Night Country: Part 3

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.

This is starting to feel like a waste of time. If you want to see a good detective series with a damaged strong woman, check out Mare of easttown. Or if you want to see maybe a best detective shows out there, watch Sherlock.

If you want to see a good cop series watch Line of duty, unforgotten or Bosch. The reason why Liz and Evangeline have no longer worked together seems superficial, tedious and implausible. Nothing superintriguing back story there. Atmosphere feels very forced. Even acting sucks. Don't get me wrong, Jodie Foster is a good actress, but I don't think this role suits her, like she's pretending all the time and holding something back. There is a complete lack of depth and humor witch are vital elements of True detective standards.

It seems so freaking forced! I get it: this is a small and disturbed village, but it fails to credibility create that frightening atmosphe what this series trying to do.

I think I'll stop there. My rate is six and that's mercyfull estimate.

I started watching Season 4 after reading that Jodi Foster was in it (I've never seen other seasons of True Detective, so I didn't know what to expect exactly).

Well, the first two episodes were mildly interesting, but this one bored me to death - the plot was not pushed forward, characters weren't developed, the horror / supernatural themes are increasing.

Acting is below par, surprisingly even from Foster. The native music / chants of this episode were particularly grating.

I also noticed that this season has only six episodes so we're halfway through; with the long list of loose ends and unanswered question that we've gathered so far, the only ways to resolve this mess are "an evil spirit did all this" or "there was LSD in the water" (or "it was all a dream").

3 episodes in, and it is not like other True Detectives seasons. No way of knowing what direction this will go, but supernatural elements in detective series are not my favourite. It is a lazy way of explaining the mysteries and plotholes, and I can't see this going to a rational explanation. Nothing wrong with the actors, they are doing a fine job considering the fact this show is schizophrenic in not knowing whether it is a detective, horror or drama. Perhaps it is unfair to say anything about the qualities of a series based on only the first half, but it is just a "warning" for the ambiguity of this show.

First of all, this won't be a regular review, sorry. I wouldn't even be writing it if it weren't for my utter puzzlement by the inexplicable choice of songs in these episodes.

Wait, I'm not saying they're bad songs. Though most of them aren't my cup of tea, I'm relatively open minded and can accept that some like and love songs like these. They're not terrible to listen to. I mean they would not be terrible to listen to in a melancholy romantic comedy or in an arthouse movie, or in a supermarket, or in an elevator or something. They're, in my opinion, totally out of place here, though. Whenever there's some nice build up of tension or something, a beginning, suddenly some mellow, slow, wailing lady or a cheery pop song or something like that comes on, and destroys the mood, the horror, the immersion, and makes me wanna either fall asleep or quickly switch to a different radio station. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel. Your mileage may vary, and I do hope it does, because in that case you're getting more out of this show than me, which is fine.

Seriously, give a listen to the title sequence. Who the heck thought that song would evoke even a fragment of the dread and the cosmic horror the corpsicle and all the other weird stuff and all tries to build... and why? And why did they get a job on this show? No, I'm not wishing them anything bad, it's all subjective and all. I just am truly puzzled, and would love to understand.

Otherwise not a bad show, though a far cry from season 1, but not worse nor better (so far) than, say, season 2. (No blood-curdling, though. At all. And it's partly the music that's responsible for that.)