True Detective - Night Country

Schade, dass das Ende überstürzt ist. Es ließ z. B. die Beziehung zwischen Vater und Sohn Prior für meinen Geschmack zu sehr eskalieren, den anderen Figuren (Danvers Tochter, die geheimnisvolle Rose) hat es sich zu wenig gewidmet. Ansonsten hat mir Night Country sehr gut gefallen und damit meine ich nicht nur die fantastische Atmosphäre und die fesselnde Kameraführung, sondern vor allem die Schauspielleistungen von Jodie Foster und Kali Reis. Die Kombination aus Krimi und Mystery hat gut funktioniert, ich kann mir keinen passenderen Rahmen für einen solchen Fall vorstellen. (22.02.2024)

My commentary should start with something positive. I've been thinking for a long time about what I could say that would please Issa López, that I could give the show a thumbs up, but I couldn't do it. Yet I figured it out. The length. The modest six episodes saved the audience from more nonsensical screenwriting lapses, prevented us from spending more time with poorly written, untrustworthy characters, and prevented us from marveling at logical acrobatics in the plot. With a standard eight-episode length, I might have gone for just one star. If True Detective was exceptional in something, it was Nic Pizzolatto's screenwriting art, which was behind the previous seasons. The difference is overwhelming. The third season was marked by average direction, but Pizzolatto's influence saved the series from disaster. Issa López is a below-average screenwriter, but as a director, she knows what to serve to the audience so they don't feel bored, so she uses what she has seen elsewhere and is convinced it works. As viewers, you could play a game that she gathered inspiration from everywhere. For a moment, you feel like you are at Carpenter's scientific base from The Thing, for a while you face Nordic demons from The Terror series, and I could go on. Pizzolatto played with the audience, but it was a sophisticated game, while Issa López slides into cheap tricks to keep the audience's attention. The acting is average, as Jodie Foster struggles with her character, going directly against her acting type. I would consider the final resolution more of a disrespectful joke at the audience's expense. If you don't think too much about the plot, then the series deserves two stars. Overall impression: 40%. (11.03.2024)

I wonder if the first wave of reviewers, who before the broadcast were shouting in unison (in retrospect) raving lines about the best True Detective season, were just getting drunk on a roll (the impression of exclusivity of being the first to see it) or if they got a proper reward from the studio. Most likely, HBO did a good job of calculating who they could exclusively show it to in order to get the desired response. I guess it wasn't exactly hard – after the final episode, it seems that the biggest focus was on hanging all the progressive themes on the "plot" that "journalists" automatically give points for. So there's a dominant protagonist (and it doesn't matter that she's extremely unlikeable), strongly represented minorities (and it doesn't matter that Kali Reis isn't up to the acting), environmental themes and positively framed terrorist activists, or a supposed Inuit mystique consisting of occasional esoteric bollocks and wandering digital beasts. I'd a hundred times rather watch a progressive thing than a conservative thing myself, but it annoys me to no end that someone thinks it will be enough on its own. Make a damn good crime drama in the first place. For five episodes I tolerated Night Country as an annoyingly drawn-out but – perhaps – average crime drama, but I found the finale a mockery. It was stupid on so many levels! I burst out laughing out loud at the flashback reconstruction of what actually happened at the base. (19.02.2024)

The writing is two levels worse than Pizzolatto. The unsatisfying ending and the stilted linking with the first series are actually more distracting than enjoyable. The creepy atmosphere is solid as well, and the final reveal is quite original. Unfortunately a lot of the motifs are just for show and have no justification other than to create that creepy atmosphere. Too bad. An environmental point driven to awkwardness the moment the creators decide not to reveal what was the cool thing the guys actually found there. Jodie Foster plays an unlikeable wannabe badass, Kali Reis is pretty cool, but those face piercings probably didn’t feel too nice in the freezing cold. The family relationships and trauma were almost useless, and if Night Country had been a movie unrelated to True Detective, they would have done better. I think I'll put Matthew and Woody back on to fix my appetite. (19.02.2024)