I thought it was a really good episode and even it had some pacing issues considering there is only one left. Wasted too much time in 3 and 4. They could thread the needle next week though, there is good meat on the bone here.

A friend of mine said she was waiting for it to finish to binge it all.

That was probably the way to go. I bet it's gonna play a hell of a lot better without the weekly breaks.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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A friend of mine said she was waiting for it to finish to binge it all.

That was probably the way to go. I bet it's gonna play a hell of a lot better without the weekly breaks.

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I agree with this.

Prosperdick said:

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TCTTS said:

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- Hank (finally) revealed as a "double agent."

- The woman at Silver Sky puppeteering a coverup.

- Danvers, Navarro, and Pete having a tragic, game-changing secret between them.

... THESE are the kinds of great plot turns that should have happened earlier in the season.

- Us wondering but not knowing what Hank is up to for four episodes doesn't equal good drama. Hank revealed as a double agent earlier, and us THEN watching him try to manipulate things for an episode or two = good drama.

- Us wondering but not knowing what Silver Sky is up to for four episodes doesn't equal good drama. Silver Sky revealed as puppeteering a coverup earlier, and us THEN watching Danvers and Connelly have hook up, us knowing Connelly is in on it, but Danvers not knowing = good drama.

Those two things should have happened in episode three, WHILE Danvers and Navarro were doing all their clue-hunting/family drama, which would have added so much needed tension to the proceedings.

Then kill Hank at the end of episode four, and give us two episodes for the "finale," since it's painfully obvious they're not going to be able to wrap everything up in just one more hour.

There was a really good, really interesting story here, but man, they screwed up the pacing and the order in which the information should have been doled out to the audience.

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You MUST have characters you care about, the main way to do that is pulling back the curtain and showing the machinations at work. Keeping the audience in the dark (no pun intended) is usually not a good strategy unless the characters/actors are so compelling you want to watch them. Otherwise you run the risk of creating a bunch of unlikeable characters the audience has zero investment in their fates.

It makes me think of The Sopranos...there were a LOT of unlikeable characters on that show but they were interesting because Chase ensured we understood the motivations of each one of them, especially the secondary characters because many didn't possess the charisma and charm of Gandolfini. For instance, imagine not knowing Sal's (big p*ssy) motivations until the same episode of that fateful boat ride. It would have had a tenth of the impact.

Oh well, like you said, there was an interesting story here if Issa understood how to tell it effectively.

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I think because of the pacing and writing MOST of the characters are unlikeable with the exception of Pryor and Kaavick.

I think the dark definitely plays into the depressing aspect of the show. Just spending an "hour" in that environment once a week is enough of a downer. I can't imagine several weeks

TCTTS said:

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- Hank (finally) revealed as a "double agent."

- The woman at Silver Sky puppeteering a coverup.

- Danvers, Navarro, and Pete having a tragic, game-changing secret between them.

... THESE are the kinds of great plot turns that should have happened earlier in the season.

- Us wondering but not knowing what Hank is up to for four episodes doesn't equal good drama. Hank revealed as a double agent earlier, and us THEN watching him try to manipulate things for an episode or two = good drama.

- Us wondering but not knowing what Silver Sky is up to for four episodes doesn't equal good drama. Silver Sky revealed as puppeteering a coverup earlier, and us THEN watching Danvers and Connelly hook up, us knowing Connelly is in on it, but Danvers not knowing = good drama.

Those two things should have happened in episode three, WHILE Danvers and Navarro were doing all their clue-hunting/family drama, which would have added so much needed tension to the proceedings.

Then kill Hank at the end of episode four, and give us two episodes for the "finale," since it's painfully obvious they're not going to be able to wrap everything up in just one more hour.

There was a really good, really interesting story here, but man, they screwed up the pacing and the order in which the information should have been doled out to the audience.

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Just FYI, the finale is clocking in at 75 minutes.

Also, Finn Bennett (Pryor) weighs in on the finale.

Quote:

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What should we expect from next week's season finale?

Personally, I think a finale in a murder mystery, or any show that you could consider similar to this, is usually really disappointing. And I watched this show, and I burst into tears, not only because I was so proud and overwhelmed with what we had achieved, but because of the ending and how satisfying it is and how gut-wrenching it is. I think, one, be prepared to be satisfied. And, two, it is a real tear-jerker, in my opinion. I think it's beautiful, and I'm very, very proud of it. And also, be prepared to try and keep your mind open to it. I think what's so brilliant about True Detective, particularly season 1, is you can make your own explanation if you wish. You can lean into a supernatural element, if you wish, in that first season, and I think there's room for that here.

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https://ew.com/true-detective-finn-bennett-death-gut-wrenching-finale-8567795

Maroon Elephant said:

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Awful season so far. Forcing viewers to look at the disgusting whatever the hell she is with the face piercings was a nice touch. Bad actress, worse appearance. There is nobody on this show that I can pull for. Jody Foster was promising but turns out she's just the boring town *****. I literally don't care who dies at this point.

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Totally agreed. Is this CSI or some lame mainstream or True Detective? Total waste of time

It's just dumb at this point, such awful television. ASK THE QUESTION!!

C@LAg said:

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I just want to know when all the vampires are going to show up and wreck shop before the sun rises again.

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The twist is that the lone vampire in Ennis is actually a reverse vampire and has to be home before dark. He takes no part in the story and should probably move.

Quote:

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Quote:
What should we expect from next week's season finale?

Personally, I think a finale in a murder mystery, or any show that you could consider similar to this, is usually really disappointing. And I watched this show, and I burst into tears, not only because I was so proud and overwhelmed with what we had achieved, but because of the ending and how satisfying it is and how gut-wrenching it is. I think, one, be prepared to be satisfied. And, two, it is a real tear-jerker, in my opinion. I think it's beautiful, and I'm very, very proud of it. And also, be prepared to try and keep your mind open to it. I think what's so brilliant about True Detective, particularly season 1, is you can make your own explanation if you wish. You can lean into a supernatural element, if you wish, in that first season, and I think there's room for that here.

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Ugh, that doesn't good. That's sounds like a qualifying statement for a finale that doesn't know how to wrap up everything the earlier episodes started so it leaves everything vague under the guise of leaving it up to the viewer to interpret.

FL_Ag1998 said:

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Quote:

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Quote:
What should we expect from next week's season finale?

Personally, I think a finale in a murder mystery, or any show that you could consider similar to this, is usually really disappointing. And I watched this show, and I burst into tears, not only because I was so proud and overwhelmed with what we had achieved, but because of the ending and how satisfying it is and how gut-wrenching it is. I think, one, be prepared to be satisfied. And, two, it is a real tear-jerker, in my opinion. I think it's beautiful, and I'm very, very proud of it. And also, be prepared to try and keep your mind open to it. I think what's so brilliant about True Detective, particularly season 1, is you can make your own explanation if you wish. You can lean into a supernatural element, if you wish, in that first season, and I think there's room for that here.

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Ugh, that doesn't good. That's sounds like a qualifying statement for a finale that doesn't know how to wrap up everything the earlier episodes started so it leaves everything vague under the guise of leaving it up to the viewer to interpret.

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I'm with you, preparing the viewer to keep their mind open about it is rarely a good sign.

Since I mentioned The Sopranos earlier I'll call back to them again...that was a finale ending you had to keep your mind open about and many people were pissed. However, the show had built up so much good will it overcame it but this show....prepare yourself for a lot of "welp, that was a waste of 6 hours of my life I'll never get back" comments on Sunday night.

Game of Thrones last SEASON was so disappointing I'll never rewatch again yet I have no problem rewatching The Sopranos and have done so before. GoT was such an epic failure of showrunners who simply didn't care anymore (they always just wanted to film the red wedding and apparently nothing else) that finale was just the cherry on the s*** sundae they created with that final season (and the season before if we're being honest).

The GOT final season was rushed, but I still enjoyed it a great deal. I thought they did fine given there was a helluva lot of story to tell in a short amount of time. It really needed 1 or maybe 2 more seasons to do it properly. It suffered from contrast to those earlier seasons that were able to take more time to tell the story well

What's funny is they sped it up because they thought they were a shoe-in to get the new Star Wars trilogy… then the last season bombed and they got axed. Oops.

I think the bigger issues people take with GOT isn't particular episodes but certain long term character arcs vs their actions in later season episodes that didn't seem to line up (hi Daenerys).

I did still enjoy the finale, but agreed with others that the last season or two had big pacing issues.

That's a criticism where the rush to the finish was a big reason for it. With a little more time, they could have built out the character arc more to make it easier to buy

Totally with you.

fig96 said:

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I think the bigger issues people take with GOT isn't particular episodes but certain long term character arcs vs their actions in later season episodes that didn't seem to line up (hi Daenerys).

I did still enjoy the finale, but agreed with others that the last season or two had big pacing issues.

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agreed.

What took them an entire season to travel (and was much more likely true - see Arya and Hound getting to The North)...

Last season? Dany and Jon have town portal/WoW Wyvern flying like speed and travel everywhere in the matter of minutes.

It felt like everything was paced at 2x speed. We know why now, D&B were tired of doing it and wanted to move on. Didn't stick the landing and they've suffered since.

The roles in the show were some of the most iconic in TV history and they made a mess of it.

Signed - Stannis the Mannis.

Yep, LOST finale was great.

As for Night Country, I was able to figure father and son were going to face off before the end, but I thought the younger was going to lose.

This episode was a bit better, but yeah, the pacing/editing really threw me off a few times. Hopeful for the finale, but looks like Mare of Easttown is still better than any of the sequel seasons of True Detective.

AJ02 said:

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Well, Mare of Eastown was better than 90% of shows that have come out the last couple of years. Mare was a FANTASTIC show.

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Definitely.

If another comparable show is needed, I think I even liked The Outsider better than this current season of True Detective.

Shame. If they had cut it to a total of 4 hours and trimmed the fat, it really could have been good.

GreasenUSA said:

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AJ02 said:

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Well, Mare of Eastown was better than 90% of shows that have come out the last couple of years. Mare was a FANTASTIC show.

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Definitely.

If another comparable show is needed, I think I even liked The Outsider better than this current season of True Detective.

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The Outsider was a solid book, and I thought the series was good too.

Southlake said:

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Shame. If they had cut it to a total of 4 hours and trimmed the fat, it really could have been good.

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That is the thing has driven me mad about this season of True Detective, there is too much fat for 6 episodes and not enough plot development for 6 episodes. Should have been 8 episodes with more suspense built in by revealing motives earlier in the show and really embracing the Tuttle angle in 3 & 4 instead of mumbling about it once in episode 2 then focusing on a Russian bride and a sister losing her mind. They could have really honed in on Danver's loss and the circumstances so we better understand her. O well. I get that hindsight is 20/20 but feels to me like there simply wasnt a lot of oversight or guidance with the script & development.

I haven't seen Sharp Objects. Will give that one a watch.

I just finished Big Little Lies. Season 1 was okay, 2 was pretty trash.

Also just finished Love & Death and I thought Elizabeth Olsen was amazing in it. Crazy to think it's a true story.

donkeykick90 said:

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If you haven't watch it already, highly recommend Blackbird on AppleTV+

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So good.