True Detective: Night Country (Season 4)

[GabrielsHorn 2183]

I’ve worked on multiple mines in Alaska and have never once seen a company dumb enough to put their corporate headquarters in a remote mine site, have a mill available that close to the public, or have a room look like a fucking spaceship. 
 

Also, in the artic, any mine would have to be a corporate partnership between an indigenous community/corporation like NANA and a company. 
 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: no one writing this show has set foot in northern Alaska, and the show very much suffers for it. 

[HiggyBaby 2529]

I can’t take John Hawkes seriously in this show. I keep expecting him to serve Danvers crabs.

[Whitewater Horn 968]

8 hours ago, Duane Moore said:

We need a list of all the things they have dangled out to us in the first five episodes that will need to be resolved in the finale. Please add to or correct me if I missed some resolution/explanation. 

- Herd of caribou committing mass suicide

- Meaning of “she’s awake”

- Annie K’s tongue on the floor at Tsalal (still hoping that Clark was so in love with her that he tried to clone her and her clone “woke up” and became a Frankenstein’s monster of some kind)

- How the Tsalal scientists were killed. Seems clear with the coverup story put out by Connolly and McKitterick that we’re not supposed to believe that they just froze to death, and the neat folding of the clothes exactly like Julia Navarro did can’t be just a coincidence.

- Why the Tsalal scientists were killed. I’m assuming it’s because they were going to stop covering up the true pollution amounts for the mine. Or maybe Clark wanted them to do that because of Annie K. and when the rest of the scientists wouldn’t, he somehow killed them?

- Ghosts? I’m prepared to accept that Navarro and her sister have hallucinations, and Navarro probably has PTSD from her time in combat (sudden flashes to her in the desert) but the idea that they both have the exact same hallucinations, including the rolling orange, seems entirely divorced from actual mental health science on schizophrenia. And what about Dead Travis leading Rose to the Tsalal scientist bodies?

- Connections to Season 1. Looking like all of it is just internet fan service Easter eggs. Tuttle United was just a head fake for the real power behind it, the evil mine. Travis Kohle being Rust’s dad? I’ll be surprised if they ever go back to it. The spiral symbols? Are they really going to just dismiss them as a native warning for thin ice? After they’ve been appearing all over the place, nowhere near ice?

- Darwin’s drawing of the woman with her hands cut off that was apparently a native legend told to him by his grandmother? Probably just another red herring  but what’s the point then?

- The hostile native guy from the hunting camp who disappeared when they came back the second time. What happened to him? Or did I miss an explanation?

Any others?

 

 

Don’t forget explaining the significance of the mystical one-eyed polar bear. 
 

This is so bad. I’ll watch to the end out of fascinated curiosity to see just how shitty, lazy, or contrived the finale will be. 

[austingirl 2191]

I don't hate it as much as the rest of y'all, but I can't figure out if the relationship between Danvers and Navarro is supposed to be platonic or that of ex-lovers. Or maybe maternal, in that Danvers is a mother figure to Navarro? They are too close to be just coworkers who used to be partners, IMO. Or maybe I'm completely off and it's just because they are both queer in real life.

[WBT 20561]

So Danvers basically she murdered that guy and the kid doesn't seem to bat an eye?

[Patrick Bateman 3910]

2 hours ago, austingirl said:

I don't hate it as much as the rest of y'all, but I can't figure out if the relationship between Danvers and Navarro is supposed to be platonic or that of ex-lovers. Or maybe maternal, in that Danvers is a mother figure to Navarro? They are too close to be just coworkers who used to be partners, IMO. Or maybe I'm completely off and it's just because they are both queer in real life.

Two people who grudgingly have respect for each other, but who share a secret so dark that it's fractured their relationship and it's weight sucks the air out of the room whenever they're together.  They're bonded in life forever but additionally always reminded what they hate about each other.

18 minutes ago, WBT said:

So Danvers basically she murdered that guy and the kid doesn't seem to bat an eye?

He knows she definitely played a role in covering it up.  He doesn't know who killed him (most likely Danvers or Navarro) but he does know that he didn't commit suicide and Danvers and Navarro had it out for the guy and were on the scene.  He also knows that she lied to him about it.  And he didn't bat an eye because the guy was a piece of shit -- rapist, woman beater, armed robbery, several assaults.  

[4th&Five 41510]

Weeded out a couple characters at least. 

[Duane Moore 5237]

10 hours ago, Whitewater Horn said:

Don’t forget explaining the significance of the mystical one-eyed polar bear. 

Yes! I meant to add that one but forgot by the time I made it to the end of the list. 

Also don’t have the full explanation about what happened to Danvers’ husband and child. Seems like they died in an accident of some kind and it’s probably just character back story for her, but I don’t think they’ve fully explained what happened. 

8 hours ago, austingirl said:

Or maybe I'm completely off and it's just because they are both queer in real life.

Kali Reis is married to Brian Cohen. 
 

[Jiggy-Z 3432]

Went and watched season 2 since I skipped over it on account of bad reviews.  I actually liked it. Good character insight and back story, cinematography actually made sense and advanced the industrial theme, complicated enough plot to warrant the number of episodes etc.

Some ridiculous and far fetched twists aside it was not a bad watch.  It was no season 1, but on par or better than 3, and certainly better than whatever is going on in season 4.

[austingirl 2191]

4 hours ago, Duane Moore said:

Yes! I meant to add that one but forgot by the time I made it to the end of the list. 

Also don’t have the full explanation about what happened to Danvers’ husband and child. Seems like they died in an accident of some kind and it’s probably just character back story for her, but I don’t think they’ve fully explained what happened. 

Kali Reis is married to Brian Cohen. 
 

Yes, she's married to a guy, but she identifies as Two-Spirit and has had same-sex relationships.

[EvilCaseMcCoy 691]

3 hours ago, Jiggy-Z said:

Went and watched season 2 since I skipped over it on account of bad reviews.

My SIL and BIL said the same, I haven't watched since it first aired, but may be better binged than waiting each week. 

[jdhorn92 1545]

On 2/10/2024 at 10:47 AM, Duane Moore said:

- Herd of caribou committing mass suicide

 

 

 

I am taking this one to be analogous to the theory that the scientists left on their own and froze to death or is analogous to Navarro's sister walking out into the ocean/sea to commit suicide.  The Coast Guard found her body.  Just spitballing here.

[Texzilla58 4731]

The caribou watched this shitty show and chose to die

[Buzzrock 14902]

At this point it feels like they aren’t going to find any satisfying answers and it will just end. They might figure out how Annie died but I bet everything else remains a mystery and the credits roll.

[utxmike05 1828]

I was really hoping ep 5 would get back on track to setup for a great ending, but wtf.  We feel asleep 3 times on Friday night while watching.

They straight up ignored Navarro seeing ghosts shit and bleeding from the ears at the end of Ep 4. lol.  

The plot moved forward, but it's like the cast is just now figuring out things most of the audience already figured out awhile back.

I'm pretty pissed about what the random guy said about the meaning of the spiral. wtf. Unless that is some lie....but if true it kills connections to season 1 that most have been intrigued by and is BS.

Jodie showed some good detective skills first episodes when she points out clues like the tongue has marks from licking fishing nets, etc.  But all that shit has stopped.  Now she relies on Prior to find leads and info in the background. Also, poor Prior.

[billfromlaketravis 11447]

On 2/11/2024 at 8:16 AM, Jiggy-Z said:

Went and watched season 2 since I skipped over it on account of bad reviews.  I actually liked it. Good character insight and back story, cinematography actually made sense and advanced the industrial theme, complicated enough plot to warrant the number of episodes etc.

Some ridiculous and far fetched twists aside it was not a bad watch.  It was no season 1, but on par or better than 3, and certainly better than whatever is going on in season 4.

Really good performances from Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, and Kelly Reilly (before Taylor Sheridan got to her). 
 

The bar scene between Vaughn and Farrell is Season 1 level quality. 

Edited February 12 by billfromlaketravis

[billfromlaketravis 11447]

2 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

At this point it feels like they aren’t going to find any satisfying answers and it will just end. They might figure out how Annie died but I bet everything else remains a mystery and the credits roll.

Yep that’s why show is. It teases mysticism, the supernatural, and far reaching conspiracies, but at the end of the day it’s two hard boiled detective solving 1 or 2 murders with an unsatisfying ending. 

[Texzilla58 4731]

I was really hoping ep 5 would get back on track to setup for a great ending, but wtf.  We feel asleep 3 times on Friday night while watching.
They straight up ignored Navarro seeing ghosts shit and bleeding from the ears at the end of Ep 4. lol.  
The plot moved forward, but it's like the cast is just now figuring out things most of the audience already figured out awhile back.
I'm pretty pissed about what the random guy said about the meaning of the spiral. wtf. Unless that is some lie....but if true it kills connections to season 1 that most have been intrigued by and is BS.
Jodie showed some good detective skills first episodes when she points out clues like the tongue has marks from licking fishing nets, etc.  But all that shit has stopped.  Now she relies on Prior to find leads and info in the background. Also, poor Prior.

Where do the natives put those little carved rocks to warn off folks so they don’t get covered up by snow?

[utxmike05 1828]

50 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:

Where do the natives put those little carved rocks to warn off folks so they don’t get covered up by snow?

I bet they stack them high like I see stones stacked on hiking trails...and anyone who passes by adds their own spiral stone to make it taller.  You don't want to go too tall though or the ice will crack.

[deech 2272]

I don't hate this season like a lot of you.  Now that most of the reveal is known, I think they clearly could have done a much better run up through the first four episodes spacing some of it.  It just feels a bit like the first four episodes were a slog and it truly felt like they were getting no where on the actual investigation all for the entire house of cards to be dropped this last episode.  

[speed817 19255]

Only thing that will save this season is to see Kate Mckittrick naked

[ChiTownDoc 21142]

On 2/5/2024 at 7:49 PM, MissingInAction said:

It's so fucking stupid I can't quit watching it.

Yeah if it didn’t have the cache of the TD franchise it would never make it to production.  Horrendous writing and even worse acting - actually the writing is worse. 

Anyways, I’ll keep watching but at this point definitely rooting for the polar bear.  
 

[Hermanator 7032]

It's not terrible. And Navarro's acting is not nearly as bad as you whiny bastards say. The writing is just poor quality. 

They could have used time they wasted rehashing some of the same stuff on building better quality connections for the secondary characters to make the emotional impacts hit harder. Could have also used time for that they used on stuff that goes nowhere like Hank's catfishing stupidity. 

Leah is really poorly written. It feels like the audience is supposed to feel bad for her but she's written so horribly smug and entitled she makes the audience feel sorry for Danvers having to deal with her. 

Prior's wife is not given any time to develop as a character at all and she may be even more entitled and bitchy than Leah. Years of marriage to a cop in a tiny place in a remote wasteland where he was home every night, but she can't take a couple of weeks of him putting in 85 hr weeks when an entire research facility worth of people mysteriously shows up dead in horrific fashion without kicking him out? 

Needed another couple of months in the hands of an accomplished screen writer to clean it up and polish it before it went to production. Could have been better quality in the right hands. 

[hobbes2702 13029]

1 hour ago, Hermanator said:

And Navarro's acting is not nearly as bad as you whiny bastards say. The writing is just poor quality.

This is simply untrue. 

[Doc Sam Beckett 5792]

Lol I had no idea this season is only 6 episodes. What a shitty shitty season. The multiple posters who have said shit along the lines of "I don't hate it as much as the rest of you," or "it's not terrible," or anything along those lines are going on a list of posters never to trust when it comes to shows/movies 

[austingirl 2191]

29 minutes ago, Doc Sam Beckett said:

Lol I had no idea this season is only 6 episodes. What a shitty shitty season. The multiple posters who have said shit along the lines of "I don't hate it as much as the rest of you," or "it's not terrible," or anything along those lines are going on a list of posters never to trust when it comes to shows/movies 

 

[C-Man 27185]

11 hours ago, Doc Sam Beckett said:

Lol I had no idea this season is only 6 episodes. What a shitty shitty season. The multiple posters who have said shit along the lines of "I don't hate it as much as the rest of you," or "it's not terrible," or anything along those lines are going on a list of posters never to trust when it comes to shows/movies 

The first three were mildly interesting and I was giving it a long rope since I knew it was only going to be six episodes. The fourth episode was laughably bad and I watched #5 to see how they're going to try and finish this thing. It was only slightly better. I wasn't expecting Hank to get shot dead -- his character seemingly did a 180 in about five minutes of screen time. In order to set up Prior shooting his dad, Danvers tells him he can crash in her unheated back shed? WTAF?

I didn't think Navarro's acting was as bad as some of you but then again she wasn't being asked to do all that much. However, the outburst in the hospital was turrible and showed her limitations.

[yoladu 4090]

On 2/10/2024 at 5:29 PM, HiggyBaby said:

I can’t take John Hawkes seriously in this show. I keep expecting him to serve Danvers crabs.

John Hawkes has a pretty interesting history with Austin.

in the early 80's he was in the band Meat Joy with Gretchen Phillips (of Two Nice Girls fame).

 

[Texzilla58 4731]

The best acting job belongs to Foster. She says in the promo interviews “it’s her finest work!” Sounds convincing. Give her an Emmy for that.

[Texzilla58 4731]

Only thing that will save this season is to see Kate Mckittrick naked

Agreed. Dervla Kirwan last got nekkid 27 years ago. Shes a nice 52 now. Fine wine.

[speed817 19255]

23 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:

Agreed. Dervla Kirwan last got nekkid 27 years ago. Shes a nice 52 now. Fine wine.

[utxmike05 1828]

The aggravating part is all these women and none know how to communicate well. lol

Liz and daughter still fight on the same shit over and over....Liz won't really tell her she is just keeping her safe etc.  Leah looks 30 and is a teenager ?

Navarro and Liz won't tell each other about the visions or whatever they have been experiencing.  Especially when sharing that info could help move this damn plot along.

I have counted a handful of times where one of them says "Do you want to talk about it?" and the response is a "no", a blank stare, or a walk away.

I tried watching my normal YouTube ScreenCrush recap to help me like it more, but it didn't work this time.  The guy just went off on too many far fetched theories and symbolism about Blue King and Yellow King that I doubt this show would ever revel in the last episode.

[Jerry Callo 8698]

9 minutes ago, utxmike05 said:

The aggravating part is all these women and none know how to communicate well.

Most realistic part of the show.

[Prepuce of Doom 21053]

1 hour ago, yoladu said:

John Hawkes has a pretty interesting history with Austin.

in the early 80's he was in the band Meat Joy with Gretchen Phillips (of Two Nice Girls fame).

 

Assuming that was actually him singing in this episode, he's got a great singing voice and really nailed that performance. 

[HouTex 1866]

1 hour ago, Jerry Callo said:

Most realistic part of the show.

Yes, and women mostly wrote the screenplay and I believe women direct it as well.  NTTAWWT. 

[hobbes2702 13029]

2 hours ago, C-Man said:

The first three were mildly interesting and I was giving it a long rope since I knew it was only going to be six episodes. The fourth episode was laughably bad and I watched #5 to see how they're going to try and finish this thing. It was only slightly better. I wasn't expecting Hank to get shot dead -- his character seemingly did a 180 in about five minutes of screen time. In order to set up Prior shooting his dad, Danvers tells him he can crash in her unheated back shed? WTAF?

I didn't think Navarro's acting was as bad as some of you but then again she wasn't being asked to do all that much. However, the outburst in the hospital was turrible and showed her limitations.

This pretty much sums up my feelings exactly. The show basically completely abandoned being a detective show after ep3. The only detective work now is Prior googling shit. Just really lazy writing. Part of it might be that this wasn’t a TD show originally, but I assume it was still a detective show? Either way, they focused far too much on things not related to the case and have tried to hand wave away things that seem relevant.

[CurlyDumps 4466]

If someone violently rips out Navarro's cheek piercings, all will be forgiven.

[wildcat09 29345]

4 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

This pretty much sums up my feelings exactly. The show basically completely abandoned being a detective show after ep3. The only detective work now is Prior googling shit. Just really lazy writing. Part of it might be that this wasn’t a TD show originally, but I assume it was still a detective show? Either way, they focused far too much on things not related to the case and have tried to hand wave away things that seem relevant.

Seems like this has to be it. The supernatural stuff also changed very quickly from more Lovecraftian to just ghosts and suddenly they explain the spiral away as "oh that just means thin ice."  

The first episode had promise but this has been terrible since then.

[Fud 9551]

On 2/10/2024 at 5:29 PM, HiggyBaby said:

I can’t take John Hawkes seriously in this show. I keep expecting him to serve Danvers crabs.

 

On 2/13/2024 at 10:06 AM, yoladu said:

John Hawkes has a pretty interesting history with Austin.

in the early 80's he was in the band Meat Joy with Gretchen Phillips (of Two Nice Girls fame).

 

His best role was Teardrop

 

On 2/11/2024 at 8:16 AM, Jiggy-Z said:

Went and watched season 2 since I skipped over it on account of bad reviews.  I actually liked it. Good character insight and back story, cinematography actually made sense and advanced the industrial theme, complicated enough plot to warrant the number of episodes etc.

Some ridiculous and far fetched twists aside it was not a bad watch.  It was no season 1, but on par or better than 3, and certainly better than whatever is going on in season 4.

Season 2's biggest issue was it wasn't Season 1

Also, Vince Vaughn and his character's dialogue were terrible

[Fud 9551]

On 2/13/2024 at 10:15 AM, Texzilla58 said:

The best acting job belongs to Foster. She says in the promo interviews “it’s her finest work!” Sounds convincing. Give her an Emmy for that.

She's been rough at times imo, although this past episode was her best

[yoladu 4090]

32 minutes ago, Fud said:

 

His best role was Teardrop

Looking at Hawkes' IDB page. He was in and around Austin in the late 80s taking parts in movies shot in Texas.

Future Kill, DOA, Heartbreak Hotel, Flesh and Bone, Johnny B Good.

Even appeared in the notorious Butthole Surfers short - Bar-B-Que Movie

 

[Mo Horn 8827]

Finally got around to watching the latest episode. I thought it was the best so far, although I admit that's a pretty low bar. Who knows how it wraps up in one more episode. 

[UTexasFight 9428]

On 2/10/2024 at 10:47 AM, Duane Moore said:

We need a list of all the things they have dangled out to us in the first five episodes that will need to be resolved in the finale. Please add to or correct me if I missed some resolution/explanation. 

- Herd of caribou committing mass suicide

- Meaning of “she’s awake”

- Annie K’s tongue on the floor at Tsalal (still hoping that Clark was so in love with her that he tried to clone her and her clone “woke up” and became a Frankenstein’s monster of some kind)

- How the Tsalal scientists were killed. Seems clear with the coverup story put out by Connolly and McKitterick that we’re not supposed to believe that they just froze to death, and the neat folding of the clothes exactly like Julia Navarro did can’t be just a coincidence.

- Why the Tsalal scientists were killed. I’m assuming it’s because they were going to stop covering up the true pollution amounts for the mine. Or maybe Clark wanted them to do that because of Annie K. and when the rest of the scientists wouldn’t, he somehow killed them?

- Ghosts? I’m prepared to accept that Navarro and her sister have hallucinations, and Navarro probably has PTSD from her time in combat (sudden flashes to her in the desert) but the idea that they both have the exact same hallucinations, including the rolling orange, seems entirely divorced from actual mental health science on schizophrenia. And what about Dead Travis leading Rose to the Tsalal scientist bodies?

- Connections to Season 1. Looking like all of it is just internet fan service Easter eggs. Tuttle United was just a head fake for the real power behind it, the evil mine. Travis Kohle being Rust’s dad? I’ll be surprised if they ever go back to it. The spiral symbols? Are they really going to just dismiss them as a native warning for thin ice? After they’ve been appearing all over the place, nowhere near ice?

- Darwin’s drawing of the woman with her hands cut off that was apparently a native legend told to him by his grandmother? Probably just another red herring  but what’s the point then?

- The hostile native guy from the hunting camp who disappeared when they came back the second time. What happened to him? Or did I miss an explanation?

Any others?

 

 

Why everyone points at Navarro.

maybe it ends up being someone/thing points at something behind her as she’s coming out of a delusion when she’s down in the ice cave and it ends up saving her. But it’s got to mean something 

[austingirl 2191]

21 hours ago, Fud said:

Season 2's biggest issue was it wasn't Season 1

Also, Vince Vaughn and his character's dialogue were terrible

The scene where he's dying and he and Kelly Reilly are talking to each other in his mind? dream sequence? has some of the most cringeworthy dialogue I have ever seen. I could barely watch it.

[Bojack 2073]

On 2/12/2024 at 8:22 PM, Hermanator said:

It's not terrible. And Navarro's acting is not nearly as bad as you whiny bastards say. The writing is just poor quality. 

They could have used time they wasted rehashing some of the same stuff on building better quality connections for the secondary characters to make the emotional impacts hit harder. Could have also used time for that they used on stuff that goes nowhere like Hank's catfishing stupidity. 

Leah is really poorly written. It feels like the audience is supposed to feel bad for her but she's written so horribly smug and entitled she makes the audience feel sorry for Danvers having to deal with her. 

Prior's wife is not given any time to develop as a character at all and she may be even more entitled and bitchy than Leah. Years of marriage to a cop in a tiny place in a remote wasteland where he was home every night, but she can't take a couple of weeks of him putting in 85 hr weeks when an entire research facility worth of people mysteriously shows up dead in horrific fashion without kicking him out? 

Needed another couple of months in the hands of an accomplished screen writer to clean it up and polish it before it went to production. Could have been better quality in the right hands. 

This is the truth. Watch this scene and compare it to Foster's initial meeting with Heiss. That Season 4 scene is well acted and well shot. The writing is what's lacking.

 

[sidis 9823]

17 hours ago, Mo Horn said:

Finally got around to watching the latest episode. I thought it was the best so far, although I admit that's a pretty low bar. Who knows how it wraps up in one more episode. 

that's just because it was the first moment in the season where we had any plot advancement.

[Red Five 40837]

30 minutes ago, Bojack said:

This is the truth. Watch this scene and compare it to Foster's initial meeting with Heiss. That Season 4 scene is well acted and well shot. The writing is what's lacking.

 

Feels unfair to make the comparison, even though they share the name TD. Like, "Look at Tyrese Hunter here.... now, compare it to Michael Jordan in 1995." 

[Eskimohorn 5630]

S4 is Citizen Kane compared to S2, which made me have to look up apoplectic.

I’ll take a whole Navarro episode over any Kelly Reilly scene.

[lateshow 1304]

On 2/14/2024 at 10:40 AM, Fud said:

 

His best role was Teardrop

 

Season 2's biggest issue was it wasn't Season 1

Also, Vince Vaughn and his character's dialogue were terrible

No, his best role was Season 1 of Eastbound and Down. 

[Hermanator 7032]

1 hour ago, lateshow said:

No, his best role was Season 1 of Eastbound and Down. 

When I first saw him in this show that's immediately what came to mind then during this last episode it hit me he was the liquor store clerk in From Dusk til Dawn