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NFT: True Detective: Night Country (potential for spoilers)

NormanAllen_95 : 2/20/2024 1:36 pm
What the hell did I just watch? I understand that true detective as a series can be very ethereal... Or just plain weird... But I have no idea what just happened.

I just finished episode 6 which I guess is the final episode, and I have no idea what happened, other than the fact that it was a parent that the scientists at the research facility were abusing the indigenous girl, and they were taken to task by that women's group. What is with all the supernatural stuff? Was it all because of the pollution?

These shows are so hit or miss with a heavy lien on the miss aspect of it. The third season which I thought was good, took me forever to get through because I was trying to keep up with the chronological shifts. The second one I stopped watching after. I think episode 3. The first season was a masterpiece. This season I almost feel like I watched a combination of a Stephen King movie and stranger things.
I gave up after the second episode  
j_rud : 2/20/2024 1:40 pm : link
.
Might be the worse HBO show I ever watched  
penkap75 : 2/20/2024 1:41 pm : link
Really badly executed with bloated meandering plot, and questionable choice of some actors. Cleaning lady mafia explanation was at least comically bad in an entertaining way. But HBO managed to get me to hate watch the full 6 episodes so they accomplished their mission. They could have just called Mare of Easttown True Detective Season 4, as it was an exponentially better show than Night Country.
Thought episodes five and six were better  
bceagle05 : 2/20/2024 1:50 pm : link
but overall I was pretty bored with it.

Every now and then I watch Season 1, Episode 5 and just marvel at how great it is - the whole season was great, but that hour is one of the best hours of TV I've ever seen. The "unreliable narrator" revelation about what went down at the Ledoux house, the cover up, Rust realizing in the 2002 timeline that the killer is still out there (the interrogation scene about the Yellow King), Marty's monologue about losing his family, and the present-day detectives confronting Rust and Marty with believable circumstantial evidence that Rust is the killer - the whole thing was perfectly executed.
RE: Might be the worse HBO show I ever watched  
NormanAllen_95 : 2/20/2024 1:50 pm : link
In comment 16403460 penkap75 said:
Quote:
Really badly executed with bloated meandering plot, and questionable choice of some actors. Cleaning lady mafia explanation was at least comically bad in an entertaining way. But HBO managed to get me to hate watch the full 6 episodes so they accomplished their mission. They could have just called Mare of Easttown True Detective Season 4, as it was an exponentially better show than Night Country.


I font think I could have summed it up better. Cleaning lady mafia for the win!

I hung in there hoping for a rousing last few episodes with a Inuit Witch doctor drugging people into weird homocidal zombies... Kinda like how season 1 finished. Nope.

And what was with Navarro on the deck with Danvers at the end? Did she kill herself too?
I read somewhere that HBO decided  
bceagle05 : 2/20/2024 1:51 pm : link
to put this Night Country show under the True Detective umbrella - doesn't sound like it was written with that intention. They desperately need a second season with Rust and Marty - I don't care what the story is.
I thought it was OK but  
Bob from Massachusetts : 2/20/2024 2:02 pm : link
paled before seasons 1 and 3. Didn't see 2. For me the common theme was light emerging after a long period of darkness, for Danvers getting over the death of her son, for Navarro getting over the death of her sister, for the relationship between Danvers and her "daughter" improving, for the town controversy tearing Ennis apart.

I would have liked a clearer answer on what happened to Navarro, a little more detail on Danvers' son. I thought Jody Foster did a great job in a very unglamorous role. I think the director wanted to leave all the supernatural stuff as possible explanations but didn't think it really worked. I agree that Mare of Eastham was MUCH better than this
they didn't abuse  
pjcas18 : 2/20/2024 2:10 pm : link
the native girl, they killed her because she found out they were increasing the level of pollution in the caves because the more pollution some life saving microorganisms were created and she was going to go public with it or try and put a stop to it.

So, sacrifice the locals/natives at the cost of the "greater good"

something like that anyway.

when you have a season 1 like True Detective, it's hard to meet that bar, but man they are looking like one-hit wonders with this franchise. I think all the seasons after season 1 were pretty bad.
Never thought of it before but yes Mare of Easttown  
bceagle05 : 2/20/2024 2:12 pm : link
would've been a perfect fit for the True Detective series - I remember joking at the time that Mare and Rust would've made a great TV couple.
Never seen a show where I dislike all main characters.  
DCGMan : 2/20/2024 2:24 pm : link
Can’t believe Jodi Foster agreed to do this. How much did she get paid?
.  
Banks : 2/20/2024 2:37 pm : link
I stuck with it, but it was terrible. Not just terrible for HBO. Jodie Foster deserved better than this
Throwing in that “time is a flat circle line”  
bceagle05 : 2/20/2024 2:41 pm : link
was a cheap gimmick too, along with the spiral and the Tuttle references.
The Mare of Easttown comments  
NormanAllen_95 : 2/20/2024 2:54 pm : link
Are spot on. Dont see myself watching it again soon, but maybe when I do I can pretend that that is what it is
Best Detective Show  
Maggot Brain : 2/20/2024 3:08 pm : link
on during this time period was Monsieur Spade. Great dialogue, great ending, and Clive Owen terrific as Sam Spade. Too bad the series was a one-off.
I thought season 2 was the worst of the series,  
Section331 : 2/20/2024 3:11 pm : link
and I still do, but this was a mess. They got caught between a human cause and a supernatural one, and couldn’t decide which to go with, so it seems they tried a little of both. Good acting, I liked the characters, but the storyline was a bit of a mess. I mean Navarro goes walking off into the frozen sea, like her sister, and ends up at a like house with Danvers? WTF?
RE: I thought season 2 was the worst of the series,  
NormanAllen_95 : 2/20/2024 3:17 pm : link
In comment 16403655 Section331 said:
Quote:
and I still do, but this was a mess. They got caught between a human cause and a supernatural one, and couldn’t decide which to go with, so it seems they tried a little of both. Good acting, I liked the characters, but the storyline was a bit of a mess. I mean Navarro goes walking off into the frozen sea, like her sister, and ends up at a like house with Danvers? WTF?


5hats why I think she killed herself and that was her spirit or whatever. She was wearing the same clothes and he character was all fucked up given the relationships she had
I thought season 3 was maybe the best streaming  
cosmicj : 2/20/2024 3:22 pm : link
Season I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. A powerful story and a great mystery.

I liked Night Country until the last episode. The solution was a chaotic mess and episode 6 dragged like the Eagle.

You remember the herd of caribou jumping over the cliff at the very start of Night Country? What was that about?
RE: I thought season 3 was maybe the best streaming  
pjcas18 : 2/20/2024 3:29 pm : link
In comment 16403678 cosmicj said:
Quote:
Season I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. A powerful story and a great mystery.

I liked Night Country until the last episode. The solution was a chaotic mess and episode 6 dragged like the Eagle.

You remember the herd of caribou jumping over the cliff at the very start of Night Country? What was that about?


retrospectively, I took that scene to be metaphoric, something about the caribou running from the darkness and I think in the end that was one of the shows themes.
RE: I thought season 3 was maybe the best streaming  
Section331 : 2/20/2024 3:29 pm : link
In comment 16403678 cosmicj said:
Quote:
Season I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. A powerful story and a great mystery.

I liked Night Country until the last episode. The solution was a chaotic mess and episode 6 dragged like the Eagle.

You remember the herd of caribou jumping over the cliff at the very start of Night Country? What was that about?


I think the idea was that they were supposedly frightened by the sea goddess Sedna, like the men at TSALAL supposedly had been. Which is the question never answered - if the veterinarian earlier in the season was correct that the TSALAL guys didn’t die of hypothermia, what did they die of? I guess we’re left to believe that Sedna got to them.
I actually enjoyed it.  
GrMtWoods : 2/20/2024 3:31 pm : link
My expectations were likely different than others. It was a work of fiction with a director that has horror films in her resume.

I found it entertaining, unpredictable, and somewhat culturally informative. The lack of plausibility and ambiguous ending didn't bother me as much as others.

As an aside, it would be wonderful to spend the long night with the hippy redneck character Rose. A woman with knife skills intrigues me.

My wife and I liked it  
Joey in VA : 2/20/2024 3:55 pm : link
enough, it entertained me for a few hours, that's really all I'm interested in these days. I just don't nitpick entertainment to the nth degree like I used to.
I, too, slugged through all 6 episodes and  
jerseyboyLAX : 2/20/2024 4:08 pm : link
all I can say in agreement with a few others here is W T F?!!!

what a disjointed mess.

and I at one point got in trouble with the Mrs because I said I wasn't sure if it was Jodie Foster or Michael J Fox in the lead

ouch
I liked it, but it felt rushed  
Mellowmood92 : 2/20/2024 4:34 pm : link
Probably because they packed a lot of story lines into 6 - 1 hr. episodes. I don't necessarily think everything needs explanation or resolution, but some of the story lines were just there. Like what was up with the engineer living in the nomad camp? What did Navarro's war flashbacks have to do with anything - was she suffering from PTSD or could she see the dead, or both? Liz's son's death seemed so forced to explain why she was such an asshole to everyone - was that really the purpose? There are others, but I just wished they focused more. It felt scattered.

I also liked the paranormal angle, and they seemed to really lean into it in Episode 4 - then just completely back off it.

I thought Season 2 was awful. I liked Season 3 as well. Nothing can come close to Season 1 IMO.
I didn't think it was bad  
widmerseyebrow : 2/20/2024 4:41 pm : link
Doesn't even come close to eclipsing how bad season 2 was.

Even though one of the primary themes is "womyn," they didn't do what a lot of gender swapped garbage does nowadays where 90lb. Tinkerbells are tossing Navy Seals around like pillows. The one woman who is physical, Evangeline, was an actual professional boxer in real life and it's not breaking the immersion seeing her taking and giving punches.

The season itself pretty much follows the True Detective formula: teases the supernatural and the occult, has lots of exposition, and finally comes around to a surprise prosaic explanation of the murders in the end (plot holes and all).

Biggest gripes off the top of my head:
- What was the point of tracking down the indigenous dude sitting in his shed with a shotgun? Why did he disappear later? I forget how he was involved at all.
- Why did Jodi Foster put her gun away after getting locked in the glass freezer to go look for something to break the glass?
Just terrible  
JerseyCityJoe : 2/20/2024 5:04 pm : link
Jodi Foster deserved better.
Not  
mitch300 : 2/20/2024 5:25 pm : link
Impressed. After the finale, I said to my wife, that’s it. What a waste of 6 hours.
Not  
mitch300 : 2/20/2024 5:26 pm : link
Impressed. After the finale, I said to my wife, that’s it. What a waste of 6 hours.
RE: I didn't think it was bad  
pjcas18 : 2/20/2024 5:30 pm : link
In comment 16403782 widmerseyebrow said:
Quote:
Doesn't even come close to eclipsing how bad season 2 was.

Even though one of the primary themes is "womyn," they didn't do what a lot of gender swapped garbage does nowadays where 90lb. Tinkerbells are tossing Navy Seals around like pillows. The one woman who is physical, Evangeline, was an actual professional boxer in real life and it's not breaking the immersion seeing her taking and giving punches.

The season itself pretty much follows the True Detective formula: teases the supernatural and the occult, has lots of exposition, and finally comes around to a surprise prosaic explanation of the murders in the end (plot holes and all).

Biggest gripes off the top of my head:
- What was the point of tracking down the indigenous dude sitting in his shed with a shotgun? Why did he disappear later? I forget how he was involved at all.
- Why did Jodi Foster put her gun away after getting locked in the glass freezer to go look for something to break the glass?


I thought the same thing with the gun. Ricochet?
I was disappointed.  
JimInKgnNY : 2/20/2024 5:39 pm : link
I've never seen a bigger collection of miserable, nasty, unlikable characters as this series gave me. The young cop, Pete Prior, was the only one I could tolerate. And the storyline was a mess. Issa Lopez needs to take a script writing class. Thankfully it was only 6 episodes.
Season 2 was horrific.  
BH28 : 2/20/2024 5:41 pm : link
Some of the worst one liners in history, "It's like blue balls in your heart."

I thought this season was fine, there was always the flirtation with supernatural vs logical explanation in all of the seasons.
RE: Season 2 was horrific.  
bceagle05 : 2/20/2024 5:44 pm : link
In comment 16403835 BH28 said:
Quote:
Some of the worst one liners in history, "It's like blue balls in your heart."

It was a complete embarrassment. I remember it being such a huge deal too - A-list movie stars desperately wanted those roles.
I liked it.  
81_Great_Dane : 2/20/2024 5:47 pm : link
So sue me.
We had  
oghwga : 2/20/2024 7:14 pm : link
No beef with it. I actually liked the fact that the women all did it and that the explanation made sense and they didn't leave you hanging.

Definitely picked up the Micheal J Fox vibe from Foster and it was off putting.
This was my first True Detective season (Spoilers Ahead)  
JoeyBigBlue : 2/20/2024 11:30 pm : link
And I agree that show did feel rushed, and really hampered the story. But I felt the end was satisfying . I never believed the in the ghost aspect of the show, so I thought they did a decent job of tying the story together by explaining the Annie K was murdered by the Tsalal scientist, after she destroyed their work. They in turned were rounded up and sent walking to their death by the women of the town that were behind Annie.

The question that left me wondering was what happened to Navarro at the end. It seemed like she disappeared after turning Raymond Clarke’s confession video. I read that some people took it as her following her mother and sister a d dying in the cold temperatures of the artic.
Kind of a meh to me.  
Mike from SI : 2/20/2024 11:40 pm : link
I'm not mad I watched it, but I will not watch it again and probably tell people they can find better shows to watch. (I've had a lot of people tell me to watch Fargo recently, which is now on the list.)

The actress for Evangeline was so hit or miss to me. In some scenes I thought she was great, in other scenes it felt like she was mailing it in. And I recognize that the character was supposed to be going through the motions in some scenes, but it felt like the acting did as well.
RE: I was disappointed.  
NormanAllen_95 : 2/21/2024 1:07 am : link
In comment 16403833 JimInKgnNY said:
Quote:
I've never seen a bigger collection of miserable, nasty, unlikable characters as this series gave me. The young cop, Pete Prior, was the only one I could tolerate. And the storyline was a mess. Issa Lopez needs to take a script writing class. Thankfully it was only 6 episodes.


This is another great take. The writing was atrocious. Its almost like she woke up one morning and vomited the script into a 1dt draft and ran with it.

Yes, the junior officer was the one character that you could root for and in the end, he simply buried his Dad who got suckered by a mail order bride. WTF?
RE: This was my first True Detective season (Spoilers Ahead)  
NormanAllen_95 : 2/21/2024 1:10 am : link
In comment 16404023 JoeyBigBlue said:
Quote:
And I agree that show did feel rushed, and really hampered the story. But I felt the end was satisfying . I never believed the in the ghost aspect of the show, so I thought they did a decent job of tying the story together by explaining the Annie K was murdered by the Tsalal scientist, after she destroyed their work. They in turned were rounded up and sent walking to their death by the women of the town that were behind Annie.

The question that left me wondering was what happened to Navarro at the end. It seemed like she disappeared after turning Raymond Clarke’s confession video. I read that some people took it as her following her mother and sister a d dying in the cold temperatures of the artic.


It def seemed like she committed suicide. She def didnt go live with Danvers on that lake, so that scene of her in her same clothes tells me she killed herself (another "WTF" as she at least seemed grounded).

But also, what was with the oranges? Were they hallucinations? Same thing with Rose or whoever seeing her dead lover walking around the ice at night.

So weird and not in a good way.
RE: Might be the worse HBO show I ever watched  
Ceez2.0 : 2/21/2024 9:38 am : link
In comment 16403460 penkap75 said:
Quote:
Really badly executed with bloated meandering plot, and questionable choice of some actors. Cleaning lady mafia explanation was at least comically bad in an entertaining way. But HBO managed to get me to hate watch the full 6 episodes so they accomplished their mission. They could have just called Mare of Easttown True Detective Season 4, as it was an exponentially better show than Night Country.


You must have not seen "John from Cincinnati". Talk about hate watching. I still can't believe I watched all the episodes of that crap. Gross!
Btw,  
Mike from SI : 2/21/2024 5:02 pm : link
Annie K discovered this nefarious plot 4 years ago and didn't tell anybody about it? Or it took the janitor mafia 4 years to get revenge? Silly.
RE: RE: Might be the worse HBO show I ever watched  
NormanAllen_95 : 2/21/2024 7:23 pm : link
In comment 16404120 Ceez2.0 said:
Quote:
In comment 16403460 penkap75 said:


Quote:


Really badly executed with bloated meandering plot, and questionable choice of some actors. Cleaning lady mafia explanation was at least comically bad in an entertaining way. But HBO managed to get me to hate watch the full 6 episodes so they accomplished their mission. They could have just called Mare of Easttown True Detective Season 4, as it was an exponentially better show than Night Country.



You must have not seen "John from Cincinnati". Talk about hate watching. I still can't believe I watched all the episodes of that crap. Gross!


I believe that was a consolation for the crew of the cancelled Deadwood. All those actors still had plenty of contract left so they threw that together. It was almost surreal how off that show was.
RE: RE: Might be the worse HBO show I ever watched  
pjcas18 : 2/21/2024 7:35 pm : link
In comment 16404120 Ceez2.0 said:
Quote:
In comment 16403460 penkap75 said:


Quote:


Really badly executed with bloated meandering plot, and questionable choice of some actors. Cleaning lady mafia explanation was at least comically bad in an entertaining way. But HBO managed to get me to hate watch the full 6 episodes so they accomplished their mission. They could have just called Mare of Easttown True Detective Season 4, as it was an exponentially better show than Night Country.



You must have not seen "John from Cincinnati". Talk about hate watching. I still can't believe I watched all the episodes of that crap. Gross!


the only good thing about John from Cincinnati was the theme song they used from Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros.

decent series but bar was set high by season 1  
bc4life : 2/22/2024 9:35 pm : link
Interesting characters, some compelling themes. Thought a few more screenplay rewrites would have helped.
I honestly dont understand how some get so  
Rory : 2/23/2024 7:21 pm : link
mad at the fact they watched a tv show. At which point in 6 hours spaced apart by weeks did you say to yourself, "I hate this show and everything about it....buttttt I'm going to just keep watching it so I can post how mad I am".

...anyways I enjoyed the show, really liked John Hawkes character just a broken man who gets caught in the tragedy of trying to rebuild his life. An in the end trying to salvage the one good part he loves most his actions also destroys it.

Ending had some holes but that's ok, I think that was on purpose and pointed out when Evangeline asks the cleaning lady leader who "cut Annie's tongue out" and she basically claims that as another unknown in this mystery.
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