Night Country: Part 3

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.)

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.

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.

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 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.