Night Country: Part 3

Since this season references the events and malefactors of Season 1 and calls itself an inverted spiritual successor, a comparison seems fair.

Atmosphere - In Season 1 the industrial grime and rural dilapidation and sweaty dirty denizens of southern Louisiana provided an atmosphere of desperation and danger. You could almost feel the unrelenting humidity in the peeling paint and weeds and rust as shorthand for a losing battle against the constant encroachment of hostile elements. Season 4 tries for something similar in the subzero inverse in its run-down buildings and icy obstructions but it doesn't work. Maybe because the freezing cold makes things seem sanitized and the dwellings seem warm and welcoming instead of unsettling and oppressive.

Supernatural - Whether or not there were any supernatural elements in Season 1 at all was ambiguous and anything that seemed otherworldly could also be explained from the outset by Cohle's drug-induced dementia. Season 4 presents what seem to be supernatural elements (whether they prove to be genuine or not is anyone's guess) without an alternative explanation. Either what we're seeing is genuinely supernatural or will be explained by a post-hoc bait-and-switch later; neither will be satisfying.

Central character - In Season 1 Cohle had almost superhuman detecting abilities; he could outthink and outfight anybody and he was driven by a moral code to see justice done. But he also had no personal life; his abilities made him prickly and insubordinate; and he didn't care that no one liked him. If a man so completely lives for his job and neglects all other areas of his life then it's possible he'd be superlative at that job, and Cohle was a fascinating manifestation of that idea. Jodie Foster in Season 4 isn't an inversion of the equation, she's just the bad without the good. She has a disastrous personal life; she's prickly and insubordinate; and she doesn't care that no one likes her. But she's also not that great of a cop, no better than the average plodding television gumshoe. She also doesn't seem to have a moral code, having taken this season's case due to an old employment grievance and jurisdictional entitlement rather than a drive for justice. She's less a fascinating character study and more just irrationally confrontational and unpleasant.

I really want to love this, but I can't get into it like I did for the last three seasons. In the previous seasons, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, but now, it seems like a lot of overused themes are creeping in. I am not getting enough of the actual murder mystery, or maybe it just doesn't feel like it's primarily a murder show right now. It feels more like a family drama with a murder on the side.

I'm hoping that the current season will improve like season 2 did. It started off a bit slow but eventually picked up pace. However, I'm not sure if the current season is primarily focused on character development leading up to a big climax or if the rest of the show will continue to be like this, a slow family drama drag.

Jodie Foster comes off as a little better acting in this episode, but I can't help but think she's been misdirected by Lopez. How can you do that to a star like Foster? I can buy the character being the type of person as she's in this story, but it needs to be held together with something and not be made to feel like loose bits and pieces in a Sheriff's uniform.

I do think the general story is both interesting and most actors do a pretty good job. But too many details are botched and the dialogue is weaker than it should be. When we spend so much time with characters they need to be compelling and not simply one-dimensional.

Unfortunately it would seem at this point that Lopez, as a writer at least, will go on to destroy not only her own season, but drive the whole series into the grave. She JUST cannot handle the supernatural element, that she's chosen, well at all. It's part of the story, but does that mean it must be presented in an unbelievable way? I said this, I believe, also in my review of the first episode of season 4, that in season 1 the supernatural may be part of the story, but it's never seen, except in one scene. Which makes it truly great. Because you FEEL it. Lopez feels like she must point out to us that: "This is scary and mysterious now! Do you understand?". C'mon!

Here we're on C horror flick level. I think Lopez should be ashamed saying she's been inspired by "The Thing". Even when as off the wall as that stuff was back then, it worked. The banal supernatural parts aren't working at all in TD Season 4. You can only laugh at the screen. It's so bad. Does Lopez think the all of the audience are in their early teens or what?

This is quickly going downhill. I'll stay for the ride down into the sea, where I'm sure this once great TV-series will stay buried from the last episode on.

Yea this just isn't hitting the spot for me unfortunately which is annoying because this show was my most anticipated of the year !!

The episode picks up with Liz and Navarro both having flashbacks to a previous case that links to information with our current issue, we get deeper connections to the Native American storyline and the crew are trying to piece this mystery together.

The first 30 minutes bar the flashback is pointless, there is no progress in the story. The last 25 minutes is again strung along, the only thing saving this for me is the good acting and score, and setting, it gives such a sense of eerie horror and the setting building is outstanding BUT the case is slow and the pace is also poor, hoping it gets better.

Not hating because I love the show, this just isn't it so far, 6/10.

They are overdoing the horror element and are now entering the recovered footage trope. In the first season, something supernatural was only implied, while here it's full on with these posessions, awakenings, etc. This might somewhat work as a standalone series, but they had to go and slap it with a recognizable brand to play it safe with the viewership.

Conducting a search spread so thin that everyone is basically alone, with a head lamp that illuminates several meters ahead at best is another forced attempt at creating tension. The problem is by now I don't care if anyone gets eaten by a polar bear or snatched by whatever it is that they have awaken. In fact, I will take the twist of a major character getting offed.

Bad acting keeps getting worse. Jodie is still very much miscast and highly unconvincing. While say Rust was dangerous like a tight rope on the brink of snapping, the police here command no respect or confidence, let alone intimidation. No wonder they are being told to get lost on more than one occasion.