True Detective: The Night Country is dark and full of terrors!

[Ran]

47 minutes ago, IFR said:

the characters could have hopped into a nearby warm car

There's a lot of manufactured drama in the show, and this was certainly one -- literally no reason to gather material and start a fire when they could have warmed up the cabin of the car in a couple of minutes. and been way more comfortable. Those cars probably had heated seats, too.

Or... like, Tsalal. They barely spend any time looking at that scene, but there ought to be a ton of evidence 

Spoiler

in the form of prints, if nothing else, from the vengeful women raid, throwing doors open, pushing people up against walls, etc.

This sort of critical viewpoint is not unknown to me -- it happened as GoT progressed and they made some very sloppy decisions, but they had big "shock and awe" going and the critics mostly just ignored logic and went with the vibes. 

 

[aceluby]

26 minutes ago, Ran said:

There's a lot of manufactured drama in the show, and this was certainly one -- literally no reason to gather material and start a fire when they could have warmed up the cabin of the car in a couple of minutes. and been way more comfortable. Those cars probably had heated seats, too.

Or... like, Tsalal. They barely spend any time looking at that scene, but there ought to be a ton of evidence 

  Hide contents

in the form of prints, if nothing else, from the vengeful women raid, throwing doors open, pushing people up against walls, etc.

This sort of critical viewpoint is not unknown to me -- it happened as GoT progressed and they made some very sloppy decisions, but they had big "shock and awe" going and the critics mostly just ignored logic and went with the vibes. 

 

Spoiler

Weren't they all wearing gloves and in full winter gear head-to-toe?  Not having prints seems pretty likely.  Maybe some other physical evidence should have been there to point them in the direction of a bigger tussle maybe, but it honestly didn't bother me.  I guess if I was nit-picking, how efficient they were at it was probably the least believable.  They were like a swat team, lol.

 

[Ran]

Just now, aceluby said:

  Hide contents

Weren't they all wearing gloves and in full winter gear head-to-toe?  Not having prints seems pretty likely.  Maybe some other physical evidence should have been there to point them in the direction of a bigger tussle maybe, but it honestly didn't bother me.  I guess if I was nit-picking, how efficient they were at it was probably the least believable.  They were like a swat team, lol.

 

Spoiler

There are several who definitely came in without gloves.

Most of them had long, loose hair, too -- some hair follicles would likely have been found if the Ennis police made any serious effort at the Tsalal scene.

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

3 hours ago, IFR said:

And this is why I find professional critics unreliable. This show is a microcosm of an overall social movement in that circle. We are looking for different things.

II totally ignore critic opinion and only view a limited amount of trailers as well.

I had found my tastes to be polar opposite of too many reviews to weigh them anymore.

[The hairy bear]

I think it has been a good resolution. I was fearing that they'd abuse the supernatural element, so I'm happy that there was a logical, earned answer to the mystery. (except for the tongue, which I think they should have dispensed with).

 

7 hours ago, Ran said:

  Hide contents

There are several who definitely came in without gloves.

Most of them had long, loose hair, too -- some hair follicles would likely have been found if the Ennis police made any serious effort at the Tsalal scene.

 

Spoiler

One would guess that the ones without gloves and loose hair where the ones who regularly went to clean at the Tsalal station. The police would not be surprised at finding evidence of them having been there.

 

[IFR]

5 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

II totally ignore critic opinion and only view a limited amount of trailers as well.

I had found my tastes to be polar opposite of too many reviews to weigh them anymore.

I find them worthwhile even if I don't agree with them. When reviews go into detail about what the reviewer likes and dislikes, I can usually infer from that content whether I will like or dislike the show or movie.

I have limited time, and I don't want to waste it watching something I dislike. I find it useful to have a quick look at critic reviews, imdb reviews, and reddit reviews. That has generally been a good barometer. Of course I'll watch shows whose premise seems very promising too - although that's less reliable in my experience.

Anyway, GoT was mentioned earlier and that relates to this show in a rather fun way. The finale of this show is now at a 5.8 rating on imdb. It's unlikely to achieve the remarkable rating of 4 to which the GoT finale managed to plummet, but it is hot on the heels of the second lowest rated episode, which sits at a 5.5.

[TheLastWolf]

Cohle's dad and that old lady, what was the deal with her trauma? Talking as if she did him in like Pete did Hank, guilty and mourning and all. 

The damn tongue again.

[Ran]

8 hours ago, The hairy bear said:

I think it has been a good resolution. I was fearing that they'd abuse the supernatural element, so I'm happy that there was a logical, earned answer to the mystery. (except for the tongue, which I think they should have dispensed with).

 

  Reveal hidden contents

One would guess that the ones without gloves and loose hair where the ones who regularly went to clean at the Tsalal station. The police would not be surprised at finding evidence of them having been there.

 

Spoiler

We call them vengeful cleaning ladies, but in fact we only know that two of them cleaned at Tsalal, the two women who we see Danvers questioning in episode 2 (Bee, the ringleader, and a woman who I don't think we ever get the name of). Blair (three-fingered lady) and the rest were just part of the female indigenous community.

 

Edited February 20 by Ran

[dbunting]

I never really got into this show. I tried it weekly, then tried binging the last three episodes but never really mattered. I liked a few of the characters, Navarro, the young male cop and his wife but that was about it.

One thing I must've missed.

Spoiler

Why was it such a big reveal when the lady found the hatch in the lab? I mean, the scientists were there for that exact reason and she seemed shocked by it? Then by seeing the one drill tool was able to determine that all these men killed the one girl with it? None of that made any sense. 

I do admit I wasn't wholly focused so maybe I missed how the leap was made in the about spoiler?

[Ran]

@IFR

My friend Sean T. Collins has a interesting pan of the finale that I think you may appreciate. And did you see the NYT review of the whole season? The writer coined the term "virtue-noir", which I suspect will be getting a lot of play.

@dbunting

Spoiler

Yeah, none of it made much sense. Why did Annie go ham, screaming like a banshee, rather than using her phone to record evidence of what they were doing? She could have leaked it all to the press. She was repeatedly described as an activist, which strongly suggests she was trying to use the power of public opinion. I can sort of/kind of understand the cleaning ladies keeping mum because they didn't believe anything would change... but, WTF, your children and grandchildren are still drinking that polluted water! Why aren't you trying to get the evidence out there?

 

[SpaceChampion]

39 minutes ago, Ran said:

My friend Sean T. Collins has a interesting pan of the finale that I think you may appreciate. And did you see the NYT review of the whole season? T

I think he made up that part where

Spoiler

Annie K planted her own tongue at the station to kick off the investigation.

but you know what?  I'm going to accept that.  That's the answer.  It happened that way. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

I found it odd being described as more or less a horror mystery. I cant think of any scenes that even remotely gave me chills or rose to the darkness of "horror" classification. It fell completely flat on the fright level to me.

Safe to say they'll be no rewatch for me.

[IFR]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

@IFR

My friend Sean T. Collins has a interesting pan of the finale that I think you may appreciate. And did you see the NYT review of the whole season? The writer coined the term "virtue-noir", which I suspect will be getting a lot of play.

@dbunting

  Reveal hidden contents

Yeah, none of it made much sense. Why did Annie go ham, screaming like a banshee, rather than using her phone to record evidence of what they were doing? She could have leaked it all to the press. She was repeatedly described as an activist, which strongly suggests she was trying to use the power of public opinion. I can sort of/kind of understand the cleaning ladies keeping mum because they didn't believe anything would change... but, WTF, your children and grandchildren are still drinking that polluted water! Why aren't you trying to get the evidence out there?

 

Virtue-noir is very amusing.

I did enjoy your friend's review.

Spoiler

The vengeful spirit of Annie K. killed all the scientists, including Clark, the sole survivor of the vigilante attack, with her ice powers. She also planted her own tongue at the crime scene to kickstart the investigation. These are things that happened.

[IFR]

Pizzalotto is drumming up some chaos by passive-agressively liking X comments that are savaging Night Country.

What an egostical ass. I'm not a fan of the show either, but is a little professional conduct too much to ask for? Apparently.

And it is rather bold of him considering that the first season of True Detective is the only thing in his career that he has produced that is worthwhile. His book Galveston is awful, and The Magnificent Seven remake is one of the movies I most regret letting my dad drag me to. Not to mention the dire quality of season 2 of True Detective (I'll concede that season 3 was serviceable).

Anyway, shame on him.

Edited February 21 by IFR

[Ran]

He sounds like he basically didn't have a choice when HBO insisted on turning Lopez's pitch into part of the True Detective franchise, so he's lashing out. He should have waived his executive producer credit, though, if he wanted his name off of it and wanted to be able to criticize it with clean hands. Taking the credit -- and presumably the check that comes with it -- does suggest he should be a lot more circumspect.

OTOH, who knows, maybe HBO also strongarmed him into taking the credit and money, perhaps threatening his development deal with them if he didn't play ball because they knew it'd look bad if his name was nowhere to be seen.

 

Edited February 21 by Ran

[Relic]

Oh please, don't make excuses for that guy. He's a dickpimple, which is one of the reasons he lost his own show. 

Anyway, came in here to see what people were saying about the finale. Don't regret dropping out weeks ago, from the sound of it. 

Edited February 21 by Relic

[IFR]

6 hours ago, Ran said:

He sounds like he basically didn't have a choice when HBO insisted on turning Lopez's pitch into part of the True Detective franchise, so he's lashing out. He should have waived his executive producer credit, though, if he wanted his name off of it and wanted to be able to criticize it with clean hands. Taking the credit -- and presumably the check that comes with it -- does suggest he should be a lot more circumspect.

OTOH, who knows, maybe HBO also strongarmed him into taking the credit and money, perhaps threatening his development deal with them if he didn't play ball because they knew it'd look bad if his name was nowhere to be seen.

 

I like the Alan Moore approach. Don't take the money, be upfront about how the other party was underhanded in their dealings that brought you to this point, and at that point feel free to be as cantankerous as you please.

Taking the money, offering no explanation (likely because he had to sign an NDA), and then going with this cowardly approach Pizzalotto is using gets no respect from me.

[Ran]

In general, I agree with that approach. If you take the money, you should shut up. And he has certainly showed himself to be an asshole before, so this could just be another fine example of that. But we don't really know the story, so I've got to leave open the possibility that HBO basically forced him to put his name on it, in which case, I don't know, down with corporate slavery, right ya'll?

[dbunting]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

In general, I agree with that approach. If you take the money, you should shut up. And he has certainly showed himself to be an asshole before, so this could just be another fine example of that. But we don't really know the story, so I've got to leave open the possibility that HBO basically forced him to put his name on it, in which case, I don't know, down with corporate slavery, right ya'll?

As long as you don't wind up needing that corporate overlord later down the road! Not wise to burn bridges in an industry where most bridges are connected in some way.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

5 hours ago, IFR said:

I like the Alan Moore approach. Don't take the money, be upfront about how the other party was underhanded in their dealings that brought you to this point, and at that point feel free to be as cantankerous as you please.

Taking the money, offering no explanation (likely because he had to sign an NDA), and then going with this cowardly approach Pizzalotto is using gets no respect from me.

I liked the Watchmen mini-series sequel… but their treatment of Dr. Manhattan made absolutely no sense at all… he can’t modify lithium?  That’s oddly specific for a character that is essentially a capital “G”… God.