To put it quite simply, this season of True Detective is just not very good and it's all because of the script.
It's a common meme in cop stories these days that the police aren't any better than the criminals, and "Night Country" is no exception. There are no true heroes here, nobody to root for. It's a deliberate choice by Ms. López.
Part of the story is a rather mundane diversion about a parent dealing with a rebellious teenage girl. It mattered until we found out that during the day the parent - the chief of police played by Jodie Foster - is a stone cold killer. Ultimately we're left wondering what was the point of having the daughter in the story in the first place.
There are a lot of plot threads like that throughout the story that ultimately go nowhere. One example is the supernatural elements that add nothing to the story. It takes the first two episodes just to figure out who all the characters are which means it takes that long before we can even begin to care about them. There's also the tired old plot gimmick of trying to keep our interest by dumping us in the middle of people's stories and leaving us to figure everything out. Just once I would like a story that is told in a straightforward way without a lot of flashbacks in the middle of it.
But most annoying of all is Ms. López' explanation for all the evil in Ennis. In the last episode we're told that the reason for all the murders is that the local mining company needs to increase pollution to warm up the local permafrost and make "mining" DNA easier. But climate change and DNA just don't work that way. Either Ms. López failed General Science 1 in her freshman year or she's being deliberately dishonest with us. Either way, it's an insult, especially after we've just devoted 7 or 8 hours to this story. We wind up wondering how we could trust any other plot elements in the story or any of the character motivations. It leaves us feeling manipulated.
"Night Country" had promise, but it was all frittered away by the script being dishonest about too many things.
It's a common meme in cop stories these days that the police aren't any better than the criminals, and "Night Country" is no exception. There are no true heroes here, nobody to root for. It's a deliberate choice by Ms. López.
Part of the story is a rather mundane diversion about a parent dealing with a rebellious teenage girl. It mattered until we found out that during the day the parent - the chief of police played by Jodie Foster - is a stone cold killer. Ultimately we're left wondering what was the point of having the daughter in the story in the first place.
There are a lot of plot threads like that throughout the story that ultimately go nowhere. One example is the supernatural elements that add nothing to the story. It takes the first two episodes just to figure out who all the characters are which means it takes that long before we can even begin to care about them. There's also the tired old plot gimmick of trying to keep our interest by dumping us in the middle of people's stories and leaving us to figure everything out. Just once I would like a story that is told in a straightforward way without a lot of flashbacks in the middle of it.
But most annoying of all is Ms. López' explanation for all the evil in Ennis. In the last episode we're told that the reason for all the murders is that the local mining company needs to increase pollution to warm up the local permafrost and make "mining" DNA easier. But climate change and DNA just don't work that way. Either Ms. López failed General Science 1 in her freshman year or she's being deliberately dishonest with us. Either way, it's an insult, especially after we've just devoted 7 or 8 hours to this story. We wind up wondering how we could trust any other plot elements in the story or any of the character motivations. It leaves us feeling manipulated.
"Night Country" had promise, but it was all frittered away by the script being dishonest about too many things.
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