Night Country: Part 6

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.

"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."

The series wasn't for me, I'll admit that. I have no issue with female focused TV, I enjoy much of it. I loved Mare of Eastown, She Hulk, Sharp Objects, Yellowjackets, I could go on...

Night Country felt like late Grey's Anatomy to me, with the constant bickering and angry woman theme that permeates every interaction the characters have with each other, and the cartoonishly inept male characters. Coincidentally, I loved early Grey's A before it devolved to a 40 minute cat fight, around S8-9. Night Country's writing was bad. Period. The dialogue was bad. Period. Kali Reis, and I'm sorry, I never call out actors, was in over her head. She simply doesn't have the experience to carry a show of this magnitude. She was a major distraction, particularly in her delivery of the terrible script.

And!... All that's okay! Again this series wasn't for me, I quit after epi:4. My issue, what bothers me, why was Night Country shoehorned into True Detective? Why was the series targeted at me? Had True Detective not been a part of the equation, and I had read the premise of NC, I would have probably(likely) passed. Even with the great Jodie Foster being involved. If networks and studios want to stop backlash and negative reaction they need to stop using known and respected IP to push their mediocre(at best) content.

Let Night Country stand on its own, don't prop it up with True Detective.

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.

Other than Jodie Foster and Finn Bennett, the show has no redeeming qualities.

We suffered through every episode with the convoluted plot and bad mysticism. Instead of telling a story, the writers took you in a multitude of directions to merely stretch out the series. It was certainly not for entertainment purposes.

It must be a huge town. When flipping between scenes occurring at the same time, it would be a terrible snowstorm in one location, but perfectly clear in another. The power would go off in part of the city, but not another parts of the city.

At least one thing became clear at the end. The polar bear gouged out his own eye after watching this series. I felt he same eay as the beat.