True Detective: Night Country is one of the worst mystery episodes I’ve ever watched. I can’t think of any detective series that I loathed as much as this one in the end. Season 2 was a dismal follow-up to True Detective’s first season, but this doesn’t even seem like the same show, despite several attempts to convince us differently.
Note: This review is based on all six episodes of HBO’s new crime drama. It contains no spoilers other than some notes about the environment and characters. I post recaps/reviews for each episode as it airs. You may find links to each of my reviews below.
The Long Night
Despite having access to all six episodes ahead of time, I wanted to watch one episode at a time with the other viewers when Night Country initially aired. I’ve done this with a lot of performances since it helps me stay on the same page with the audience. I can estimate and forecast alongside everyone else. It’s entertaining most of the time, especially with mysteries, and it allows me to write about each episode from that perspective, still unsure of what’s going to happen.
I gave up on Night Country after episode 3 and watched the following three episodes for one reason: I wasn’t enjoying the programme enough to care about what occurred, and I wanted to see whether it improved. Was there a gratifying payout at the end that justified the effort I’d expended so far? Will the myriad cryptic hints and character connections eventually come together to provide a satisfactory conclusion?
Unfortunately, I can confidently respond to these queries with a firm “No.” If anything, Night Country deteriorates in its second half. The programme is experiencing an identity issue, straddling the line between its roots as a standalone mystery and HBO’s choice to include it into the True Detective franchise. The mystery itself lacks any feeling of organic urgency or cohesive inquiry. The convoluted storyline is weighed down in dull, tiresome exposition and repetitious conversation. The pacing is inconsistent. Every time anything thrilling or fascinating happens, the programme slams on the brakes, devolving into another dull chat or abruptly transitioning to a different scene. The wonderful location can’t redeem this.
Occasionally, in desperate acts of fan service, a sentence from Season 1 is inserted where it does not belong. One Season 1 callback in particular, at the season finale, had me laugh out loud in dismay. I may or may not have yelled at my television.
None of the characters are very likeable. That’s a major issue, but it may have been mitigated if the tale they were telling was fascinating enough to make such wretched individuals watchable. Shows like White Lotus do this tricky balancing act with elegance. Not so in Night Country. Liz Danvers, played by Jodie Foster, has almost no redeeming qualities, and her partner, Detective Navarro (Kali Reis), is as unlikable. You can get away with having a detective be this dreadful of a human person provided they compensate with a Hercule Poirot-esque intelligence. However, neither Danvers nor Navarro have many small grey cells. Finally, I felt nothing but hatred and disgust for both.
The show’s creators apparently disagree. They want us to identify with these investigators and the decisions they make. Unfortunately, it was never earned. Neither is the programme’s absolutely predictable, completely disappointing finale or laundry list of cliches—though if you want a nice dose of syrupy preachiness, this may be the show for you.
A Recipe for Disaster
Night Country’s elements make for a terrible list: predictable, dull, nasty, sanctimonious, and derivative. Add a touch of poor CGI and some atrociously awful cinematography—not to mention all the ridiculous needle drops—and you’ve got something that hardly resembles True Detective. The last episode feels less like the franchise it nominally belongs to and more like a cheap copy of the film it openly borrows from (as I expected from my first episodic review).
I completed seeing Deadloch on Amazon Prime Video earlier last week. The similarities between the two shows are astounding. Both are loosely based on the Nordic noir tradition. Both take place in strange tiny villages remote from major cities: Ennis, Alaska, and Deadloch, Tasmania. Both have female detectives investigating men’s deaths, as well as domineering male police commanders who threaten to meddle. Believe it or not, each mystery revolves on missing tongues.
But Deadloch is a novel with people you care about, a vulgar but endearing sense of humour, and a compelling mystery with real suspects that keeps you wondering until the conclusion. Night Country can hardly keep track of its chaotic, sweeping ensemble, let alone the crime the investigators are attempting to solve. I foresaw the finale (or at least the most of it) in the season opener. The only surprise aspect of this presentation is how clear everything is.
However, please continue to watch! I’ll be evaluating each episode as we go, and I’d love to discuss it with you week by week. Even the show’s most ardent supporters may be dissatisfied in the end; nevertheless
Another thing I wanted to point out was how, in each episode, the same plot beats are repeated. This section contains spoilers for episodes 1–4, but no spoilers for the remaining two episodes, other than to note that the same recurring flaws persist throughout. I’ve seen a lot of comments stating they’ll have to really ratchet things up and hasten the last two episodes, but the truth is that the structure remains roughly the same, with many of the same pace issues afflicting every episode this season.