Television
My Quick Thoughts On “True Detective: Night Country”
These are just my thoughts. This is a stream of consciousness blog. You’ve been warned.
These are just my thoughts. This is a stream of consciousness blog. You’ve been warned.
- Overall, the season itself was fine. It was not great, it was not terrible. In my opinion, of the three seasons I have seen, there is a very definitive ranking.
- Season one is the best, followed by season three, and closed out by season four.
- I have not seen season two but everyone seems to have hated it. Do I watch it for completionist sake? I should, frankly.
- I would recommend season one and season three to anyone, but season four…not sure if I would give it the total green light.
- Season one is the best, followed by season three, and closed out by season four.
- Let’s just dig into the finale because that’s the most recent episode and most controversial.
- I liked most of the finale until the final 20 minutes. Everything after Liz (Jodie Foster) falls into the ice to chase after Holden (Inuik Lee Nielsen Shapiro).
- Everything after this moment is the show punching the audience in the face with symbolism and deeper meaning.
- I personally don’t buy Liz changing herself so fast after being stubborn for so long.
- The speech that Navarro (Kali Reis) and Liz have with Bee (Diane E. Benson) and the rest of the cleaners is a bit heavy handed with all the swifty cleaner-uppers.
- The new year starts with a new beginning and a dawn rising back up.
- There are even more moments in the episode that are a bit too on the nose.
- When Danvers and Navarro climb up the ladder and emerge in Tsalal for the first time…we don’t need the giant pan out with the station sign right in the forefront of the screen.
- Reminds me of the end of a Rings Of Power episode where the postcard lettering “Mordor” popped up.
- When Danvers and Navarro climb up the ladder and emerge in Tsalal for the first time…we don’t need the giant pan out with the station sign right in the forefront of the screen.
- Did not enjoy Navarro emerging on the porch of wherever Danvers was at the end of the episode.
- There were two better exits
- One could have just been the phone and the polar bear left on the bed.
- One could have been here walking into the snowy wilderness herself and allowing the audience to decide if her send off was a literal walk-off or a symbolic one.
- Navarro appearing on the porch is one too many attempts at symbolism. It takes away from the mystique of her exit because there is no way she is there in a tangible sense.
- There were two better exits
- Also, do we really believe that Liz and her daughter Leah (Isabella LeBlanc) made up that fast?
- They fought for five episodes, yet in the last 30 minutes, Leah felt compassion for her mom because she asked her to spend New Years?
- The resolution felt a bit rushed. It felt very rushed.
- Everything after this moment is the show punching the audience in the face with symbolism and deeper meaning.
- The first hour of this episode was pretty damn good. The editing in the finale was much like the first episode. Very fast, crisp, and filled with suspense. The thriller elements were well executed.
- But then again the last 20 minutes drag. It slows down to teach us a lesson. It loses steam.
- We didn’t get much closure on McKittrick (Dervia Kirwan). We don’t even see her in the last episode.
- I REALLY hated one decision made by the director when Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) was dumping his father Hank (John Hawkes) into the ocean.
- We have Rose (Fiona Shaw) telling Peter that he needs to do this part of himself. Dumping his father. He needs to complete the circle.
- Then the shot we see is just of Hank falling into the water. Falling into the cold deep depths with an overhead shot. We don’t see any part of Peter when he is pushing the body in.
- So you have the wise advice-giving character disposing lessons onto a younger generation and then we don’t see the younger generation actually doing anything? We just see the older generation sinking to the bottom?
- Really, really, really don’t link this decision. Would be very curious as to how Issa López came to this decision.
- Here is what I would have done.
- Would have had a closeup on his face while he is pushing his father in. Not just the physical struggle of pushing against friction, but also the emotional one. The audience can be the judge of what struggle is harder for him.
- Cut away to a shot from the below, with the body falling, and the rippled face of Peter is looking down at his father.
- Mirror the shot that opened up the finale with Liz and Navarro chopping at the ice to see the tunnels underneath.
- People dig for different reasons. Some to discover something new about the past, and some to bury the past.
- Mirror the shot that opened up the finale with Liz and Navarro chopping at the ice to see the tunnels underneath.
- Then have an over the shoulder shot of Peter looking down, before the shuffling shot of Peter sitting down on the ice and coping with what he has done.
- So you have the wise advice-giving character disposing lessons onto a younger generation and then we don’t see the younger generation actually doing anything? We just see the older generation sinking to the bottom?
- Side note, Rose may have been the best acted part in the entire show.
- Then the shot we see is just of Hank falling into the water. Falling into the cold deep depths with an overhead shot. We don’t see any part of Peter when he is pushing the body in.
- We have Rose (Fiona Shaw) telling Peter that he needs to do this part of himself. Dumping his father. He needs to complete the circle.
- I really don’t have a problem with the cleaners being the ones who killed the Tsalal scientists. You need a surprise in a murder mystery, and the whole mystery rounds out nicely…for the most part.
- WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THE TONGUE.
- This is a major gripe I have. They just never address how the tongue got there?
- Sure, the tongue is a symbolic thing, but it is also a piece of tangible evidence. It can not be a spiritual visage because both Prior men saw it.
- Perhaps one can infer that it was Henry who cut out the tongue since he was the one who moved the body of Annie on behalf of the mine.
- But why would Hank leave it at a random crime he has no idea connects to Annie’s?
- Night country creator Issa López says that the tongue was left purposely ambiguous.
- I hate this decision. This is a piece of physical evidence that was the draw between Navarro and Liz, yet the maker of the show decided that it would be okay that it appears out of nowhere. I don’t like this one bit.
- This is a major gripe I have. They just never address how the tongue got there?
- While we are talking about plot holes…how did Annie’s phone end up back in the snowed-in trailer after the murder happened?
- I liked most of the finale until the final 20 minutes. Everything after Liz (Jodie Foster) falls into the ice to chase after Holden (Inuik Lee Nielsen Shapiro).
- There has been some weird online beef about Night Country, much of which surfaced after the finale.
- A lot of people have been critical of the season as a whole, and many are upset with the finale. I would say I am one of those people.
- Nic Pizzolatto, the writer and maker of the first season of True Detective said ““I certainly did not have any input on this story or anything else. Can’t blame me,””
- I do have to say that I didn’t much appreciate the “time is a flat circle” direct rip off.
- I do think that Pizzolatto handled it childishly, but I also don’t think his criticisms are wrong either.
- Credit to López for taking a bit of the high road, but the way she had everyone has been vocal about defending their work is also a bit over-the-top.
- This season being the highest viewed of any True Detective season means nothing to me because now people have more ways to view, streaming services, ect.
- It is rather remarkable that it drew more than the Succession series finale?
- But one stuck the landing and one didn’t.
- It is rather remarkable that it drew more than the Succession series finale?
- I think it is fair to criticize the show. But it is a bit of a lightning rod seeing how the show is now headlined by someone different for the first time and it’s a more diverse cast and writers room.
- I think that the setting True Detective: Night Country is utterly unique and a good idea. I think the foundation of the show is solid, but it’s fair to say the execution throughout was a little sloppy and the ending didn’t totally land. I still watched the thing, but the impact of the story was more surface level then thinking and probing.
- Let everyone watch the show and make up their own mind. It’s subjective. Can we agree to disagree if such is the case.
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