Television True Detective: Night Country | Season 4 | FINALE SPOILERS

Salt Bailly said:
https://www.emmys.com/sites/default/files/Downloads/76thnominations-totals-v1.pdf?q1=

Great to see Hacks and Fallout getting plenty of recognition.


@Dr. Dwayne was on the nominations board in the mid 2000s.
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Complete garbage but ticked the right boxes so of course it rakes in the nominations.

Havent looked but I bet it even has noms for soundtrack and best supporting actress :lol:
 
Genuinely one of the worst shows I’ve seen in years.

It wasn’t true detective. They just slapped the name on it to get more viewers.
 
like anyone actually care how good it is. as long as there are enough modern audience cliches in it, it will continue to get good ratings and awards.
 
SuperiorXI said:
The nosedive in quality of this show is something to behold. They really cocked it up.
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That's true but I'd also say that I don't think it was ever as good as was made out at first. I mean season 1 was very good, but not exactly top tier television - it had great performances by the 2 leads, a bit of mystique about it and nice cinematography, the split between 3 eras worked quite well for a bit and that very good episode (episode 4, I think?), but the conclusion was quite poor (the resolution of the plot was pretty weak, let's be honest) and some of the dialogue, when you break it down, was a bit wonky.

Still very good TV but not quite genius either.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
That's true but I'd also say that I don't think it was ever as good as was made out at first. I mean season 1 was very good, but not exactly top tier television - it had great performances by the 2 leads, a bit of mystique about it and nice cinematography, the split between 3 eras worked quite well for a bit and that very good episode (episode 4, I think?), but the conclusion was quite poor (the resolution of the plot was pretty weak, let's be honest) and some of the dialogue, when you break it down, was a bit wonky.

Still very good TV but not quite genius either.
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I would classify it as top tier even though the conclusion wasn't great. There are lots of things about it that make it stand out from other shows of this type. As you mentioned the two leads but also the fringe characters, the themes, the atmosphere, the music, cinematography. It was a really great first season and it's up there with the likes of The Wire, Breaking Bad etc.
 
SuperiorXI said:
I would classify it as top tier even though the conclusion wasn't great. There are lots of things about it that make it stand out from other shows of this type. As you mentioned the two leads but also the fringe characters, the themes, the atmosphere, the music, cinematography. It was a really great first season and it's up there with the likes of The Wire, Breaking Bad etc.
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I think it's not that great, and it's only 8 episodes with a couple I find a bit weak so I'd struggle to put it on par with The Wire, but fair enough that you enjoyed it so much!
Tom Van Persie said:
I really liked season 3.
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I did too and I think I actually preferred Mahershala Ali's performance to Harrelson's in the first seson. For me it's a lot closer to season 1, in terms of overall quality, than what a lot of people seem to think.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
What are the modern audience clichés?
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pretty much all the usual signs of your typical cheap show you get to witness way before you're even given a hint of decent acting or writing skills, which seems secondary somehow.

in this case, bland and unlikeable characters made with obligatory "dark" secret from the past because you're lazy writer and don't know how make them interesting otherwise.

"strong", forced, confrontational female characters that only exist in crap shows such as this. the scene where one of the detectives handcuffed and held the abusive guy with one hand while she was holding a phone with her other hand reminded me of that scene from Rings of Power with Galadriel and the guards. scenes like that always - always cheapen the overall experience. .

male characters basically being officer Doofy from Scary Movie and equally unlikeable. again, you'll see them only in crap shows such as this and well, Scary Movie, because any decent show can't afford to have such weak characters around.

simple, basic dialogues.

pathethic opening theme as well, although this obviously doesn't affect the content of the episodes.

I got all that in the opening 40 minutes of the first episode, so before I got anything remotely good from this show. then I watched another 30 minutes of the second episode and simply turned it off.

they don't seem to dare to start with "boring" episode devoid of any action these days, let alone the whole fecking season like in Deadwood or The Wire where they talk, and talk, and talk... and obviously, a season having only 6 episodes by default forces itself to be full of those "instant" stuff. so instead of getting to know the characters during the season, you basically learn in one or two scene who gets the unchangeable tough cop role and who is officer Doofy etc., and that's how it remains for the rest of the show.
 
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Bole Top said:
pretty much all the usual signs of your typical cheap show you get to witness way before you're even given a hint of decent acting or writing skills, which seems secondary somehow.

in this case, bland and unlikeable characters made with obligatory "dark" secret from the past because you're lazy writer and don't know how make them interesting otherwise.

"strong", forced, confrontational female characters that only exist in crap shows such as this. the scene where one of the detectives handcuffed and held the abusive guy with one hand while she was holding a phone with her other hand reminded me of that scene from Rings of Power with Galadriel and the guards. scenes like that always - always cheapen the overall experience. .

male characters basically being officer Doofy from Scary Movie and equally unlikeable. again, you'll see them only in crap shows such as this and well, Scary Movie, because any decent show can't afford to have such weak characters around.

simple, basic dialogues.

pathethic opening theme as well, although this obviously doesn't affect the content of the episodes.

I got all that in the opening 40 minutes of the first episode, so before I got anything remotely good from this show. then I watched another 30 minutes of the second episode and simply turned it off.

they don't seem to dare to start with "boring" episode devoid of any action these days, let alone the whole fecking season like in Deadwood or The Wire where they talk, and talk, and talk... and obviously, a season having only 6 episodes by default forces itself to be full of those "instant" stuff. so instead of getting to know the characters during the season, you basically learn in one or two scene who gets the unchangeable tough cop role and who is officer Doofy etc., and that's how it remains for the rest of the show.
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Sure it starts off a bit shit, but if you had bothered to carry on watching, you would have realised it gets a lot more shit as it goes on.
 
Bole Top said:
pretty much all the usual signs of your typical cheap show you get to witness way before you're even given a hint of decent acting or writing skills, which seems secondary somehow.

in this case, bland and unlikeable characters made with obligatory "dark" secret from the past because you're lazy writer and don't know how make them interesting otherwise.

"strong", forced, confrontational female characters that only exist in crap shows such as this. the scene where one of the detectives handcuffed and held the abusive guy with one hand while she was holding a phone with her other hand reminded me of that scene from Rings of Power with Galadriel and the guards. scenes like that always - always cheapen the overall experience. .

male characters basically being officer Doofy from Scary Movie and equally unlikeable. again, you'll see them only in crap shows such as this and well, Scary Movie, because any decent show can't afford to have such weak characters around.

simple, basic dialogues.

pathethic opening theme as well, although this obviously doesn't affect the content of the episodes.

I got all that in the opening 40 minutes of the first episode, so before I got anything remotely good from this show. then I watched another 30 minutes of the second episode and simply turned it off.

they don't seem to dare to start with "boring" episode devoid of any action these days, let alone the whole fecking season like in Deadwood or The Wire where they talk, and talk, and talk... and obviously, a season having only 6 episodes by default forces itself to be full of those "instant" stuff. so instead of getting to know the characters during the season, you basically learn in one or two scene who gets the unchangeable tough cop role and who is officer Doofy etc., and that's how it remains for the rest of the show.
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I read the beginning of your post and some of it seems to be more issues with a certain element of male audiences, and a lot of it is just poor quality that has nothing to do with it being modern or not.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
I read the beginning of your post and some of it seems to be more issues with a certain element of male audiences, and a lot of it is just poor quality that has nothing to do with it being modern or not.
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such short seasons are definitely a modern thing for me. it directly affects the level of character building you can do thus the depth and overall quality.

in the 90's we used to watch shows with those gigantic seasons with 25 episodes. post 2000, it was still the case with some shows, but most of them reduced the number of the episodes on 13-18 per season. 2010-2020 and later the norm seems to be 10 or 12 episodes per season, sometimes even 8, but it's still the case of watching the same characters in every season, so it doesn't really matter.

this "instant" characterizaction I hate can obviously happen in any show, but here it was basically ensured from the start. I was always going to get these forced caricatures of characters.

it isn't on my all time list or anything like that, but S1 wouldn't be half as good if it weren't for certain details, flashbacks and scenes that served as a buildup for that struggle in final episode. S2 and S3 weren't on that level because they simply weren't, but S4 had to lack all that by default.
 
Roosney said:
To be fair it gets light in the day time during the polar night, not actual sun shine but a grayish light if you will.
In the show it seems like it's pitch black all the time, except for that one scene where it seemed be sunny outside.

During the summer in Lapland it's a major mindfeck to walk out the nightclub at 3am with the sun shining in your face.
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The traditional folk dances there are called lap dances, and they pride themselves on having the best lap dancers in the world.

Moscow is the same for it being daylight at 3AM. Who needs night anyway?
 
I powered through this show in two days. Came to see what everyone else thought, and I concur. I like the ice station zebra locale, and Jodie Foster was good…. But.

They basically wrote the leads as men and cast them as women. I don’t mind a switch like that. Navarro was like the female soldier in The Expanse. The actress who played Navarro was a pro boxer in two different weight classes, so at least her physicality wasn’t as silly as the 5’1” Foster wrestling someone to the ground by grabbing his forearm. Without Navarro being a spirit walker, what would this show have even been?

I don’t think there was anything they were trying to say by having a mismatched buddy cop drama with two women. It made some of the detective cliches go down smoother. The whole factory - secret lab - supernatural stuff reminded me of DARK, but I think DARK is far superior to this.

I think these truncated limited run series haven’t figured out how to properly map a narrative arc, or even given much thought to act structure. Probably would have been better as a 2.5 hour single-serving movie.

So the Inupiak spirit is the protector of women?

Anyway not going to spend any more time thinking about it. Haven’t watched S3 yet but it has to be better than 2 and 4.

S1
.
.
S4
.
.
.
.
.
S2


Ish said:
Didn't they say those scientists were killed before they froze to death - as in there were scars/damage to their bodies? But during their "confession" (hypothetical anyway), didn't the ladies admit to letting the men walk away naked into the snow and "let Annie decide if she wants to take them or not"....so....who killed the men if they were dead before being frozen?

Like self-inflicted bite wounds, missing tongues/eyes?

Unless of course I'm just misremembering or those ladies basically "confessed" to everything except outright saying they actually murdered them.
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The ancient spirit / Lovecraftian horror killed them.
weetee said:
Thought that was a bullshite "hint" at the mystic forces at work there. Part of me was hoping we'd see that historic skeleton come alive and go to town on this city full of morons.

They should have shown a shot where the cleaing ladies cleaned the whole compound afterwards to the music or "Twist and Shout" or so.
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I would watch that.

Agree with the general vibe that they licensed the name True Detective, quoted the flat circle bit, and then played in the snow for 6 hours. Those caribou were comedy gold, though.
 
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Wing Attack Plan R said:
I powered through this show in two days. Came to see what everyone else thought, and I concur. I like the ice station zebra locale, and Jodie Foster was good…. But.

They basically wrote the leads as men and cast them as women. I don’t mind a switch like that. Navarro was like the female soldier in The Expanse. The actress who played Navarro was a pro boxer in two different weight classes, so at least her physicality wasn’t as silly as the 5’1” Foster wrestling someone to the ground by grabbing his forearm. Without Navarro being a spirit walker, what would this show have even been?

I don’t think there was anything they were trying to say by having a mismatched buddy cop drama with two women. It made some of the detective cliches go down smoother. The whole factory - secret lab - supernatural stuff reminded me of DARK, but I think DARK is far superior to this.

I think these truncated limited run series haven’t figured out how to properly map a narrative arc, or even given much thought to act structure. Probably would have been better as a 2.5 hour single-serving movie.

So the Inupiak spirit is the protector of women?

Anyway not going to spend any more time thinking about it. Haven’t watched S3 yet but it has to be better than 2 and 4.

S1
.
.
S4
.
.
.
.
.
S2



The ancient spirit / Lovecraftian horror killed them.

I would watch that.

Agree with the general vibe that they licensed the name True Detective, quoted the flat circle bit, and then played in the snow for 6 hours. Those caribou were comedy gold, though.
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Yeah I’d say 3 is better than 2 & 4 bud.
 
Imagine you'd want to invest a huge amount of money into a tv series and then they came pitching you this shite :lol:
"The guy's been frozen for days with eyes and mouth open and his arm snaps in half but he's still alive and really spookie and later in the hospital he doesn't tell anyone who killed them even thou he could have, instead he just scares people cus he's spooky and weird"

Okay, take my money!
 
:lol:

Do S1, skip S2, and S3 is good tv again. Avoid S4 at all cost.
 
lsd said:
So you are going to wait three seasons before you get to the only decent one?
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At least it will end better than it started, if you do it like that.

My viewing guide for True Detective would be: Season 1 -> Season 3 -> Season 1 again.
 
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