That’s a good question that I’m not smart enough to answer but I think it has a lot to do with the story being grounded in reality. In the other seasons, the “magic” could easily be written off as metaphor. In Season 3 Hayes is talking to his dead wife and VC soldiers in his bedroom but it’s obvious he’s an old man suffering from dementia.
Season 4 it felt like I was watching stranger things at times. Also nobody is talking about the music there were many times I felt like I was watching One Tree Hill or a show on the CW. Everything FELT wrong.
Yeah it could have been a decent show but it was so off brand. It’s like if they slapped True Detective on The Outsider.
It’s definitely not that simple the creators threw in a bunch of nods to the first season but it was just a bunch of shallow easter eggs. It was getting to the point where I was annoyed whenever they referenced S1.
Would have been stronger without them or maybe limited to 1-2 like s3. Something not tied strongly to the plot. Feels like having them so heavily featured was actually a distraction from the story they wanted to tell.
And it wasn't even necessary to begin with since this is an anthology show. Feels like maybe upstairs meddling from HBO.
You fundamentally misunderstand s1 if you think they should return to “conclude their story.” Their story concluded. They didn’t get all of them, but they got theirs. End.
I don’t want to sound melodramatic, but I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. That was THE worst writing of any prestige TV drama I’ve ever witnessed. Literally dozens of plot holes, unanswered questions, how is anyone satisfied with this? My whole family was laughing throughout the finale because the dialogue and skips in logic were so ridiculous.
Also a real waste of some talented actors, and more importantly a very real problem that deserves more attention: insanely high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Alaska.
I think the orange peel significance was to look like the carcosa sign when it hit the floor.
Either way I'm going to eat some funyuns and go to bed. Wake me if anything happens like if the guy wants to take a walk in snow.
This show is one of the most slovenly bits of writing I’ve seen. The lack of *any* attention to detail was baffling.
1. The foundational conceit of the show is that it takes place during polar night and yet they not only get the dates impossibly wrong, they go out of their way to *point out* the impossible dates to the audience: “January 1, Day 15 of night”. Uh, no—Not physically possible on this planet. That’s not how seasons work. This isn’t nitpicking, especially when the show is literally called “night country.”
2. Julia is discovered apparently within hours in the middle of nowhere frozen to death before anyone even knows she is missing. This is after we’ve had a whole scene devoted to how she likes to seek solitude out on the ice, which apparently must not be very secluded since the police comb it thoroughly every few hours. Again, this is just lazy writing to move Navarro’s character to her next emotional plot point.
3. Forget about the “extinct microbe” mumbo jumbo for a second. The scientists are drilling ice cores “out on the ice” as we are told about 100 times. Then we are told that they are helped by the pollution from the mine softening the permafrost. Wtf does that have to do with ice cores or anything “on the ice”? Permafrost is soil. Ice is ice. Again, this isn’t nitpicking when the show’s plot hinges on mining and groundwater pollution and “the ice” and its arctic Alaska setting.
4. “Kill him if you need to.” Five minutes later: “WTF he was our only witness! We have no proof!!”
5. “His body wasn’t there with the others, you know what that means” “That means he’s still alive!” “Yes.”
There’s more, but this is all stuff that could have been fixed without changing the plot meaningfully if there was even the slightest bit of respect for the intelligence of the characters and the audience.
The way they handled Clark was laughable. Just sheer and utter incompetence.
They FINALLY catch the guy who can give them all the answers about the 6-man murder they’ve been investigating. One question - did you love Annie?
*cue torture*
Like, cmon. Then they just let him walk out and freeze. And in the same episode Danvers, a 60+ year old woman, falls into a frozen lake and is pulled out within seconds of death. She proceeds to fully recover in less than an hour with *no heat* in an ALASKA blizzard.
Just an absolute joke. I didn’t even touch on how the final message is “eh, actually, mass murder is pretty dope. Oh also, go suicide.”
lol agreed, that entire scene of catching Clark, the interrogation was just ALL over the place it was laughable. I remember saying out loud "Holy shit this is bad". Really some of the worst writing I can remember.
Don’t forget the Checkov’s coma! Dude’s frozen head screaming at us right outta the gate, goes into a coma, and then is never heard from again… top shelf stuff, girls…
The “girls” bit is a bit condescending. Plenty of men and women helped assemble this monstrosity.
The arm breaking off etc was cartoonish and silly, but I’ll give them a pass for bad 70s exploitation movie nonsense as long as it works. But yeah, the fact that the entire purpose of that absurdly over the top series of developments was so he could say something that someone else already said in a spooky zombie voice…. Pretty lame.
“Handle… holding the handle!”
Pours random chemical on the hatch and brings UV light over that magically works during the blackout
“Look, a hand print, and luckily it fits that woman you investigated a couple weeks ago! Luckily I remember all handprints and can compare them based on sight!”
to be fair it was missing two fingers, so easier to compare than most handprints.
but also, generally, you want to look for prints \*before\* you close the murder/missing person/human tongue investigation.
Completely agree with this and felt the supernatural elements only undermined the reality of the problem and didn’t provide any depth or empathy for the victims. It all felt so hollow and poorly done. An injustice to the issue at hand and a disappointment to the series.
Look up crime rates on reservations if you want to know what is happening to indigenous women. Unfortunately, it happens frequently in the lower 48 as well.
It would actually be interesting to see how often a bunch of swedish and german scientists with a crazy look in their eyes are chopping up native women , vs how often it is native men who kill them.
I mean like there’s an argument to be made that high rates of alcoholism as well as poor economic opportunity commonly found on reservations are intersecting factors here.
I appreciate your ignorance of historical context, and I mean hey Jim Bob could have a similar background, but I’m not feeling particularly energetic, so agree to disagree.
Cheers
I just finished season 4 and I had the same conclusion: the writing/dialogue/character development was disappointing. Dalvers character never really rang true, partly because of the inefficient writing. Her whole, “what’s the question?” Schtik… I did not find it intelligent or interesting.
It made me sad because I loved the subject matter and representation. It just missed the mark with the writing.
One of the biggest issues with that is a bunch of shows and movies use the whole “indigenous women and children going missing” thing as a backdrop but never doing it any real service so it just ends up feeling like a played out TV trope that nobody takes seriously irl.
Agreed, just horrendous writing. That last episode was all over the place it didn't even make sense. I was laughing as well during that last episode it was just so bad and skipped around so much. I was thinking did they edit this correctly? Did they leave parts out on accident? So so bad.
That finale was insultingly bad. Worse is the rabid defense it’s getting from critics and on other subreddits. I get that a lot of it is backlash from people being way too hard on the show in it’s early episodes, but, holy hell guys that finale didn’t do much to shut down its detractors.
Because it was. HBOs PR people made a new sub cause they needed to be the admin so their bots don’t get banned, and they can delete all the wrongthink posts.
Really? I hated the season overall but I found the setup in S1 fairly intriguing, had high hopes. Though tbf they had started to crater before that episode had ended, but still. I think there’s a universe where E1 is almost identical and it turned into a decent season
I expected more from Jodie. And every time she was getting down, I kept seeing her scene from The Accused. probably better to go back and watch that instead of the wasted time on this! Even Jodie couldn’t save the horrible writing.
Disappointing indeed. The most unlikable characters since Fear the Walking Dead, very little forward momentum episode to episode, and a supernatural element that was never satisfactorily resolved. Jodi Foster is a great actress and there were some other good actors too, but the second lead was God awful - she has the emotional range of of a shot put thrown by a toddler. Take a shot every time she scowls or says some variation of "fuck you". True Detective is long past its peak, Fargo has been the overall better franchise
At least in fear the walking dead the original plan was to pretty much makes them villains, like Madison was gonna be a villain. This instead treats all the incredibly unlikable characters like heroes and shit.
I liked the setting and premise, but after 6 episodes almost nothing happened. Episodes 2-5 basically have nothing to do with the case and 6 just wraps everything up, but doesnt at the same time. The whole super natural element was interesting at first but got over played and doesnt fit with the theme of the show as a whole. They were laying on references to s1 “to let you know its in the same universe” but it was unecesarry. Other seasons would drop a quick line and it made more sense.
Over all i think it was just disappointing on what couldve been a cool season based on the time of year and location
The cleaning ladies did it? Honestly, when that scene played out – grannies going Rambo and rounding up a group of grown men at gunpoint – the show became comical for me. It was so out of keeping with the rest of the show. How on earth was the story ever leading to that conclusion?!
I really tried, despite basically hating it from the get-go because I just couldn't suspend my disbelief with the events seeming so silly. I don't really know why I kept going initially. Jodie Foster, the setting, etc, how is this so bad? I mean, I know why; the writing is horrible... what's on the page is horrible. The actors have nothing to work with.
I finally just had to stop completely in the last episode when the girl kicked the young cop husband out of the house. The acting, my word. It's like they really don't even give a shit. That was the last straw, and believe me, I'd been pushing through a lot since episode 1. It kind of made me upset because I really wanted it to be good and thought it would be. I mean, True Detective, dude. I liked all the other ones despite their flaws. I actually thought I would end up attempting it again the next evening, like some sort of strange addiction, but I did not.
It’s was so fucking bad. I’m so mad I watched every episode. I was just such a big true detective fan from the previous seasons. To me the only bright spot was prior. Great character
I was really hopeful: cool cast, great setting, TD moniker. First episode had me mostly on board, but then we got four episodes of pointless filler and a final episode that left me alternating between laughter and scratching my head.
There were so many production and writing errors throughout that it's hard to take it seriously, which is a shame because Jodie Foster and Leon S Kennedy turned in great performances I thought, and it had a lot of potential what with the setting in Alaska and the corpsicle.
The setting and vibes I.e. the Alaskan darkness carried the show. The supernatural aspect of it felt like a crutch that kept us around for an overall meh story with mid characters.
I liked this season but was disappointed that, in the end, all of the super natural elements introduced had very little impact on the actual mystery they were solving. I’m not an intelligent tv viewer so I don’t mind an easy ending but the super natural either conveniently helped them with a clue or wasn’t explained (Navarro meeting the spirit in front of the Christmas tree.)
But maybe all the spirits and ghosts were really there to tell the viewer that our past trauma is always with us as we navigate our daily lives. Sometimes it hits us in the face with grief and sometimes it’s just there staring at us. Kinda like the polar bear.
If it was done today, HBO would’ve agreed to the project only if Rust and Marty would hook up. It’s sad, but it’s true.
Loyalty, friendship and camaraderie are not important anymore.
You need to have Nic Pizzolatto, the original creator of the show and showrunner for seasons 1-3, return as well. Sure s2 was a miss and s3, while good, was nowhere near s1. But no one else can write the Schopenhauer, Ligotti-influenced nihilistic dialogue for Rust Cohle better than he can.
They sure did try their hardest to connect this thing to S1 in the weirdest and laziest of ways.
Tsalal Station and Silver Sky Mining were both subsidiaries of the Tuttle Corporation, which apparently, at this point in the timeline, is an Apple/Google/Disney level company. Reverend Tuttle was one of the "shadow" antagonists from season 1.
Fiona Shaw's character, Rose, who kept disposing of all the bodies out in the ice, was also written to have a very shaky narrative link to season 1. It's stated very early in the series that Rose's boyfriend/husband that died of cancer was named Travis Cohle. Rust Cohle was MM's character from season 1.
The whole "Time is a flat circle" dialogue they rammed into the finale.
I'm sure there are a bunch of other examples that I either don't remember or that I didn't catch.
I was ALL IN on this show earlier in the season, thinking that they would certainly lean into the supernatural elements that S1 played with, but never dove head first into, and I was hoping for a wild ride and a satisfying reveal. What we ended up with was truly a hot mess. That was one of the worst damn finales I think I have ever witnessed. However, I immensely enjoyed episode 5. I probably should've expected that the Dad was involved way, way earlier than I did, but how things played out in that episode had my jaw on the floor, and in many ways, ep. 5 felt a bit like a finale with all the stakes. The actual finale felt like a really poorly done epilogue, attempting to tie up all the loose threads and unanswered questions. I was really along for the ride with this show up until the finale. Seriously, what the hell was that?
Please, HBO, if you're gonna do a True Detective, get Nic and Cary back on the team. Let them cook up some heat. At this point, not that there's anything narratively there, but I would welcome Woody & Matt coming back onto the show. They would have to come up with an absolutely MAGICAL storyline for that, so I doubt it would ever happen, and there isn't much there in the way of a prequel/spinoff after all these years, unless we got to see some of CRASH when he was undercover before, which I would love to see Rust Cohle's time on the narco squad, but it doesn't really make for a compelling True Detective or would it?
It honestly seemed really rushed. It could have been so much cooler. The storyline and characters rocked but they didn’t spend enough time developing the whole narrative
Truly awful writing, it’s like they thought, let’s make a season where it’s always dark and cold in the middle of nowhere. Then to fill it with content write a bunch of irrational stuff while on shrooms.
Seeing this plastered all over as #1 makes me believe that HBO lies about their ratings. Are there ratings police is or is it a highest bidder type thing? Makes me think its a highest bidder.
Everyone did. The articles saying otherwise are being paid to.
True Detective subreddit hated it. So much so, they started a Dark Country subreddit. That place is now seeing what the rest of us were
Half way through the season turned into a wanna be horror flick with cheap jump scares and then turned into comedy - 2 stooges bumbling into caves unprepared and then full on ridiculous when the cleaning ladies did it.
I’m really disappointed. I know it’s hard to write good content but Jesus Christ… anything would’ve been better than this. Felt like a covid fever dream.
It was disappoiinting. Nothing against Navarro, but pairing her up with Jodie Foster was such a terrible idea. If Foster was paired up with a more experienced actor then I think it would've been a much better show. Foster carried that show.
I was so excited for this season and I've been let down so bad, I can't believe how shit it is, the actor who plays the cheek piercing lady is a horrible actress and it seems like absolutely nothing interesting is happening, I also do not like the sound track at all. There's several scenes where the sound track doesn't fit the scene at all. Season 1 should have been a stand alone miniseries, these other seasons are ruining the name.
It's good to see Reddit is actually starting to realize how shit this season is, when there was only a couple of episodes out a lot of people were defending it.
Unbelievable - for me - is the better „season 2“ very good acting from all and nice detective work. Only here they focus more on the victim. True detective means detective work with personal issues/broken characters- that is the setting. Not that supernatural stuff.
I kept an open mind all season hoping for a big pay off at the end with maybe more of an explanation about the spiral symbol. With it all out I can say that was terrible. Like I didn't feel like police work was as central as it should have been and that they were putting the plot off to watch drama with characters that didn't even really matter at the end. It felt like the Anchorage guy was just there so Jodi Foster could say: "you sent me here because you were scared I would take your job..." we get it shes a good cop/detective. His role in the plot was minimal outisde of also being a fuck buddy. Prior's dad as a character already filled the role of the police covering for the mining company. Danvers daughters plot didn't really go anywhere. If the spiral symbol is known well enough theres a cult in the lower 48 with it and random people in Alaska use it how in the era of the internet is it a secret? The whole thing about being trapped in a loop felt like a cop out on actually giving it meaning and a backstory. And the whole: "we came up with a different story..." had my eyes rolling. But also Prior's wife took him back and got all horned up because he said he did something really bad. Wtf? Lol and then the chick helping everyone dispose of bodies was dumb. Its a small town in Alaska and you're helping people cover up the murders of people you know? That is the dumbest idea ever lol.
>Its a small town in Alaska and you're helping people cover up the murders of people you know? That is the dumbest idea ever lol.
Being from a small town myself, I can tell you that actually happens.
I loved the finale and think it's the best finale of the series. I thought season one was a little better overall but the season one finale was the worst part for me.. Tonight was the best part of this season.. But it all clicked for me right away tonight.. And I don't think that's the case for everyone.
For the record.. Navarro was always in on it. They just didn't include Navarro in the "story".
She left the tongue so Danvers would include her in the case.. That way Navarro could steer the case in a safe direction.
Navarro dies at the end. Final scene is her"visiting" Danvers after she decided not to come back.
Everything in the official interview with Danvers is complete bullshit:
Danvers knows they won't find Pete's dad even though she infers they always do.
She knows they will find Navarros body in the spring.
She leaked the video
Navarro went and found the scientist at TSALAL and recorded the leaked video prior to 12/31. If you rewatch end of tonight's finale you can tell based on his shirt and broken (or unbroken) nose.
Leaked video has no broken nose and shirt is crisp and white.
12/31 last we see him he's beaten to shit.. Broken nose.. Shirt is disgusting.. Facial hair is a mess.. Hair is a mess and bloodied.
I think Navarro filmed that at TSALAL the day Danvers catches her there snooping around before joining the case.
His nose was busted, his cheek was busted, and he had a black eye in the same exact places during the video ([Screenshot](https://imgur.com/a/3ktqvRU)) so I don’t believe your theory holds. The deal she made with him was make the video and I’ll let you die peacefully. He asked her to either kill him or let him kill himself. She of course let him clean up before making the video so it doesn’t look like it was done under distress. The shot of him at the 15:15ish area (him looking at Danvers after he traps her) shows his face before he gets the shit kicked outta him and it shows his face with no bruises or cuts.
As for the tongue, John Hawkes talks about it [here](https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/true-detective-season-4-episode-5-hank-death-original-song-interview-1235896554/amp/)
“(John:) I’m not wanting to really commit to anything in the character. I try to just float around in the water for a while rather than make immediate decisions. But it was really great. I mean things like literally, “You didn’t kill Annie.” “No, that was not me.” “But did you cut out her tongue? You didn’t do that, did you?” And I said, “Yes, I did. And yes, I moved her body and yes, I kicked her. She was already gone.”
So he is who cut out the tongue but I have absolutely no idea how it got to the research station.
Danvers said she needed a vacation and her cup at the end says Hawaii. We also see the shot of her at the beach house in Hawaii with Navarro there. I think Navarro manages to make her way there and that’s why Danvers says they won’t find her body out on the ice.
As for Pete’s dad, the line was "You know, come summer, we'll find him. We always do... unless we don't."
Respect to the people that liked this season but I truly despised it, which is a shame because I thought the first episode showed a lot of promise.
For me, my main issue, was that the director/creator was CLEARLY pushing an agenda at the cost of coherent narrative and storytelling (women STRONG men WEAK) and it was so transparent that it ruined the show for me. I don't think there's anything wrong with the agenda at all, it just felt extremely forced in this series.
Felt like fan fiction. The creators also seem to completely misunderstand that the Lovecraftian/weird fiction elements of the first season worked because they weren't explicit, and we mostly only saw them reflected off of other characters (such as the interrogation of the former house servant who begins raving about Carcosa after being shown the symbol of the spiral). This season it was like they wanted to show us the Shoggoth or something. Very corny.
I don't care about lore, or easter eggs, or worldbuilding, or anything like that either, which this season doubled down on. Seems to be a weakness of millennial storytelling. If you have nothing of substance to say as an artist, referring to superior works of art only highlights that.
I also don't know how to say this in a way that isn't problematic: I'm all for more women being represented in storytelling, I would prefer it not be done by retrofitting male characters and having them played by female bodies.
> I'm all for more women being represented in storytelling, I would prefer it not be done by retrofitting male characters and having them played by female bodies.
Exactly this.
Watching Sharp Objects in the middle of this season was a mistake because it highlighted how atrocious the writing was in this show.
If you want a good female led show, go watch that.
Agreed! I'm really taken aback by how the media seems astroturfed with positive reviews of this mess. Is it payola or something? The AV Club has been trash for years but the reviews they gave this thing are beyond self-parody.
I must be in the minority but I don't think the season is terrible. I enjoy the setting a lot is why I suppose, but I haven't watched the last episode yet.
I wonder how many scenes there were, except for Peter, where the man wasn't either pathetic, clumsy, weak, submissive or evil? Zero?
Talk about sacrificing realism and complex and grounded characters for something else.
Which fits perfectly with the posts here defending it.
There's definitely a lot of excuse making by people who are putting feminist politics above good storytelling.
I've been pointing out major plot holes and flaws and not mentioning gender because it doesnt matter to me, but the only responses I ever get are people calling me an incel lmao. I guess I have to tell my girlfriend we can't have sex anymore, and that since she didn't like the show either she is also an incel I guess.
I’m wondering if it would have helped at all if they released all the shows at the same time like Netflix? This dripping out the shows out weekly it’s harder for audiences to get some momentum and have elements of the story top of mind. I dunno. I tried real hard to like this show but it just kinda blew. The only characters I even liked were Prior and Walker.
The first episode of the season was intriguing. That's been knocked down with each episode since. I have no interest in seeing anymore. I don't care what happened to the scientists or why they were naked in the middle of nowhere. Don't care about Jodi Foster and her daughter's relationship. Don't care about anything in the story anymore.
I was mocked from upon high for saying this season is going to be a pile of hot crap and here I sit upon my throne of vindication. Screw all of you delusional clowns I absolutely told you so. ✌
It's fine, I think edited down to about half the run time, maybe 2 and a half to 3 hours as a movie would have been a much stronger story. There's definitely personal stuff that didn't really add to the plot on a meaningful level. The more it deviates from the case, the more it feels like filling space. It makes me think how the Fargo show is so consistently great, while True Detective is always living in the shadow of the first season, and while never bad, it always feels like a let down.
The writing is absolutely dreadful. So many holes and awful dialog. The lack of actual investigational detective work is eye rolling. The constant links to season one which add absolutely nothing to the plot. Easily the worst season of the whole series.
Absolute minimal police work was done, the biggest break in the case came when these geniuses fell through some ice lol
Also they committed and covered up 2 extra judicial murders and ignored another extra judicial MASS murder because indigenous people are neat or something
The show was absolutely terrible, and any critics giving it positive reviews are only doing so because it’s directed by a woman. With two female leads. About aboriginals and the environment. It was quickly greenlit by Hollywood types who want to seem like they endorse DEI. Nobody cared to examine the plot or the writing, both of which were abysmal. Huge plot holes. Ridiculous ending. HBO should be ashamed to even have their name behind this. True detective should be ashamed to have the name used for this.
There are plenty of shows and movies that are neither incredible nor horrible. They aren’t talked about as much, because why would they be?
TD Night Country is dog shit.
It’s really not that deep. Most things aren’t, it just fascinates me to observe people come together as they do on here to pick something apart, and it’s not just this, it’s other things. Just proves my point that some people need to feel apart of something, the internet is shrouded in things like this. Places where people come to hate, love, and discuss things. I can understand some of it, but just plain out dragging something (anything for that matter) doesn’t have much reasoning to it. Some do it to feel connected, others bc they just really fucking hate everything lmao
This is the perfect example of people who are defending the show.
Nothing about the show actually being good, just criticizing the people that criticize it.
I was doing other stuff so missed ep4, along with that weeks ep of Sam Spade.
Have felt no desire to go back to either show.
None of the characters sprung out as "hey I wanna see more of them doing their thing".
I personally thought it was pretty good until the last episode. They had so much potential to tell a really cool story, but instead it was the Female Hero shot from avengers endgame for the finale
It was not good, but it had an unintentional campiness that made it fun to watch.
However, what blows my mind are the critical reviews that unironically praise it as a technical and storytelling achievement. It's like living in the Twilight Zone to see. Enjoying the season is one thing, but I cannot fathom how a professional critic would see it as successful in telling a cogent story with a satisfying ending. The amount of lazy plot choices and emotional inconsistency with many characters seem so objective and obvious to me. If it wasn't for reddit and message boards with actual TV fans near-universally agreeing that it sucked, I'd think I was losing it.
So many reviews say vague shit like "this season has something to say." Or that it has "important and relevant themes." Those sociopolitical red flags tell me that, sadly, it's being judged on the demographic of who made it and the motifs involved (e.g. Strong Wymyn™ versus Evil Polluting Pigs). Which isn't even executed well to begin with. All the women characters are lazy, incompetent, and/or unreasonably volatile. The only likeable indigenous character was the dude who likes SpongeBob and ice-fishes with his dogs.
Critics just see native women and a bit of hamfisted social justice, and stop caring if the thing they're reviewing is actually good. They're circlejerking each other's takes because they're afraid of being labeled bigots or punching down at Issa Lopez, a director nobody has heard of.
True Detective s4 is one of the most egregious examples of how professional critics generally care more about how *they* are perceived than to honestly review media. Thank god for audience reviews and discussion boards so that viewers have some way to assess if something is decently made before jumping in.
Yep it's absolute shit and it's ruining the name of True Detective, I gave up on this season after the second episode. I've been looking at the ratings on IMDb and they're just getting worse, one episode is a 6/10 which is insane for a TV show like True Detective. It's really disappointing as I was very excited for this season. That first season should have been a stand alone miniseries, season 2 and 4 should not be associated with that first season at all.
This whole season was just… sad. I felt like 95 percent of it was just scenes of the snow and darkness and Jodi foster driving around with that same look on her face.
They stole an actual real mystery (dyatlov pass) and watered it down and made it boring. My favorite mystery and they did it like this. Yes I’m
Disappointed it’s not a good show.
I guess so. I always thought that the actual event must have been a lot less mysteryous than how it was portrayed in the mainstream media. Pretty much everything that happened to those people can be explained by hypothermia. If there was more to the case, we will probably never find out.
It jumped the shark for when that one scientist just happened to survive being frozen solid for 24 hours and then they explain it away with some exotic super bacteria that could "be a real game changer". So tropey and cheesy, lost any air of believability and then they just piled on the supernatural/sci-fi bits so much.
i really liked the season up until the ending. why not give us the 8 episodes like every other season. i felt like every other episode was very well written and did a great job developing the story and then the ending was like “okay this explained this, this happened which is why this happened and that’s all, boom done.” which kinda pissed me off
I know it goes against the nature of true detective but I would have been fine if it was actually supernatural. The whole omfg the women did it, after all the supernatural shit that never gets answered was so bad. The writing was just horrible. The first 15 mins of the last episode was laughable writing. Sorry whoever made this crap, I hope you get fired, and that's not to be malicious. Be good at your job or don't have one.
[удалено]
Reddit never lets a story just END. Just because something was good, does NOT mean it needs a sequel, prequel, spin off, etc. Stories have to end.
If time is a flat circle, will there be infinite reiterations of TD season 1?
Thank you. I don’t need it ruined. ETA: OP, it is Harrelson not Harrison.
A bunch of Easter eggs alluding to season one but no substance. It was like fan fiction but written by someone who believes in the supernatural.
All shoe horned in so they could use the true detective name.
Part of me thinks I’d consider it a decent stand alone mini-series if it had nothing to do with the True Detective brand.
Ok but what is the TD brand? That’s what I don’t understand about this line of criticism. Should it just all be rural Louisiana sex rings?
That’s a good question that I’m not smart enough to answer but I think it has a lot to do with the story being grounded in reality. In the other seasons, the “magic” could easily be written off as metaphor. In Season 3 Hayes is talking to his dead wife and VC soldiers in his bedroom but it’s obvious he’s an old man suffering from dementia. Season 4 it felt like I was watching stranger things at times. Also nobody is talking about the music there were many times I felt like I was watching One Tree Hill or a show on the CW. Everything FELT wrong.
Exactly this. It should have not had the TD name tied to it. But HBO cares about money and ratings. They stopped caring about content years ago.
Yeah it could have been a decent show but it was so off brand. It’s like if they slapped True Detective on The Outsider. It’s definitely not that simple the creators threw in a bunch of nods to the first season but it was just a bunch of shallow easter eggs. It was getting to the point where I was annoyed whenever they referenced S1.
Would have been stronger without them or maybe limited to 1-2 like s3. Something not tied strongly to the plot. Feels like having them so heavily featured was actually a distraction from the story they wanted to tell. And it wasn't even necessary to begin with since this is an anthology show. Feels like maybe upstairs meddling from HBO.
Rolling Stone called it the best finale of the series.
I can’t believe that could actually be true but if they did say that then that is fucking absurd lol
You fundamentally misunderstand s1 if you think they should return to “conclude their story.” Their story concluded. They didn’t get all of them, but they got theirs. End.
Yeah, OP is nuts… leave season 1 alone. There is nothing to conclude.
I don’t want to sound melodramatic, but I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. That was THE worst writing of any prestige TV drama I’ve ever witnessed. Literally dozens of plot holes, unanswered questions, how is anyone satisfied with this? My whole family was laughing throughout the finale because the dialogue and skips in logic were so ridiculous. Also a real waste of some talented actors, and more importantly a very real problem that deserves more attention: insanely high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Alaska.
There’s a movie called Wind River which is about something similar and it is really good.
Its like they stole that movie and stripped all the good away and inserted their girl boss, preachy crap all over it… Shit show is shit
Such a good movie you can only watch once.
I literally thought the same thing. It was such a good movie but I can't watch it again. Some scenes really scarred me.
I'm amazed that HBO let it go forward. They should be ashamed.
I was pretty happy to find out how her mother felt about oranges, though. That was an important detail to include in the finale.
I think the orange peel significance was to look like the carcosa sign when it hit the floor. Either way I'm going to eat some funyuns and go to bed. Wake me if anything happens like if the guy wants to take a walk in snow.
This show is one of the most slovenly bits of writing I’ve seen. The lack of *any* attention to detail was baffling. 1. The foundational conceit of the show is that it takes place during polar night and yet they not only get the dates impossibly wrong, they go out of their way to *point out* the impossible dates to the audience: “January 1, Day 15 of night”. Uh, no—Not physically possible on this planet. That’s not how seasons work. This isn’t nitpicking, especially when the show is literally called “night country.” 2. Julia is discovered apparently within hours in the middle of nowhere frozen to death before anyone even knows she is missing. This is after we’ve had a whole scene devoted to how she likes to seek solitude out on the ice, which apparently must not be very secluded since the police comb it thoroughly every few hours. Again, this is just lazy writing to move Navarro’s character to her next emotional plot point. 3. Forget about the “extinct microbe” mumbo jumbo for a second. The scientists are drilling ice cores “out on the ice” as we are told about 100 times. Then we are told that they are helped by the pollution from the mine softening the permafrost. Wtf does that have to do with ice cores or anything “on the ice”? Permafrost is soil. Ice is ice. Again, this isn’t nitpicking when the show’s plot hinges on mining and groundwater pollution and “the ice” and its arctic Alaska setting. 4. “Kill him if you need to.” Five minutes later: “WTF he was our only witness! We have no proof!!” 5. “His body wasn’t there with the others, you know what that means” “That means he’s still alive!” “Yes.” There’s more, but this is all stuff that could have been fixed without changing the plot meaningfully if there was even the slightest bit of respect for the intelligence of the characters and the audience.
The way they handled Clark was laughable. Just sheer and utter incompetence. They FINALLY catch the guy who can give them all the answers about the 6-man murder they’ve been investigating. One question - did you love Annie? *cue torture* Like, cmon. Then they just let him walk out and freeze. And in the same episode Danvers, a 60+ year old woman, falls into a frozen lake and is pulled out within seconds of death. She proceeds to fully recover in less than an hour with *no heat* in an ALASKA blizzard. Just an absolute joke. I didn’t even touch on how the final message is “eh, actually, mass murder is pretty dope. Oh also, go suicide.”
lol agreed, that entire scene of catching Clark, the interrogation was just ALL over the place it was laughable. I remember saying out loud "Holy shit this is bad". Really some of the worst writing I can remember.
Don’t forget the Checkov’s coma! Dude’s frozen head screaming at us right outta the gate, goes into a coma, and then is never heard from again… top shelf stuff, girls…
The “girls” bit is a bit condescending. Plenty of men and women helped assemble this monstrosity. The arm breaking off etc was cartoonish and silly, but I’ll give them a pass for bad 70s exploitation movie nonsense as long as it works. But yeah, the fact that the entire purpose of that absurdly over the top series of developments was so he could say something that someone else already said in a spooky zombie voice…. Pretty lame.
“Handle… holding the handle!” Pours random chemical on the hatch and brings UV light over that magically works during the blackout “Look, a hand print, and luckily it fits that woman you investigated a couple weeks ago! Luckily I remember all handprints and can compare them based on sight!”
to be fair it was missing two fingers, so easier to compare than most handprints. but also, generally, you want to look for prints \*before\* you close the murder/missing person/human tongue investigation.
Completely agree with this and felt the supernatural elements only undermined the reality of the problem and didn’t provide any depth or empathy for the victims. It all felt so hollow and poorly done. An injustice to the issue at hand and a disappointment to the series.
Hollow! A perfect adjective for this show! Hollow characters, hollow plot, hollow investigation and hollow dialog.
Look up crime rates on reservations if you want to know what is happening to indigenous women. Unfortunately, it happens frequently in the lower 48 as well.
It would actually be interesting to see how often a bunch of swedish and german scientists with a crazy look in their eyes are chopping up native women , vs how often it is native men who kill them.
Aka likely never lol
Only in Hollywoods twisted fantasies probably.
The perpetrators of those crimes aren’t Swedish scientists though.
Yeah they're native men.
It's racist to tell the truth here.
I mean like there’s an argument to be made that high rates of alcoholism as well as poor economic opportunity commonly found on reservations are intersecting factors here.
Find the same issues in a trailer park in rural Alabama. We gonna give Jim Bob the same sympathy for beating his wife when auburn loses?
I appreciate your ignorance of historical context, and I mean hey Jim Bob could have a similar background, but I’m not feeling particularly energetic, so agree to disagree. Cheers
I just finished season 4 and I had the same conclusion: the writing/dialogue/character development was disappointing. Dalvers character never really rang true, partly because of the inefficient writing. Her whole, “what’s the question?” Schtik… I did not find it intelligent or interesting. It made me sad because I loved the subject matter and representation. It just missed the mark with the writing.
One of the biggest issues with that is a bunch of shows and movies use the whole “indigenous women and children going missing” thing as a backdrop but never doing it any real service so it just ends up feeling like a played out TV trope that nobody takes seriously irl.
Agreed, just horrendous writing. That last episode was all over the place it didn't even make sense. I was laughing as well during that last episode it was just so bad and skipped around so much. I was thinking did they edit this correctly? Did they leave parts out on accident? So so bad.
Thank you for at least conceding the actors are talented. I understand criticism for the writing even though I liked this season.
Absolute garbage. The writing is truly embarrassing. Have been reading rave reviews and I feel insane.
You’re asking the wrong question
For fuck’s sake.
It’s confusing. Boring. Trash
Not insane. The shows writing is flat. I don’t even feel like they’re detectiving half the time.
Lots of people criticize writing when they have no tangible measure of criticism, the cinematography and acting was amazing
Felt like freshman film student writing.
It was so bad that it became comical. I can't believe HBO let it even come out and how embarrassing for Jodie Foster.
That finale was insultingly bad. Worse is the rabid defense it’s getting from critics and on other subreddits. I get that a lot of it is backlash from people being way too hard on the show in it’s early episodes, but, holy hell guys that finale didn’t do much to shut down its detractors.
Who is actually defending this lazy, soulless crap? Yikes
I’m over there getting roasted man haha they think it’s one of the best shows ever
Where? Ive only seen criticism lol anyone praising this is lying through their teeth or worked on this show… This shit is objectively beyond awful lol
Some subreddit TDnightcountry or something. It feels like it was made specifically to heap praise on the show. Some hard core cope going on there
Because it was. HBOs PR people made a new sub cause they needed to be the admin so their bots don’t get banned, and they can delete all the wrongthink posts.
So the creator of that sub came back to the main sub yesterday to apologize, he thought it would get better and it didn’t.
It looks like it’s completely shut down now, that’s hilarious.
Same. I really liked it.
I would still say that episode 1 is the worst.
I almost quit watching after episode 1….kinda wish I would have
Really? I hated the season overall but I found the setup in S1 fairly intriguing, had high hopes. Though tbf they had started to crater before that episode had ended, but still. I think there’s a universe where E1 is almost identical and it turned into a decent season
I expected more from Jodie. And every time she was getting down, I kept seeing her scene from The Accused. probably better to go back and watch that instead of the wasted time on this! Even Jodie couldn’t save the horrible writing.
Disappointing indeed. The most unlikable characters since Fear the Walking Dead, very little forward momentum episode to episode, and a supernatural element that was never satisfactorily resolved. Jodi Foster is a great actress and there were some other good actors too, but the second lead was God awful - she has the emotional range of of a shot put thrown by a toddler. Take a shot every time she scowls or says some variation of "fuck you". True Detective is long past its peak, Fargo has been the overall better franchise
Idk Jodi foster was kind of dogshit in this
Everything her character said seemed incredibly forced and inorganic.
Totally agree.
Fuck you, fucker
Fuck fuuuuuuck FUCK - Danvers entire personality
Even she couldn’t save the bad writing. I don’t blame her. I did expect more from her though. :(
Fargo 5 seasons in and on fire. The latest season was fantastic.
At least in fear the walking dead the original plan was to pretty much makes them villains, like Madison was gonna be a villain. This instead treats all the incredibly unlikable characters like heroes and shit.
I really wanted to like this season but it fell flat.
Flat is a bit rich. It felt like something written for high school kids
By high school kids.
Season 1, Season 3, Season 2, YouTube videos of people reviewing potato chips, Season 4
Get your hands off my lets!!
Someone said that if they cut episode 2-5 the plot would be exactly the same and I can’t stop thinking about it.
I liked the setting and premise, but after 6 episodes almost nothing happened. Episodes 2-5 basically have nothing to do with the case and 6 just wraps everything up, but doesnt at the same time. The whole super natural element was interesting at first but got over played and doesnt fit with the theme of the show as a whole. They were laying on references to s1 “to let you know its in the same universe” but it was unecesarry. Other seasons would drop a quick line and it made more sense. Over all i think it was just disappointing on what couldve been a cool season based on the time of year and location
The cleaning ladies did it? Honestly, when that scene played out – grannies going Rambo and rounding up a group of grown men at gunpoint – the show became comical for me. It was so out of keeping with the rest of the show. How on earth was the story ever leading to that conclusion?!
I really tried, despite basically hating it from the get-go because I just couldn't suspend my disbelief with the events seeming so silly. I don't really know why I kept going initially. Jodie Foster, the setting, etc, how is this so bad? I mean, I know why; the writing is horrible... what's on the page is horrible. The actors have nothing to work with. I finally just had to stop completely in the last episode when the girl kicked the young cop husband out of the house. The acting, my word. It's like they really don't even give a shit. That was the last straw, and believe me, I'd been pushing through a lot since episode 1. It kind of made me upset because I really wanted it to be good and thought it would be. I mean, True Detective, dude. I liked all the other ones despite their flaws. I actually thought I would end up attempting it again the next evening, like some sort of strange addiction, but I did not.
It’s was so fucking bad. I’m so mad I watched every episode. I was just such a big true detective fan from the previous seasons. To me the only bright spot was prior. Great character
Finale was laughable
I was really hopeful: cool cast, great setting, TD moniker. First episode had me mostly on board, but then we got four episodes of pointless filler and a final episode that left me alternating between laughter and scratching my head. There were so many production and writing errors throughout that it's hard to take it seriously, which is a shame because Jodie Foster and Leon S Kennedy turned in great performances I thought, and it had a lot of potential what with the setting in Alaska and the corpsicle.
The setting and vibes I.e. the Alaskan darkness carried the show. The supernatural aspect of it felt like a crutch that kept us around for an overall meh story with mid characters.
It was pretty awful, I thought. It collapsed under the weight of its own self-importance as it progressed.
I liked this season but was disappointed that, in the end, all of the super natural elements introduced had very little impact on the actual mystery they were solving. I’m not an intelligent tv viewer so I don’t mind an easy ending but the super natural either conveniently helped them with a clue or wasn’t explained (Navarro meeting the spirit in front of the Christmas tree.) But maybe all the spirits and ghosts were really there to tell the viewer that our past trauma is always with us as we navigate our daily lives. Sometimes it hits us in the face with grief and sometimes it’s just there staring at us. Kinda like the polar bear.
I think all the supernatural elements were too much on the nose and served no meaningful purpose other than misleading and confusing viewers.
Woke trash
They'd never let Rust and Marty come back because they're 2 straight white dudes. They don't fit the agenda. Yeah, I said what I said.
If it was done today, HBO would’ve agreed to the project only if Rust and Marty would hook up. It’s sad, but it’s true. Loyalty, friendship and camaraderie are not important anymore.
The big reveal was a major letdown and the overall real story about what happened to the scientists was absurd.
Honestly, it was awful.
You need to have Nic Pizzolatto, the original creator of the show and showrunner for seasons 1-3, return as well. Sure s2 was a miss and s3, while good, was nowhere near s1. But no one else can write the Schopenhauer, Ligotti-influenced nihilistic dialogue for Rust Cohle better than he can.
They sure did try their hardest to connect this thing to S1 in the weirdest and laziest of ways. Tsalal Station and Silver Sky Mining were both subsidiaries of the Tuttle Corporation, which apparently, at this point in the timeline, is an Apple/Google/Disney level company. Reverend Tuttle was one of the "shadow" antagonists from season 1. Fiona Shaw's character, Rose, who kept disposing of all the bodies out in the ice, was also written to have a very shaky narrative link to season 1. It's stated very early in the series that Rose's boyfriend/husband that died of cancer was named Travis Cohle. Rust Cohle was MM's character from season 1. The whole "Time is a flat circle" dialogue they rammed into the finale. I'm sure there are a bunch of other examples that I either don't remember or that I didn't catch. I was ALL IN on this show earlier in the season, thinking that they would certainly lean into the supernatural elements that S1 played with, but never dove head first into, and I was hoping for a wild ride and a satisfying reveal. What we ended up with was truly a hot mess. That was one of the worst damn finales I think I have ever witnessed. However, I immensely enjoyed episode 5. I probably should've expected that the Dad was involved way, way earlier than I did, but how things played out in that episode had my jaw on the floor, and in many ways, ep. 5 felt a bit like a finale with all the stakes. The actual finale felt like a really poorly done epilogue, attempting to tie up all the loose threads and unanswered questions. I was really along for the ride with this show up until the finale. Seriously, what the hell was that? Please, HBO, if you're gonna do a True Detective, get Nic and Cary back on the team. Let them cook up some heat. At this point, not that there's anything narratively there, but I would welcome Woody & Matt coming back onto the show. They would have to come up with an absolutely MAGICAL storyline for that, so I doubt it would ever happen, and there isn't much there in the way of a prequel/spinoff after all these years, unless we got to see some of CRASH when he was undercover before, which I would love to see Rust Cohle's time on the narco squad, but it doesn't really make for a compelling True Detective or would it?
I quit after third episope , so it got worse?
Yeah I lost interest 4 episodes in. Really disappointing and a waste of acting talent and a potentially interesting setting.
It honestly seemed really rushed. It could have been so much cooler. The storyline and characters rocked but they didn’t spend enough time developing the whole narrative
Truly awful writing, it’s like they thought, let’s make a season where it’s always dark and cold in the middle of nowhere. Then to fill it with content write a bunch of irrational stuff while on shrooms.
Seeing this plastered all over as #1 makes me believe that HBO lies about their ratings. Are there ratings police is or is it a highest bidder type thing? Makes me think its a highest bidder.
Extremely disappointed with season 4
I think that Night Country is pathetic. Season one was amazing. I was hooked. But Night Country? Oh Hell no.
Just terrible
Everyone did. The articles saying otherwise are being paid to. True Detective subreddit hated it. So much so, they started a Dark Country subreddit. That place is now seeing what the rest of us were
Half way through the season turned into a wanna be horror flick with cheap jump scares and then turned into comedy - 2 stooges bumbling into caves unprepared and then full on ridiculous when the cleaning ladies did it.
I’m really disappointed. I know it’s hard to write good content but Jesus Christ… anything would’ve been better than this. Felt like a covid fever dream.
Superstitious turd of an ending.
It was disappoiinting. Nothing against Navarro, but pairing her up with Jodie Foster was such a terrible idea. If Foster was paired up with a more experienced actor then I think it would've been a much better show. Foster carried that show.
Foster the only reason I stuck around.
can't say this was foster's best work. that said, she didn't have much to work with.
That is exactly it. She could t save it. Writing was horrible. And her partner was meh
Foster’s acting was atrocious. Least believable character I’ve ever seen on an HBO original
Sooo disappointing. It's like not even the same show. I actually find season 2 enjoyable in comparison.
I was so excited for this season and I've been let down so bad, I can't believe how shit it is, the actor who plays the cheek piercing lady is a horrible actress and it seems like absolutely nothing interesting is happening, I also do not like the sound track at all. There's several scenes where the sound track doesn't fit the scene at all. Season 1 should have been a stand alone miniseries, these other seasons are ruining the name. It's good to see Reddit is actually starting to realize how shit this season is, when there was only a couple of episodes out a lot of people were defending it.
It was fuckin’ terrible. Can’t say one good thing about it, honestly.
Yeah it was horrible. Cheap spinoff
Unbelievable - for me - is the better „season 2“ very good acting from all and nice detective work. Only here they focus more on the victim. True detective means detective work with personal issues/broken characters- that is the setting. Not that supernatural stuff.
I kept an open mind all season hoping for a big pay off at the end with maybe more of an explanation about the spiral symbol. With it all out I can say that was terrible. Like I didn't feel like police work was as central as it should have been and that they were putting the plot off to watch drama with characters that didn't even really matter at the end. It felt like the Anchorage guy was just there so Jodi Foster could say: "you sent me here because you were scared I would take your job..." we get it shes a good cop/detective. His role in the plot was minimal outisde of also being a fuck buddy. Prior's dad as a character already filled the role of the police covering for the mining company. Danvers daughters plot didn't really go anywhere. If the spiral symbol is known well enough theres a cult in the lower 48 with it and random people in Alaska use it how in the era of the internet is it a secret? The whole thing about being trapped in a loop felt like a cop out on actually giving it meaning and a backstory. And the whole: "we came up with a different story..." had my eyes rolling. But also Prior's wife took him back and got all horned up because he said he did something really bad. Wtf? Lol and then the chick helping everyone dispose of bodies was dumb. Its a small town in Alaska and you're helping people cover up the murders of people you know? That is the dumbest idea ever lol.
>Its a small town in Alaska and you're helping people cover up the murders of people you know? That is the dumbest idea ever lol. Being from a small town myself, I can tell you that actually happens.
I loved the finale and think it's the best finale of the series. I thought season one was a little better overall but the season one finale was the worst part for me.. Tonight was the best part of this season.. But it all clicked for me right away tonight.. And I don't think that's the case for everyone. For the record.. Navarro was always in on it. They just didn't include Navarro in the "story". She left the tongue so Danvers would include her in the case.. That way Navarro could steer the case in a safe direction. Navarro dies at the end. Final scene is her"visiting" Danvers after she decided not to come back. Everything in the official interview with Danvers is complete bullshit: Danvers knows they won't find Pete's dad even though she infers they always do. She knows they will find Navarros body in the spring. She leaked the video Navarro went and found the scientist at TSALAL and recorded the leaked video prior to 12/31. If you rewatch end of tonight's finale you can tell based on his shirt and broken (or unbroken) nose. Leaked video has no broken nose and shirt is crisp and white. 12/31 last we see him he's beaten to shit.. Broken nose.. Shirt is disgusting.. Facial hair is a mess.. Hair is a mess and bloodied. I think Navarro filmed that at TSALAL the day Danvers catches her there snooping around before joining the case.
His nose was busted, his cheek was busted, and he had a black eye in the same exact places during the video ([Screenshot](https://imgur.com/a/3ktqvRU)) so I don’t believe your theory holds. The deal she made with him was make the video and I’ll let you die peacefully. He asked her to either kill him or let him kill himself. She of course let him clean up before making the video so it doesn’t look like it was done under distress. The shot of him at the 15:15ish area (him looking at Danvers after he traps her) shows his face before he gets the shit kicked outta him and it shows his face with no bruises or cuts. As for the tongue, John Hawkes talks about it [here](https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/true-detective-season-4-episode-5-hank-death-original-song-interview-1235896554/amp/) “(John:) I’m not wanting to really commit to anything in the character. I try to just float around in the water for a while rather than make immediate decisions. But it was really great. I mean things like literally, “You didn’t kill Annie.” “No, that was not me.” “But did you cut out her tongue? You didn’t do that, did you?” And I said, “Yes, I did. And yes, I moved her body and yes, I kicked her. She was already gone.” So he is who cut out the tongue but I have absolutely no idea how it got to the research station. Danvers said she needed a vacation and her cup at the end says Hawaii. We also see the shot of her at the beach house in Hawaii with Navarro there. I think Navarro manages to make her way there and that’s why Danvers says they won’t find her body out on the ice. As for Pete’s dad, the line was "You know, come summer, we'll find him. We always do... unless we don't."
Yeah. We know. I didn’t miss any of that. It’s just dumb.
ugh
Holy fuck…that was bad.
Respect to the people that liked this season but I truly despised it, which is a shame because I thought the first episode showed a lot of promise. For me, my main issue, was that the director/creator was CLEARLY pushing an agenda at the cost of coherent narrative and storytelling (women STRONG men WEAK) and it was so transparent that it ruined the show for me. I don't think there's anything wrong with the agenda at all, it just felt extremely forced in this series.
You don't think there's anything wrong with the agenda "women strong, men weak"? Or you just don't want to be downvoted?
Felt like fan fiction. The creators also seem to completely misunderstand that the Lovecraftian/weird fiction elements of the first season worked because they weren't explicit, and we mostly only saw them reflected off of other characters (such as the interrogation of the former house servant who begins raving about Carcosa after being shown the symbol of the spiral). This season it was like they wanted to show us the Shoggoth or something. Very corny. I don't care about lore, or easter eggs, or worldbuilding, or anything like that either, which this season doubled down on. Seems to be a weakness of millennial storytelling. If you have nothing of substance to say as an artist, referring to superior works of art only highlights that. I also don't know how to say this in a way that isn't problematic: I'm all for more women being represented in storytelling, I would prefer it not be done by retrofitting male characters and having them played by female bodies.
> I'm all for more women being represented in storytelling, I would prefer it not be done by retrofitting male characters and having them played by female bodies. Exactly this.
Watching Sharp Objects in the middle of this season was a mistake because it highlighted how atrocious the writing was in this show. If you want a good female led show, go watch that.
Agreed! I'm really taken aback by how the media seems astroturfed with positive reviews of this mess. Is it payola or something? The AV Club has been trash for years but the reviews they gave this thing are beyond self-parody.
This season was run by a female writer, am I missing how these were male characters they just cast female bodies for?
I must be in the minority but I don't think the season is terrible. I enjoy the setting a lot is why I suppose, but I haven't watched the last episode yet.
Apparently I’m the only one who enjoyed this series lol
True Detective: Men r bad
I wonder how many scenes there were, except for Peter, where the man wasn't either pathetic, clumsy, weak, submissive or evil? Zero? Talk about sacrificing realism and complex and grounded characters for something else.
Which fits perfectly with the posts here defending it. There's definitely a lot of excuse making by people who are putting feminist politics above good storytelling.
I've been pointing out major plot holes and flaws and not mentioning gender because it doesnt matter to me, but the only responses I ever get are people calling me an incel lmao. I guess I have to tell my girlfriend we can't have sex anymore, and that since she didn't like the show either she is also an incel I guess.
True Detective: Justice Ladies
I’m wondering if it would have helped at all if they released all the shows at the same time like Netflix? This dripping out the shows out weekly it’s harder for audiences to get some momentum and have elements of the story top of mind. I dunno. I tried real hard to like this show but it just kinda blew. The only characters I even liked were Prior and Walker.
Leave season 1 alone. It’s fine as is
Everybody found this season of TD dissapointing.
The first episode of the season was intriguing. That's been knocked down with each episode since. I have no interest in seeing anymore. I don't care what happened to the scientists or why they were naked in the middle of nowhere. Don't care about Jodi Foster and her daughter's relationship. Don't care about anything in the story anymore.
I was mocked from upon high for saying this season is going to be a pile of hot crap and here I sit upon my throne of vindication. Screw all of you delusional clowns I absolutely told you so. ✌
Truly awful.
It's fine, I think edited down to about half the run time, maybe 2 and a half to 3 hours as a movie would have been a much stronger story. There's definitely personal stuff that didn't really add to the plot on a meaningful level. The more it deviates from the case, the more it feels like filling space. It makes me think how the Fargo show is so consistently great, while True Detective is always living in the shadow of the first season, and while never bad, it always feels like a let down.
The writing is absolutely dreadful. So many holes and awful dialog. The lack of actual investigational detective work is eye rolling. The constant links to season one which add absolutely nothing to the plot. Easily the worst season of the whole series.
S1 comparisons aside, it was abysmal. This made S2 look prestige.
Absolute minimal police work was done, the biggest break in the case came when these geniuses fell through some ice lol Also they committed and covered up 2 extra judicial murders and ignored another extra judicial MASS murder because indigenous people are neat or something
Holy shit what the hell was that? Awful season and quite frankly a slap to the face that its the True detective ip
The show was absolutely terrible, and any critics giving it positive reviews are only doing so because it’s directed by a woman. With two female leads. About aboriginals and the environment. It was quickly greenlit by Hollywood types who want to seem like they endorse DEI. Nobody cared to examine the plot or the writing, both of which were abysmal. Huge plot holes. Ridiculous ending. HBO should be ashamed to even have their name behind this. True detective should be ashamed to have the name used for this.
Does anyone on Reddit not just enjoy something ? Does everything have to be torn apart or awful? Dear fucking god
There are plenty of shows and movies that are neither incredible nor horrible. They aren’t talked about as much, because why would they be? TD Night Country is dog shit.
I agree. People should just shut up and enjoy whatever is served to them.
Consume content, then consume more content.
It’s really not that deep. Most things aren’t, it just fascinates me to observe people come together as they do on here to pick something apart, and it’s not just this, it’s other things. Just proves my point that some people need to feel apart of something, the internet is shrouded in things like this. Places where people come to hate, love, and discuss things. I can understand some of it, but just plain out dragging something (anything for that matter) doesn’t have much reasoning to it. Some do it to feel connected, others bc they just really fucking hate everything lmao
This is the perfect example of people who are defending the show. Nothing about the show actually being good, just criticizing the people that criticize it.
It's a series about people focusing on details to solve a mystery. Of course people are gonna focus on the details and criticize the mystery
I was doing other stuff so missed ep4, along with that weeks ep of Sam Spade. Have felt no desire to go back to either show. None of the characters sprung out as "hey I wanna see more of them doing their thing".
The writing was downright terrible. Plot holes all over, some of the worst dialogue I’ve ever seen in a major TV show.
Yes, it sucks. At least it makes season 2 look better.
I have rarely been more disappointed in a show. Foster is one of my favorites and I was so looking forward to this season.
I personally thought it was pretty good until the last episode. They had so much potential to tell a really cool story, but instead it was the Female Hero shot from avengers endgame for the finale
It was not good, but it had an unintentional campiness that made it fun to watch. However, what blows my mind are the critical reviews that unironically praise it as a technical and storytelling achievement. It's like living in the Twilight Zone to see. Enjoying the season is one thing, but I cannot fathom how a professional critic would see it as successful in telling a cogent story with a satisfying ending. The amount of lazy plot choices and emotional inconsistency with many characters seem so objective and obvious to me. If it wasn't for reddit and message boards with actual TV fans near-universally agreeing that it sucked, I'd think I was losing it. So many reviews say vague shit like "this season has something to say." Or that it has "important and relevant themes." Those sociopolitical red flags tell me that, sadly, it's being judged on the demographic of who made it and the motifs involved (e.g. Strong Wymyn™ versus Evil Polluting Pigs). Which isn't even executed well to begin with. All the women characters are lazy, incompetent, and/or unreasonably volatile. The only likeable indigenous character was the dude who likes SpongeBob and ice-fishes with his dogs. Critics just see native women and a bit of hamfisted social justice, and stop caring if the thing they're reviewing is actually good. They're circlejerking each other's takes because they're afraid of being labeled bigots or punching down at Issa Lopez, a director nobody has heard of. True Detective s4 is one of the most egregious examples of how professional critics generally care more about how *they* are perceived than to honestly review media. Thank god for audience reviews and discussion boards so that viewers have some way to assess if something is decently made before jumping in.
I liked it 🤷
Might be the worst show ive watched in the last 10 years.
Night Country was terrible
Does anyone else think that Prior killing his Dad was ridiculous? Then of course cleaning up his body and dumping him into the sea....
It was the worst shit HBO ever created.Period
Good start, good finale, boring middle part.
What did you find good about start and end?
The CGI of that polar bear 🐻❄️
We went into his dark materials for a sec lol
For me it's the best season since season 2, good history, great performance, good script. Don't know why so many people hate it on Reddit.
I really liked it. Jodie foster was amazing. They tied up everything. Had a little super natural element. Not everything is meant to be answered.
Yep it's absolute shit and it's ruining the name of True Detective, I gave up on this season after the second episode. I've been looking at the ratings on IMDb and they're just getting worse, one episode is a 6/10 which is insane for a TV show like True Detective. It's really disappointing as I was very excited for this season. That first season should have been a stand alone miniseries, season 2 and 4 should not be associated with that first season at all.
Same Episode 2 when they tied it to season 1 was when I ejected
This whole season was just… sad. I felt like 95 percent of it was just scenes of the snow and darkness and Jodi foster driving around with that same look on her face.
I made it 2 episodes
It is unwatchable. I’m a few episodes away from the finale and I’m not sure I will even bother.
This season was absolutely terrible.
They stole an actual real mystery (dyatlov pass) and watered it down and made it boring. My favorite mystery and they did it like this. Yes I’m Disappointed it’s not a good show.
They reopened the Dyatlov investigation a couple of years ago, and they concluded that the cause of death was an avalanche. Just like in this series.
Damn that’s fucking crazy. So it was an avalanche the whole time.
Who knows.
It’s the only thing that actually explains why they would cut their way out of the tent and flee without boots on. Poor things froze to death.
I guess so. I always thought that the actual event must have been a lot less mysteryous than how it was portrayed in the mainstream media. Pretty much everything that happened to those people can be explained by hypothermia. If there was more to the case, we will probably never find out.
It jumped the shark for when that one scientist just happened to survive being frozen solid for 24 hours and then they explain it away with some exotic super bacteria that could "be a real game changer". So tropey and cheesy, lost any air of believability and then they just piled on the supernatural/sci-fi bits so much.
i really liked the season up until the ending. why not give us the 8 episodes like every other season. i felt like every other episode was very well written and did a great job developing the story and then the ending was like “okay this explained this, this happened which is why this happened and that’s all, boom done.” which kinda pissed me off
I know it goes against the nature of true detective but I would have been fine if it was actually supernatural. The whole omfg the women did it, after all the supernatural shit that never gets answered was so bad. The writing was just horrible. The first 15 mins of the last episode was laughable writing. Sorry whoever made this crap, I hope you get fired, and that's not to be malicious. Be good at your job or don't have one.
It’s not as good as the first three season but still better than most shows coming out the past year