[2][3] At the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, it received three nominations including for the Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film, with Foster winning Best Actress.

[19] In June 2022, it was reported that Kali Reis would join Foster as co-lead, in a role originally conceived as Latina[20][12] and as a "hardass" military veteran.

[21] In September 2022, it was reported that John Hawkes, Christopher Eccleston, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, and Anna Lambe would also appear in the season.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Frighteningly atmospheric and anchored by Jodie Foster and Kali Reis' superb performances, Night Country is a fresh and frosty variation on True Detective's existential themes.

[36] David Bianculli of NPR deemed Night Country the best entry of True Detective since season one, comparing its focus on the direction, mood, acting and writing.

"[38] Lucy Mangan of The Guardian deemed Night Country the best season of True Detective, writing, "At last, this show drops the bloated, male-dominated stories of earlier series for an icy murder case in Alaska – with blistering turns from Foster and Kali Reis.

"[40] In the Slant Magazine review, Ross McIndoe sums up: "Like the best seasons of True Detective, Night Country thrives on its ability to exist as both a brisk, thrilling genre piece and a weighty, philosophical drama.

"[41] Inkoo Kang writing for The New Yorker considers the season to be "a feminist revision of a series best known for its macho poetry and its ogling eye" and that López "transforms True Detective from a lot of mystical mumbling into a show with something to say".

[42] Alison Herman of Variety wrote that Lopez's take on the anthology series invigorated the "hardened female cop in a blue-collar community" archetype by placing it in a new context.

"[44] Adam Graham of The Detroit News commended Foster's "full detective mode" performance and the contrast offered by Reis but wrote, "Some of its supernatural underpinnings lead to dead ends and López is sometimes at odds with herself over the direction of her storytelling.

"[45] CNN's Brian Lowry similarly felt the performances and chemistry between Foster and Reis worked "reasonably well", but criticized the slow pacing as the season's ultimate failure.

[46] Mike Hale of The New York Times was less enthusiastic: "The mystery steadily dissolves into preposterousness, the characters sink into incoherence, and the horror isn't original or evocative enough to carry things on its own.

"[47] Dylan Roth of Observer.com wrote, "While Night Country offers plenty of intrigue on the macro level, the individual characters and relationships are more grim than they are engaging.

He later deleted his comments after getting backlash from fans, but after the finale of the season decided to again double down on his criticisms by sharing several negative opinions of other users of social media.