brillag said:
Navarro's side piece is the only character I would be rooting for
Agreed. He's the only likeable character in this thing.
*** TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY ***
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Last: 6 mo ago by amg405
Agreed. He's the only likeable character in this thing.
The mail order bride, the young cops home life, the booty calls with the captain, etc. It's all just filler doing absolutely nothing to move the seemingly non existent plot forward. And it's not even entertaining. Just the same scene over and over again.
Nothing to disagree with here. They really set the hook with me in the first two episodes, the last two have been a waste of time. The supernatural tropes are just annoying at this point. Is this a murder mystery, a ghost story, something else? None of the characters are compelling, nor are they evolving. We're just treading water here and being subjected to a lot of filler, but filler might be generous when it feels like the audience's time is being wasted. You don't have to make the characters likeable, none of them are, but you have to want to spend time with them and I don't know if I really feel that way about any of them, at least none of the main ones, I kinda like Rose but even her scene in episode 4 doesn't make much sense to me. I'm to the point where I don't think they're leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for us, they're throwing breadcrumbs at the wall. I stopped theorizing what happened because I don't see them as being able to land this plane.TCTTS said:
I've been hanging on, giving this season the benefit of the doubt and every chance I could... but episode four finally broke me.
Just utter, repetitive nothingness.
Masked by a solid soundtrack that made it feel far more "prestige" than it actually was.
In any other even halfway effective detective show/murder mystery, with a killer on the loose, there's a palpable threat that he or she is going to strike again, until they *do* strike again, thus upping the stakes, causing that ticking clock to tick louder and louder.
Here? We get an opening set of murders… and then nothing but uninteresting melodrama, rooted in unending background exposition, for four straight episodes. Which worked surprisingly well for the first couple of episodes, but to then give us two more episodes beyond that of these people doing little more than tending to rote family drama and driving around in the snow, with minimal detective work in the fringes, on a case that seems to pose no tangible threat to the here and now… no thanks.
Every once in a blue moon, giving one of these shows to an inexperienced showrunner works - as it did with season one - but the vast majority of the time the results are boring at best, disastrous at worst, and Issa Lopez falls right in between the latter two. She should have either never been given so much authority, or HBO should have done a way better job supporting/noting her, because this just isn't it.
I'll finish the season/next two episodes out of morbid curiosity, but man, what a let down. Not even in comparison to past True Detective seasons, but detective shows in general.
This is making me think season 4 will supplant season 2 as the weakest of the series. I don't remember season 2 making me angry, just disappointed.
And then very depressed. OF COURSE that message failed to make it to his boy. One of the most depressing endings in the history of film to me. At least TD1 ended with some positivity and hope.Max Power said:
This is making me think season 4 will supplant season 2 as the weakest of the series. I don't remember season 2 making me angry, just disappointed.
El Gallo Blanco said:And then very depressed. OF COURSE that message failed to make it to his boy. One of the most depressing endings in the history of film to me. At least TD1 ended with some positivity and hope.Max Power said:
This is making me think season 4 will supplant season 2 as the weakest of the series. I don't remember season 2 making me angry, just disappointed.
I was more saddened at the end of S3. You kinda knew they wouldn't get away in S2, but I really thought they'd crack the case in S3. I think having him get THAT close and fall short made it "worse".
Proposition Joe said:
The entire series as a whole outside of S1 has been underwhelming.
Acting has always been what's carried the show to it's better season(s?). I know most will disagree, but the S1 mystery wasn't really that great as far as detective stories go, but the great dialogue and monumental acting carried it to it's lofty status as one of the best seasons of television. Replace MM or Woody Harrelson in that season and it's a Law and Order SVU special.
S2 had the acting chops, but the story was a mess and the dialogue and pacing was god awful.
S3 again with great acting from Ali and Dorff. Pacing was bad, story was mediocre.
S4 the pacing again has been terribly bad, but the dialogue and acting isn't there to carry it. I like Jodie Foster. She is/was a great actress that has done some great roles, but this isn't one of them. Just lazy writing in many aspects as well. Last episode we got the "I need this information from you." "Ok, to get this information tell us about your mom.". Lazy exposition. Even the random scene at the ice rink when the dad gives the skates to his son. "Son get up I need to show you something."... Son gets up from desk so they can stand a foot away to frame the shot.
They live in a frozen tundra full of substance abuse but they need a vet from another town to explain to them what people that freeze to death look like?
So far this isn't even reaching the bar of a good X-Files episode. This is one of those series that gets the hype-train every year from the industry. Feels like the studio/industry pushes it with high praise, but something somewhat under the radar like Mare of Easttown winds up being significantly better than any True Detective since S1.
All fair points/well said.
I agree that, in a vacuum, the Dora Lang case wasn't all that memorable, but from the jump it hinted at a much larger coverup that literally reached the highest office in the state, via a multigenerational family dynasty with cult ties. A cult that was actively performing rituals on children, in addition to the ongoing Childress murders. A cult and a coverup that Rust, at least, increasingly investigated - and became obsessed with - throughout the season.
Here? The larger cult is faint at best (the spirals have somehow become so lazy/boring), and the show has given the detectives/the audience zero incentive to see any kind of coverup/conspiracy exposed or brought to justice. No group of people or children are being actively harmed, and there doesn't even seem to be a tried-and-true serial killer on the loose. Yes, Clarke is connected to both Annie and the scientists, and yes, there's likely something nefarious going on with the water, but for some reason neither Danvers nor Navarro seem the least bit curious about it. There's barely even a focus on Clarke, as that whole side of things - the manhunt, trying to connect those dots, etc, is either happening in the fringes of the show, happening completely off screen, or in the last three minutes of each episode.
Otherwise, this is just a cliched community melodrama taking place in a remote Alaskan town, one I could not care less about.
Man, you flipped on this show quicker than Dom Toretto doing a quarter mile.
Going from "this is one of the greatest TV episodes in the history of mankind" to "I stopped watching" is pretty standard fare for TCTTS.
Just checking in to let everyone know that I didn't watch last night and won't. Sounds like I made the right choice. Luckily for you guys, sounds like you only have a couple of hours left to waste.
Yea, good points. I just really wanted his kid to get that recorded message. Even if we knew he was going to die himself. That really stung for some reason.BassCowboy33 said:El Gallo Blanco said:And then very depressed. OF COURSE that message failed to make it to his boy. One of the most depressing endings in the history of film to me. At least TD1 ended with some positivity and hope.Max Power said:
This is making me think season 4 will supplant season 2 as the weakest of the series. I don't remember season 2 making me angry, just disappointed.
I was more saddened at the end of S3. You kinda knew they wouldn't get away in S2, but I really thought they'd crack the case in S3. I think having him get THAT close and fall short made it "worse".
Cheers to that extra hour on Sunday nights.
Ha yep, quickest flip ever. That being said, that will be me if we don't get a monumental episode that reveals/ties everything together next week. If these last two episodes are great, and find a way to justify last episode somehow, then it will have been a solid show to me. But it needs to come out of nowhere and surprise me with a few things. That feels like an increasingly big ask.Brian Earl Spilner said:
Man, you flipped on this show quicker than Dom Toretto doing a quarter mile.
Meh, still been more entertaining than most shows on TV imo, so I'll stick it out.
The cheese grater line still might be my favorite TD line ever, though.El Gallo Blanco said:Yea, good points. I just really wanted his kid to get that recorded message. Even if we knew he was going to die himself. That really stung for some reason.BassCowboy33 said:El Gallo Blanco said:And then very depressed. OF COURSE that message failed to make it to his boy. One of the most depressing endings in the history of film to me. At least TD1 ended with some positivity and hope.Max Power said:
This is making me think season 4 will supplant season 2 as the weakest of the series. I don't remember season 2 making me angry, just disappointed.
I was more saddened at the end of S3. You kinda knew they wouldn't get away in S2, but I really thought they'd crack the case in S3. I think having him get THAT close and fall short made it "worse".
Proposition Joe said:
Going from "this is one of the greatest TV episodes in the history of mankind" to "I stopped watching" is pretty standard fare for TCTTS.
I actually said it was "one of the best episodes of TV I've seen a while" - and nothing that has happened since has changed that - nor have I said I'm going to stop watching (just the opposite, in fact). But sure, we'll go with your version.
There is probably a reason HBO airs Curb Your Enthusiasm right afterwardsBassCowboy33 said:
Welp, I'm gonna need to watch an episode of Seinfeld before going to bed. I'm shook, lol. That was dark and frightening even by True Detective standards.
Also, glad to see my oranges theory was correct.
I have a bad feeling her guy friend is going to get diced when someone finds that rock in his home OR he's going to accidentally figure something out, because he seems good at tracking crap down.
TCTTS said:Proposition Joe said:
Going from "this is one of the greatest TV episodes in the history of mankind" to "I stopped watching" is pretty standard fare for TCTTS.
I actually said it was "one of the best episodes of TV I've seen a while" - and nothing that has happened since has changed that - nor have I said I'm going to stop watching (just the opposite, in fact). But sure, we'll go with your version.
Lighten up.
Everyone knows you are the resident hype-guy, fan boy.
But you are OUR hype-guy, fan boy!
Brian Earl Spilner said:
Man, you flipped on this show quicker than Dom Toretto doing a quarter mile.
With episode three being so lackluster, which I talked about at length here last week, this didn't feel like that big of a flip to me. I've said multiple times now that the pilot was decent to good (and that I was more interested in the mystery itself), that episode two was fantastic, and three was straight up bad. For me, everything hinged on episode four, which was either going to show that what Lopez was doing this whole time had a meticulous purpose… or was a train wreck. We got our answer last night, as it exposed nearly everything before it. The only reason episode two worked so well is because it happened to fall so early in the season, before the shows flaws became undeniably apparent.
Even the "crime" itself is thin AF. Bunch of dudes froze. In Alaska. "Get your rifle, Myrtle, we gotta find the guy who didn't freeze because he must be a murderin SOB!"
So we have this on-going, multi-day manhunt to find a suspected killer of a bizarre multiple homicide. It's tying up every police resource except every single police force member that we have met thus far in the show? I know that you don't want to devote your entire police force to a search, because you still need someone to stay back and police the town. But I also have a hard time believing none of them got roped into that manhunt.
To be fair, we've established that they didn't freeze to death.DannyDuberstein said:
Even the "crime" itself is thin AF. Bunch of dudes froze. In Alaska. "Get your rifle, Myrtle, we gotta find the guy who didn't freeze because he must be a murderin SOB!"
Proposition Joe said:TCTTS said:Proposition Joe said:
Going from "this is one of the greatest TV episodes in the history of mankind" to "I stopped watching" is pretty standard fare for TCTTS.
I actually said it was "one of the best episodes of TV I've seen a while" - and nothing that has happened since has changed that - nor have I said I'm going to stop watching (just the opposite, in fact). But sure, we'll go with your version.
Lighten up.
Everyone knows you are the resident hype-guy, fan boy.
But you are OUR hype-guy, fan boy!
I'm definitely guilty of posting hype tweets in the pre-season. But what I was reacting to in the first two episodes wasn't hype. I was genuinely into the mystery. The mistake I made was assuming that Lopez, the detectives, and the rest of the season would be too. All the ingredients were there. After episode two there was a fork in the road. One way led to an awesome show that any competent filmmaker would have taken. Lopez, unfortunately, took the other route.
Didn't Hawkes' character spend an entire episode as part of the manhunt? Even to the point where he was criticized for how he organized and led it?BowSowy said:
So we have this on-going, multi-day manhunt to find a suspected killer of a bizarre multiple homicide. It's tying up every police resource except every single police force member that we have met thus far in the show? I know that you don't want to devote your entire police force to a search, because you still need someone to stay back and police the town. But I also have a hard time believing none of them got roped into that manhunt.
BowSowy said:
So we have this on-going, multi-day manhunt to find a suspected killer of a bizarre multiple homicide. It's tying up every police resource except every single police force member that we have met thus far in the show? I know that you don't want to devote your entire police force to a search, because you still need someone to stay back and police the town. But I also have a hard time believing none of them got roped into that manhunt.
This is the second I knew things were going south. When episode three opened with a pre-game speech before a big, all-hands-on-deck manhunt... and then neither of our two detectives went on said manhunt. Just an utterly baffling choice.
BassCowboy33 said:Didn't Hawkes' character spend an entire episode as part of the manhunt? Even to the point where he was criticized for how he organized and led it?BowSowy said:
So we have this on-going, multi-day manhunt to find a suspected killer of a bizarre multiple homicide. It's tying up every police resource except every single police force member that we have met thus far in the show? I know that you don't want to devote your entire police force to a search, because you still need someone to stay back and police the town. But I also have a hard time believing none of them got roped into that manhunt.
Yes, but we didn't see a single second of any of it. Literally no screen time was devoted it. It was all second-hand info. Telling, not showing.
I can't get past how a guy flips off a state trooper, she comes back a little later to confront him and his friends help him beat the piss out of said state trooper.......all with no ramifications or serious inquiries from the people around her. She just dismisses it with the old cliche "you should see the other guy". Sloppy as hell writing.
TCTTS said:Proposition Joe said:TCTTS said:Proposition Joe said:
Going from "this is one of the greatest TV episodes in the history of mankind" to "I stopped watching" is pretty standard fare for TCTTS.
I actually said it was "one of the best episodes of TV I've seen a while" - and nothing that has happened since has changed that - nor have I said I'm going to stop watching (just the opposite, in fact). But sure, we'll go with your version.
Lighten up.
Everyone knows you are the resident hype-guy, fan boy.
But you are OUR hype-guy, fan boy!
I'm definitely guilty of posting hype tweets in the pre-season. But what I was reacting to in the first two episodes wasn't hype. I was genuinely into the mystery. The mistake I made was assuming that Lopez, the detectives, and the rest of the season would be too. All the ingredients were there. After episode two there was a fork in the road. One way led to an awesome show that any competent filmmaker would have taken. Lopez, unfortunately, took the other route.
I'm just giving you a hard time. I think the Politics posters have you too on-guard these days.
And I was only halfway paying attention - did we get some kind of amazing no-cut tracking shot in the fight scene at the police station? That whole scene looked completely disjointed from the rest of the show so I assumed I was watching some technical show-offery.
Yep, it's almost like they're trying to pack so much into this thing that it is watering it down. I mean, i can see why she didn't file a report or press charges, given that she started the whole thing and would very likely lose her job, but the "oh, you got beaten to a bloody pulp and can barely move, interesting...hey listen..." general response was silly.f burg ag said:
I can't get past how a guy flips off a state trooper, she comes back a little later to confront him and his friends help him beat the piss out of said state trooper.......all with no ramifications or serious inquiries from the people around her. She just dismisses it with the old cliche "you should see the other guy". Sloppy as hell writing.
And yeah, Jason Snowmoa is really the only truly likeable character on this show, still.
f burg ag said:
I can't get past how a guy flips off a state trooper, she comes back a little later to confront him and his friends help him beat the piss out of said state trooper.......all with no ramifications or serious inquiries from the people around her. She just dismisses it with the old cliche "you should see the other guy". Sloppy as hell writing.
I audibly groaned and threw my hands in the air at "You should have seen the other guy." It officially lost me at that exact moment.
Forgot to mention this last night after the episode when the news dropped. Episode five premieres Friday at 9 PM Eastern, at which point spoiler talk will commence. So heads up...
'True Detective: Night Country' Episode 5 to Debut Early This Week Due to the Super Bowl (TV News Roundup) https://t.co/Rv8mLD4OnE
— Variety (@Variety) February 5, 2024
That's what I said after episode 2...spongebob toothbrush guy is the only character that seems to garner any sympathy or emotion whatsoever. Everyone else is just...there. Unrootable bots to move along the ice.Nagler said:brillag said:
Navarro's side piece is the only character I would be rooting for
Agreed. He's the only likeable character in this thing.
Did anyone care when Navarro's sister did the ice bucket challenge?
Did anyone care when Prior once again couldn't be there for his family because a drunk Jodie Foster had a hunch?
Did anyone care when Navarro got her ass kicked?
YO ISSA, YOU HAVE TO CREATE CHARACTERS PEOPLE ACTUALLY F***ING CARE ABOUT!!!!
This show...what a waste. At least Tokyo Vice is back on Thursday. C'mon Michael Mann:
Ha, everybody says this show sucks yet everybody says they are still going to watch it…
The last 10 mins or so legit creeped me out. That being said, I've already forgotten the first 40.
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