OT: TV and Movies

[Siefer]

It should have been called Night Country like they originally intended. The name True Detective was dragging at it the entire time. I liked the characters, the cinematography, the vibes, but the show ended up caught in a kinda unsatisfying in-between space.

Spoiler:

I'm glad they took big swings, but this one isn't sitting quite right with me. It wanted to be both a ghost story, and a sincere tale of institutional power, and marginalized women being discarded. I'm here for that tightrope, and maybe I'll feel differently later, but I don't think the show got there.

The good: the vibes and the characters were great. Reddit can cram it - Kali Reis was excellent, and I just believed in this weird, sad place. Foster can clearly still bring it as well.

Here's my main issue. The show smartly swerved away from the mental health or spooky ghosts question, but then it gave a clear answer to the supernatural question with Annie's ghost in the parking garage where only the audience could see it. If you're going to outright give the answer, you need to commit to the bit. If you want to be an overt ghost story, do that.

On the other side of it, we got most of the story of the native women through expository flashback montages in the last 30 minutes. They felt very "oh by the way." I ended up feeling like it would have been much better served either committing to the horror story, or pushing the ghosts to the edges and really getting into the stories of the women.

The show played with the visual language and sound-design of a very mid 2000s ghost story, but tried to also maintain the ambiguity of S1s more cosmic horror trappings, and more grounded conclusions, and it ended up not coalescing for me.

Stray thoughts: Pretty much every direct S1 reference was a mistake (the time is a flat circle line was excruciating), and the atmosphere was regularly undermined by some truly awful needle drops.

[Siefer]

On a related note, it's a bit overlooked in the US, but Tokyo Vice continues to be fantastic. Among my favorite shows of the last few years.

[machu46]

On a related note, it's a bit overlooked in the US, but Tokyo Vice continues to be fantastic. Among my favorite shows of the last few years.

Did it just return or something? I remember a trailer for it in season 1 and then never heard of it again but suddenly in the last few days I’ve seen like a million posts on social media saying this same thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ron Swanson]

Night Country was good up until the finale. Just thought they really struggled to find a satisfying conclusion, and if anything, they really could have used the standard 8-10 episodes instead of 6.

Spoiler:

The reveal that the local women did it seemed shoe-horned in even if it was a surprising twist. Also, like, they still straight up murdered a bunch of dudes. Whether they deserved it or not is debatable, but Foster's character ends up being a pretty terrible cop/detective if all she's doing is just, ironically, covering up a bunch of crimes/murders lol.

There's 6 hours of my life I'm not getting back.

Awful. Like season 2 awful.

Yeah.....no. Season 2 is an abomination that hasn't come close to being replicated. Too far.

[HaroldinGMinor]

On a related note, it's a bit overlooked in the US, but Tokyo Vice continues to be fantastic. Among my favorite shows of the last few years.

Did it just return or something? I remember a trailer for it in season 1 and then never heard of it again but suddenly in the last few days I’ve seen like a million posts on social media saying this same thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes I just discovered season 2 on Friday. Now that HBO is Max, it's hard to find stuff on the new site. TV wasn't under "HBO" it was under "Series" which, ya know, makes all the sense in the world.

[HaroldinGMinor]

Night Country was good up until the finale. Just thought they really struggled to find a satisfying conclusion, and if anything, they really could have used the standard 8-10 episodes instead of 6.

Spoiler:

The reveal that the local women did it seemed shoe-horned in even if it was a surprising twist. Also, like, they still straight up murdered a bunch of dudes. Whether they deserved it or not is debatable, but Foster's character ends up being a pretty terrible cop/detective if all she's doing is just, ironically, covering up a bunch of crimes/murders lol.

In response to your spolier:

Spoiler:

In Danvers' defense, the scientists murdered Annie K and who knows how many other people (e.g. stillbirths, cancer) with the increased pollution levels

[Ron Swanson]

Night Country was good up until the finale. Just thought they really struggled to find a satisfying conclusion, and if anything, they really could have used the standard 8-10 episodes instead of 6.

Spoiler:

The reveal that the local women did it seemed shoe-horned in even if it was a surprising twist. Also, like, they still straight up murdered a bunch of dudes. Whether they deserved it or not is debatable, but Foster's character ends up being a pretty terrible cop/detective if all she's doing is just, ironically, covering up a bunch of crimes/murders lol.

In response to your spolier:

Spoiler:

In Danvers' defense, the scientists murdered Annie K and who knows how many other people (e.g. stillbirths, cancer) with the increased pollution levels

Spoiler:

True, and like I said, you can't say those dudes didn't deserve it. But at the same time, she already covered up the execution of an unarmed suspect in the flashback scene (Wheeler case). But maybe that's the entire dilemma of this season. Your duty/following the law vs. righteous justice. Certainly an argument to be made that simply bringing what the scientists were doing to light wouldn't have mattered (like the elder Inuit woman said), but it's just a tricky tight-rope to walk and probably one of the reasons the tone felt IMO a little too celebratory at the end.

[Licensed to Il]

Night Country was good up until the finale. Just thought they really struggled to find a satisfying conclusion, and if anything, they really could have used the standard 8-10 episodes instead of 6.

Spoiler:

The reveal that the local women did it seemed shoe-horned in even if it was a surprising twist. Also, like, they still straight up murdered a bunch of dudes. Whether they deserved it or not is debatable, but Foster's character ends up being a pretty terrible cop/detective if all she's doing is just, ironically, covering up a bunch of crimes/murders lol.

In response to your spolier:

Spoiler:

In Danvers' defense, the scientists murdered Annie K and who knows how many other people (e.g. stillbirths, cancer) with the increased pollution levels

Spoiler:

True, and like I said, you can't say those dudes didn't deserve it. But at the same time, she already covered up the execution of an unarmed suspect in the flashback scene (Wheeler case). But maybe that's the entire dilemma of this season. Your duty/following the law vs. righteous justice. Certainly an argument to be made that simply bringing what the scientists were doing to light wouldn't have mattered (like the elder Inuit woman said), but it's just a tricky tight-rope to walk and probably one of the reasons the tone felt IMO a little too celebratory at the end.

The Ethical Dilema of TD Season 4:

Spoiler:

- Some people will fall in the category of "if the scientists were truly about to save the world, polluting 10% of the population of a tiny town is justified" which has a logic to it

- But most viewers will think to themself "it doesn't matter what the corporation's intentions were, innocent people died and that's unjust. "And this second line of thinking is what drove Davers and Navarro to expose and eventually shut down the research station. They were led by a righteous impulse to bring justice. Of course they (and the women elders) committed and covered up maybe a dozen crimes (murder, tampering with evidence, illegal interrogation, etc) in the process.

I get, the thing with Navvaro's name, revealed that she was destined to bring retribution to the people and restoration to the land, above and beyond and outside of modern, western law. Folk hero stuff. But like Ron said, receiving and processing the story as intended requires a very selective ethic.

[Ron Swanson]

I'm happy to see that Resident Alien is getting a huge push now that it migrated over to Netflix. Great show.

[Siefer]

On a related note, it's a bit overlooked in the US, but Tokyo Vice continues to be fantastic. Among my favorite shows of the last few years.

Did it just return or something? I remember a trailer for it in season 1 and then never heard of it again but suddenly in the last few days I’ve seen like a million posts on social media saying this same thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes I just discovered season 2 on Friday. Now that HBO is Max, it's hard to find stuff on the new site. TV wasn't under "HBO" it was under "Series" which, ya know, makes all the sense in the world.

The Max app is complete garbage.

[Siefer]

In response to your spolier:

Spoiler:

In Danvers' defense, the scientists murdered Annie K and who knows how many other people (e.g. stillbirths, cancer) with the increased pollution levels

Spoiler:

True, and like I said, you can't say those dudes didn't deserve it. But at the same time, she already covered up the execution of an unarmed suspect in the flashback scene (Wheeler case). But maybe that's the entire dilemma of this season. Your duty/following the law vs. righteous justice. Certainly an argument to be made that simply bringing what the scientists were doing to light wouldn't have mattered (like the elder Inuit woman said), but it's just a tricky tight-rope to walk and probably one of the reasons the tone felt IMO a little too celebratory at the end.

The Ethical Dilema of TD Season 4:

Spoiler:

- Some people will fall in the category of "if the scientists were truly about to save the world, polluting 10% of the population of a tiny town is justified" which has a logic to it

- But most viewers will think to themself "it doesn't matter what the corporation's intentions were, innocent people died and that's unjust. "And this second line of thinking is what drove Davers and Navarro to expose and eventually shut down the research station. They were led by a righteous impulse to bring justice. Of course they (and the women elders) committed and covered up maybe a dozen crimes (murder, tampering with evidence, illegal interrogation, etc) in the process.

I get, the thing with Navvaro's name, revealed that she was destined to bring retribution to the people and restoration to the land, above and beyond and outside of modern, western law. Folk hero stuff. But like Ron said, receiving and processing the story as intended requires a very selective ethic.

Spoiler:

The tension between duty and ethics, community and profession, the particular standing of police in a place where they've historically represented oppression (and how Navarro fits into that) - all of these are worthwhile topics to explore, and I think the show was interested in being thoughtful about all of this. It just ended up caught between two very different modes, and I think there's a better version of Night Country that cuts 30 minutes worth of J-horror for 30 minutes on, for example, why these two women became cops in the first place. Or is two episodes longer and, gives that stuff more room to breath. That almost every key event is explained in a flurry of flashbacks in the last episode really hurts how this stuff lands.

[BUCKnation]

I didn’t like the resolution to TD and agree with what others in regards to where it should have leaned.

That said, I wanna give a shout out to the set designer. Incredible stuff all season.

Also, on a different note. Really enjoyed Mr and Mrs Smith.

[MoreTrife]

On a related note, it's a bit overlooked in the US, but Tokyo Vice continues to be fantastic. Among my favorite shows of the last few years.

Great, great show.

[ReasonablySober]

Watch on YouTube

New Girl season one is solid (doing a rewatch) but this was when you knew it was going to be a modern comedy classic.

[MickeyDavis]

Take a drink every time you heard "Navarro!"

Not a fan of Kali Reis.

Cool location, as others have said they didn't come up with a decent conclusion.

Not even close to S2, that was putrid.

[buckboy]

Night Country was good up until the finale. Just thought they really struggled to find a satisfying conclusion, and if anything, they really could have used the standard 8-10 episodes instead of 6.

Spoiler:

The reveal that the local women did it seemed shoe-horned in even if it was a surprising twist. Also, like, they still straight up murdered a bunch of dudes. Whether they deserved it or not is debatable, but Foster's character ends up being a pretty terrible cop/detective if all she's doing is just, ironically, covering up a bunch of crimes/murders lol.

There's 6 hours of my life I'm not getting back.

Awful. Like season 2 awful.

Yeah.....no. Season 2 is an abomination that hasn't come close to being replicated. Too far.

No. Just as bad.

[ReasonablySober]

Since I binged it in a day I didn't spend much time thinking about the season.

But reading all the insane plot holes makes me wonder how this stuff gets from ink to screen.

[PintSizedBox10]

If it wasn't for Foster I'd say they tacked on the 'True Detective' label to what was supposed to be a standalone short-series to garner more viewers. True Detective really hasn't been that good outside of Season 1 (which was top tier TV)

[ReasonablySober]

If it wasn't for Foster I'd say they tacked on the 'True Detective' label to what was supposed to be a standalone short-series to garner more viewers. True Detective really hasn't been that good outside of Season 1 (which was top tier TV)

I liked season three. I thought Dorf was especially good. Not top tier, but a nice rebound.

It was definitely better than Night Country.

[StickeeFingaz]

Put me in the camp of not feeling the finale of True Detective. I enjoyed the show less and less as it progressed.