Night Country: Part 6

"True Detective Season 4 was a letdown, especially its concluding half. What started with promise veered into drawn-out, dark, and somewhat tedious territory. The supernatural elements introduced failed to enhance the narrative, instead contributing to a sense of confusion and detachment from the core story. The final three episodes were particularly disappointing, lacking the tight pacing and engaging storytelling that defined the series' earlier success. While the series has always flirted with darkness, this season's foray felt unnecessary and unearned, leaving a lingering sense of dissatisfaction. In the end, the relief that it's over speaks volumes about its departure from what made 'True Detective' compelling."

I had never watched True Detective before this Night Country season four campaign. It was Jodie Foster--and pretty much Jodie Foster alone--that brought me into the fold. It seems as if I stumbled into the party at exactly the wrong time.

For a very basic overview, Night Country tells the story of a mass disappearance of a group of scientists working at a research lab in Ennis, Alaska. Police chief Liz Danvers (Foster) and deputy Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) investigate the odd circumstances (a human tongue laying on the floor, for instance) and are pulled into a tangled web of intrigue both personal and mystical.

Simply put, Night Country is a rare major misfire form the HBO prestige TV department. Usually renowned for their hallowed Sunday night fare, this True Detective slate ends up an extreme disappointment. Though the production values are high enough to render each episode baseline watchable, this is a series that struggles to incubate a single coherent or interesting plot/character angle over its six episodes.

The first two installments aren't all bad--teasing an intriguing mystery and introducing all the interrelated personal connections in Ennis. But the next three episodes really go off the rails, setting up a finale that means well but by that point has lost almost all hope of mattering in any meaningful way.

The biggest problem here is that the six Night Country episodes are obscenely overstuffed--bursting at the seams with too many characters and hairpin plot zig-zags. Those impossible expectations aside, show runner Issa Lopez clearly wants Night Country to be a nuanced look at Inuit culture while also adding a mystical aspect to the proceedings. Add it all up and you get a giant mess of dead ends and false starts.

What Night Country needed was either 2-3 more episodes to let the content breathe, or a large pair of garden shears to prune away some of the storylines (however well-intentioned they might have been). As it stands, however, viewers got six episodes of irregular plot mechanics, far too many characters to handle, and a mysticism that belies the True Detective moniker. It's a shame to see such acting talent as Foster, Finn Bennett, Isabella LaBlanc, John Hawkes, and even Christopher Eccleston wasted in such a poor overall effort.

This season wasn't very good and you don't need to try to guess why I think this. It's not because I'm a misogynist. It's not because I'm a season 1 fan boy. It's not because I'm afraid of examining history. And it's not because I don't understand the story.

It is really quite simple. Season 4 had a fantastic setting, a mediocre story, terrible dialogue, and mostly terrible acting. The pacing was poor. Almost entire episodes would go by with no plot advancement and minimal character development. There were too many ancillary characters that did nothing to develop the main characters. And by episode 6, when I should have been invested in the characters, I flat out was not. The moral lessons some are going on about were told with the subtlety of a brick to the face.

I will say it again - like what you like. I'm not going to be so arrogant as to assume why you like this season if that's how you feel. Most of these negative reviews quite clearly state why they didn't like the season - and there are plenty of reasons to not like this season. There's no need to hypothesize why when there are glaring reasons staring you right in the face.

I only watched this because Jodie Foster was in it, believing she was a guarantee of quality. I was wrong. Oh, she was good, as were most of the cast. But the whole thing was a disappointment. First, it's really not a detective story - there was hardly any detecting going on. Second, there was way too much mumbo jumbo throughout, with the inevitable deep and meaningful spirituality of indigenous peoples dominating the thin plot. Third, the thing dragged on endlessly because there were way too many subplots and back stories going on. Fourth, more bad miners aided by dumb and bad men, being taken on by good and smart women, yadda yadda. And finally the resolution was ridiculous - with even more mumbo jumbo added for good measure. And then the ending never seemed to end, with subplots being rounded off and, yes, still more mumbo jumbo. I should have taken my wife's advice and given up after the first two episodes, but Jodie Foster was in it, so I was sure it would get better. But it didn't.

It is obvious that the director doesn't have much experience directing mystery/thriller work.

A good thriller not only needs a good story and characters but also a creative cinematography and a director with style and vision things that this show doesn't have.

It tries badly to imitate a bit Twin Peaks and Lost and fails miserably.

This show could have really used David Fincher, Kubric, David Lynch or John Carpenter at the helm.

There was a good story somewhere there. The script was undercooked and needed more revisions.

The story given was poorly constructed and edited.

The supernatural elements were poorly developed and displayed.

Characters were poorly developed. I did not care for any of the characters specially for the secondary ones.

This could have had been a great whodunnit mystery/supernatural/scifi/horror/thriller but it landed in amateurish hands.