does it cleanly, candidly, without tells.“The spirit’s different,” he said of the kind of fabrication that acting requires. “It’s joy for me, so it would never feel like a lie.” If he lied during our conversation — about the work, about the chicken — I couldn’t detect it. “The Irrational” is inspired by and named for Ariely’s book “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.” A classically trained actor, Martin has always dreamed of going from one stage role to the next. “Every time I think about doing any play, a whole different part of me gets jazzed,” he said. But he also describes himself as highly rational, and so has instead spent most of his career on television procedurals.“I’ve always been practical to a fault,” he said, not without some regret.Martin, right, was lured to the role for the chance to finally play a lead rather than a sidekick.Sergei Bachlakov/NBCWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Violett Beane Doesn’t Mind Some Uncomfortable Silence

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      The actor, who stars with Mandy Patinkin in “Death and Other Details,” says such moments happen “right before you get to that place with somebody, when the pause is no longer as awkward.”Violett Beane doesn’t know if she believes in ghosts.But there was that incident aboard the Queen Mary — the retired British ocean liner reported to be haunted — while she was shooting “Death and Other Details,” her new Hulu murder mystery set at sea.“Our hair artist at the time said that she felt, like, a hand come across her and wind on her neck,” Beane said. “She ran out of the room and just freaked out.”There’s no freaking-out onscreen when Beane’s character, Imogene Scott, is thrown together with Rufus Cotesworth, once the world’s greatest detective, played by Mandy Patinkin.“He’s a legend,” Beane said of Patinkin. “He brings this sort of magnitude with him, and he never misses. You just learn so much from that.”When she felt momentarily overwhelmed during the pilot, she turned to Patinkin for advice.“He sat me down and talked me through it,” she added. “It was like art imitating life, and it was really, really sweet.”In a video interview from her home in Los Angeles, her own artwork on the wall behind her, Beane spoke about her affection for Charlie Kaufman, René Magritte and the band Big Thief. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Made Something Out of Nothing

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      At the end of his 1999 HBO special, “Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm,” David wraps up a stand-up comedy set by telling his audience he has no more material for them. “This is what happens when you run out of nothing,” he says.The joke refers to the famous description of “Seinfeld,” the sitcom that David created with Jerry Seinfeld, as “a show about nothing.” It is also a bit of a lie.For starters, it was always misleading to say that “Seinfeld” was about nothing. Yes, it was militantly anti-message, building small-bore farces around four single, child-free New Yorkers who had an inordinate amount of time to sit in a diner. But its allergy to making statements was a statement in itself; it made the show emblematic of the sanguine, end-of-history 1990s.Second, David hadn’t really run out of anything. “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the comedy of ill manners that emerged from David’s special, began on HBO in 2000. It has run off and on for nearly a quarter-century, and Season 12, beginning on Sunday, will be its last.On “Curb,” David starred as “Larry David,” simultaneously the world’s most comfortable and uncomfortable man, registering his complaints to a cast of sounding boards: Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), his wife and later ex-wife; Jeff (Jeff Garlin), his manager; Leon (J.B. Smoove), his permanent houseguest, who joined the series in mid-run and filled the chaos-demon role that Kramer (Michael Richards) did on “Seinfeld.”On “Curb,” David has starred as “Larry David,” simultaneously the world’s most comfortable and uncomfortable man.John Johnson/HBOWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Crown’ Auction Could Help You Live Like a Queen

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      Bonhams is selling hundreds of costumes and props from “The Crown,” including a horse-drawn carriage, robes of state and the queen’s bed.Despite all the scandals and tragedies, the royal lifestyle in “The Crown” looked enviably lavish.During six seasons, Queen Elizabeth II rode around London in a golden carriage, pulled by six horses. Princess Diana gallivanted, and moped, her way across Europe in a succession of designer outfits. For special occasions, the royals donned crowns and ermine robes.For most viewers, watching the show, which ended in December, was the closest they could get to the trappings of royal life.Until now. Sort of.On Feb. 7, the auction house Bonhams is scheduled to offer hundreds of items from “The Crown” in London, including intricate set pieces like a full-size replica of the golden state coach (with an estimated price of up to 50,000 pounds, or $63,000), as well as more affordable props that gave “The Crown” an air of authenticity. Those include two porcelain corgis that appeared on the queen’s writing desk ($380) and the Queen Mother’s drinks tray and champagne swizzle stick ($101).Some items look set to be bargains — relatively speaking. One of Princess Diana’s real dresses sold last year for more than $1 million, and her “revenge dress” — the black evening gown that she wore on the evening that Prince Charles admitted, on national television, to cheating on her — once fetched $74,000. The version of the revenge dress that Elizabeth Debicki wears on “The Crown” has an estimated lot price of $10,000 to $15,000 in the Bonhams sale.In interviews, three members of the show’s costume and set departments discussed some of the auction’s key lots. Below are edited excerpts from the conversations.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Stephen Colbert: ‘Ladies Love Cool Joe’

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      A new poll has President Biden leading former President Trump, thanks to 58 percent of women surveyed supporting Biden.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Hey, Ladies!One new poll shows President Biden leading former President Donald Trump 50 percent to 44 percent.“I don’t know just how Joe did it, but political analysts think it may be his strategy of standing still while his opponent repeatedly quotes Hitler,” Stephen Colbert said on Thursday.But it was women who pushed Biden into the lead, with 58 percent of them supporting the current president, and 36 percent backing Trump.“[imitating Biden] That’s right, the ladies love Cool Joe. They love my store-bought smile. They love the shades. They love that thing where I’m the last one standing between them and the Supreme Court putting a GoPro in their uterus.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Trump can’t understand why he’s losing the female vote. He was like, ‘No one has paid off more women than me.’” — JIMMY FALLON“And to boost his numbers even higher with women, Biden just got Travis Kelce’s haircut.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Caught Red-Handed Edition)“When asked yesterday about the recent pictures showing red marks on his hands, Former President Trump said that he had not seen the photographs and added, ‘Maybe it’s A.I.’ OK, who taught him that? Because now that’s going to be his answer for everything.” — SETH MEYERS“In this case, A.I. stands for ‘an infection.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Even when he is literally caught red-handed, he won’t want to admit it.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingAriana DeBose and Boy George performed “Electric Energy” on Thursday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutSusie Essman’s expletive-hurling character on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” became a fan — and cast — favorite over the show’s nearly 25 years.John Johnson/HBOSusie Essman has been stealing scenes on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for the last 20 years. More

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      What to Watch This Weekend: Come Home to ‘Expats’

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      Our TV critic recommends a Nicole Kidman-led family drama in which no one’s quite sure where home really is.Brian Tee and Nicole Kidman star as grieving parents in “Expats.”Prime Video“Prestige TV” is often synonymous with “show about rich people being sad,” and by that metric, “Expats” (Amazon Prime Video) is easily among the most prestigious shows. Early on, its silky misery feels hollow — trite, even — but over six episodes, that emptiness becomes less of a void and more of a vessel, holding elegant, complicated ideas about class, pain and mothering.Nicole Kidman, whose presence alone connotes wealthy woe, stars as Margaret, an American mother living in Hong Kong because of her husband’s career. When viewers meet her, she’s in a state of fragile, paralyzed mourning, though the specifics of her agony remain vague until the end of the second episode, leaving the audience in the uncomfortable position of hungering for something terrible happening to a child, just to get things moving already.Luckily — well, unluckily — things do indeed start moving. Mercy (Ji-young Yoo), a Korean American young woman scrambling to find herself, or at least rent money, believes she’s cursed and accidentally catalyzes catastrophe. Margaret’s friend and fellow expat, Hilary (Sarayu Blue), has her own marital crisis, exacerbated by the fallout from Margaret’s tragedy. Essie (Ruby Ruiz), Margaret’s live-in housekeeper and nanny, mourns with her employers and misses her own adult children back in the Philippines. Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla), Hilary’s housekeeper, both admires and resents her boss. Margaret says Essie is “family.” Puri calls Hilary her friend. In each instance, the woman’s peers try to correct her.Over and over throughout the show, mothers tell their children to “come home.” No one is quite sure where that is, though, geographically or psychologically. Isn’t home wherever you hang your violent resentments? Love and suffering pour forth in equal velocity here, with money or lack thereof as a stand-in for both. When mothering is reconfigured as paid labor, what happens to both mothering and labor?“Expats,” created and directed by Lulu Wang, and adapted from the novel “The Expatriates,” by Janice Y.K. Lee, is a story of overlaps. Money, pain, guilt, peace, agency — they all pile on top of each other, in Hong Kong’s dense high-rises and in the characters’ fraught family trees. B-roll of construction abounds, and every driving scene seems to be on a hill. In a clever, artful trick, dialogue from one scene often begins before the previous scene is quite finished, an argument starting up before we even know its combatants. Characters’ stories collapse into one another, iterations of one grand maternal conflict.Two episodes of “Expats” arrived Jan. 26, and the following four arrive weekly, on Fridays. The first and second episodes are fine; the third and fourth episodes are good; the fifth and sixth episodes are stunning. More