Is anybody mad that Issa López will be helming another season of True Detective?
HBO has renewed True Detective for a fifth season with Night Country showrunner Issa López
Aux News True Detective
Given that the fourth season of True Detective received a warm critical reception and franchise-high ratings, it’s not at all surprising that HBO has decided to renew the series with this season’s showrunner Issa López at the helm. But what would normally be a run-of-the-mill newswire feels a lot more pointed in the midst of True Detective’s creator, Nic Pizzolatto, having some decidedly ungenerous reactions to López’s work. Pizzolatto may have found López’s references to the first season “stupid,” but HBO is signing up for more!
In a press release, HBO’s Head of Drama Series and Films, EVP Francesca Orsi, praised López as a “one-of-a-kind, rare talent” who “never once [faltered] from her own commendable vision” while making True Detective: Night Country. (That’s her own vision, not some other guy’s True Detective vision…) “From conception to release, Night Country has been the most beautiful collaboration and adventure of my entire creative life,” López said in her own statement. “HBO trusted my vision all the way, and the idea of bringing to life a new incarnation of True Detective with Casey [Bloys], Francesca and the whole team is a dream come true. I can’t wait to go again.”
As an anthology series, every season of True Detective is completely different (barring a few Easter eggs that connect each story under a shared umbrella). We can only speculate what the fifth season will look like, but López teased some of her thoughts in her post-Night Country media blitz. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the writer-director said she appreciated being “free to tell the stories that I care about as long as I respect those elements and I use the same grammar” as the previous entries in the franchise. She added that it would be interesting to create a mystery “also as a playing game with the people who interact and dissect a mystery. You create this relationship with the audience. I put something into the world and they received it beautifully, and I saw them interact with it.” To Variety, she said she would “for sure” like to keep making True Detective: “The luxury that this particular series presents is that what makes it is a tone, and a certain way of looking at the world, and to America. And it allows for an exploration of the dark and macabre that I love.”
And so, Nic Pizzolatto will have to sit through another season of someone else running his show. Fortunately for him, he’s still listed as an executive producer, so he’ll get the money and the credit no matter what he does (even if he’s actively complaining about the product). And fortunately for Night Country fans, López seems not at all deterred by Pizzolatto’s petulance. “[All] I can say is I love True Detective and I love Night Country, and they’re in that same universe, and if you jumped on the boat with me and came for the ride, you’re going to enjoy the fact that the language is the same language and the mythology is the same mythology and the elements are shared,” she told THR. “But if you didn’t jump on the boat with me, you’re not going to like it. So I hope you jumped on the boat with me and gave this chance.”
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I’m actually happy. This means I can skip it and not waste my time.
Honestly, my gripes with this season had little to do with whether Rae “got True Detective right.” It’s an anthology series with a rocky past; take it in whatever direction you want. But hearing a lot of what Rae is saying about her approach to the project is…in contrast with what I saw. And the general attitude framing critiques as coming from people who “don’t get it” or are predisposed to “not get it…” is a bit alienating. I’ll be tuning in because, who knows, maybe a development cycle deliberately under the True Detective umbrella will yield a better result. Plus, at this point, frustration is part of the TD experience; even the first season was at odds with viewer expectations.
Who is Rae?
López, dang it, i got my Issa’s confused. Apologies to them both. Or compliments, if they find the comparison flattering.
It’s an anthology series, so I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing what Issa Rae would do with a season! I shudder to think of what the online discourse would be like though.
Hell, look how they’re characterizing the show’s CREATOR for daring to have a negative opinion of the season. AVC really wants to paint this season as criticism-immune and it’s weird.
Nobody is angry that he has an opinion, it’s that he’s being such a little bitch about it.He left HBO five years ago for a deal at FX, so does he have to be such a whiny baby about this?But you knew that, you’re just a big ole baby, just like Pizzolato. Oh, you’re SO persecuted for not liking the new season. Poor you!!!
It’s not weird. This site has been doing shit like this for years at this point. And everyone here knows exactly why…
You’re allowed not to like it as much as S1, or not even like it at all. But a lot of the most vitriolic rage-tantrums over it — not yours — have the whiff of incel about them.
Oh I’ve seen the subreddit. Heck, I even have a couple greys responding here saying “yOu’RE nOt aLLoWeD tO sAy BaD tHiNgS oR tHeY’lL put U iN wOkE jAiL.”
Betteridge’s law of headlines says no.
Nic needs to take a good honest look at his True Detective output and STFU. He got lucky for season 1, faceplanted in his sophomore effort, and then cribbed his notes from season 1 for season 3. I certainly won’t be going out of my way to catch any of his future work.
So did Lopez get lucky her first time out with this season, by that metric?
The proper time to evaluate that would seem to be after S5 has been released.
TBD. I’m a lot more willing to give her a chance. He’s got a godawful 2nd season, a relatively solid 3rd season and not a lot else of note.
Impossible to answer until the next season drops.
Has she made three seasons, moron?But hey, it’s nice to know you’re not even pretending to be making a good-faith argument.
He got very lucky with an excellent cast and director.
He probably shouldn’t have been the one to say it, but the season one connections were really stupid. I liked the season over all, but it’s atmosphere and performances did a lot of heavy lifting. There was a fair bit of stupid in there.
Somebody should tell ol’ Nic that Season 4 of TD did something NONE of his productions did….it PAID OFF! I did like Season 1, but geez what a flat, disappointing, and ingenious ending it had. So, Nic….at least Lopez knows how to create a series with a viable ending. Nothing wrong with you not liking it! But for one professional to diss another when their work is this good is a travesty.
mad? no. Just disappointed.
I feel like this was just recently announced to spite Pizzolatto, which, good.
The timing is just…chef’s kiss.
They probably won’t be able to, but I’d love if they rescind his token EP credit. Let the man stew and be angry, but not be paid for it.
wouldn’t it be way easier to just call it something else and leave out the fan service connecting it to the guy you want to erase from it?
Seems like it would be even easier if Nic takes his money and simply behaves in a respectable way. Or better yet, if Nic donates his money to charity. Nic doesn’t own the name or the IP. HBO does and Nic is well aware of that. The network can do what they please with it. It’s in his contract.
I actually think Issa Lopez IS capable of making a great season of TV. Unfortunately, even though some of the elements were there…. this past season was not it. It was…. pretty bad writing. Maybe she needs someone to write with her?? The problem is, because there are so many inexplicable great reviews for the show and because it was a hit…. she probably won’t endeavor to improve next season.
Yes actually, as it was pretty bad. I thought it looked great going in but a few episodes in I realized that the writing was not working
“Yes actually, as it was pretty bad.”And it makes you angry?Nothing pathetic about that.
I for one am glad.
I don’t understand why there are some people that seem to have loved season 4. There are fans of everything. The fucking Spice Girls, one of most mocked novelty acts of their time, has remained a sacred cow with weird Millennials that didn’t even understand what being a lover meant when they were 4. The show was a case of the season procedural that didn’t do anything particularly well, new, impactful, or all that interesting, compared to its contemporaries like Broadchurch or The Killing, or even shows like Veronica Mars and Justified. It mistakes character flaws for character depth, as Navarro is never not a temperamental bleeding heart, and Danvers is never not condescendingly thorny. All the supporting characters are underdeveloped and are only present as either plot devices or to be annoying to the two leads, and when they’re not, it’s a massive waste of time, like Hank’s catfishing subplot. Yep, you sure showed me how pitiful that guy is, show, what do you want me to do with that besides absolutely nothing?If this is the level of quality to be expected, where the resolution doesn’t really explain the most interesting elements of the mystery, with everything else being directly lampshaded hard, and none of the characters having any lasting appeal or more than one note, then yeah, I’m not interested in season 5. There are a handful of actors whose presence alone would make me shrugwatch another season, but I would rather that not happen. Stay away, Emily Blunt, you’re better than this.
“I don’t understand why there are some people that seem to have loved season 4.”It was kind of you to put this at the top and let everyone know not to bother with your worthless essay.
I am mixed. I didn’t have issues with tone or dialogue but her plotting was really off for me but maybe that can be improved.
Mad? Not as long as she tighten ups the writing. Jesus, this season was all over the place. Focus dammit focus.
I didn’t much care for the series as a whole but it wasn’t until I read the López interview where she explains why she had the ghost of Travis Cohle show up and the meaning behind it. She said that it “was just an effort to be consistent with the universe.”That comment just soured me on the show even further. So you have this scene, character and moment for no other reason than, basically, fan service. Then I went back and thought on all of the other fan servicey moments that served no purpose. The insistence that it connects back to s1 I think hurt the show more than it helped it and hopefully when/if they in fact do another that Lopez is given the freedom to tell her story the way she wants and not worry about having to make an interconnect story.
I, for one, am not mad. I just hope she improves upon literally every aspect of television production possible.
I think it would be a fun exercise, if it were possible, to have the people making over-the-top criticisms of this season re-watch season 1 from the same lens. It feels to me that a lot of the critiques of S4 would apply to S1, but they were viewed from a different POV.It’s like how everybody on the internet has been positive from jump that Marvel’s phase 4 is terrible for things that were true about phase 1 but no one complained about. Or gen X people complaining about reboots of old cartoons as though the originals weren’t fucking terrible, only now we aren’t 8 years old.Not to suggest that either of these things is perfect, but (even putting aside the whole tendency of dudes online to disproportionately dislike and disproportionately spend time registering complaints about female-centered media, especially within a formerly male-centered franchise) people tend to go into later installments prepared to be disappointed and to compare them negatively to earlier ones that were given the benefit of the doubt and then were buffed to a shine by favorable memory.
Easy when you ignore the most important part of art : innovation.
True Detective or Marvel were innovative for their times and set the bar and influenced other movies and TV shows that came after them.
So of course with time the recipe got stale in some way.
What’s next? You’re going to say that 1933 King Kong or The great train robbery are dull crap?
It’s funny to line this comment up with all those saying the show was terrible because it deviated from the formula.
Completely agree. It’s like the backlash to some of the all-female remakes of popular movies. It could obviously get gratuitous and mean-spirited in a way that was very unfortunate, but it’s hard to blame audiences for finding repetitive a literal repeat of something
“but it’s hard to blame audiences for finding repetitive a literal repeat of something”You obviously didn’t bother watching the show, so why do you need to comment on it?
The Great Train Robbery with Sean Connery IS dull. It isn’t necessarily crap but it’s quite a yawnfest with all the overly long scenes of nothing but relatively uninteresting dialogue.
I’ve re-watched S1 several times in the last ten years, and it’s still my favorite miniseries of all time. I have not re-watched any of the subsequent seasons, nor will I ever re-watch S4. They are just not the same quality of writing, acting, directing, or production. I don’t care who is at the helm, or what sex they are, or what their ethnicity they may be. Just make a compelling, entertaining, and fulfilling dark police drama with top-tier acting that stands out, and I’ll be onboard. Hope I completed your regimen as required.
Seems like you’re one of the people I was describing.
I guess. You seem like a person who can’t differentiate quality in entertainment, so here we are.
It’s always fucking hilarious to posit that a particular person exists and have someone respond “No, we don’t!”If that characterization triggered you, guess what?
huzzah
They’re different and your opinion doesn’t seem to accommodate any feasible enjoyment in light of that fact.
Some clown was whining earlier this week about it and posted a list of like 20 “criticisms” he had with the show and most if not all could have been said about the first season. Folks complaining about how Danvers and Navarro and the women of Ennis were guilty of “vigilante justice” and taking the law into their own hands which… sure, if that bothers you what can I say. But if that bothered you and Rust and Marty fucking up a bunch of meth heads and child traffickers or whatever and later lying about it didn’t, then yea at minimum you’re a fucking hypocrite.
One of my biggest complaints is that Navarro’s acting was wildly uneven. I don’t know that that could have been said about the first season.
I can respect your opinion on that, given Kali Reis is a newcomer to the craft, especially compared to the likes of McConaughey, Harrelson, Ali, McNairy, Farrell, etc. Personally I think Reis did great given she was going toe-to-toe with Jodi Fucking “Double Fisting Academy Awards” Foster and she started acting in 2021. But fair enough. I ‘m not saying any criticism of S4 is invalid. I’m partial to S1 myself, by a hair. And I too am frustrated by some of the plotholes (particularly the question how exactly the Tsalal scientists end up “flash frozen” in mid-terror).But the unhinged meltdowns over S4, and a lot of the specific complaints, just don’t add up. The dismissive attitudes, the scorn, the complete lack of substance given that, even if you prefer S1 to S4, was the gulf that wide? Especially compared to S2 or S3? And specific critiques about S4’s “self righteous vigilantism” are absolutely laughable from defenders of S1 (or S2/3 for that matter, if such viewers exist). Honestly, I’m shocked the series even got an S4. It feels like S2 is widely accepted to be a failure (I think folks go too hard at it; it’s my least favorite season but still miles better than 90% of the police procedurals out there) and S3 as “pretty good” but certainly not racking up the viewership or acclaim of S1. Basically meaning… Lopez saved the series. If the response had been anything less than what S3 racked up, certainly if it had been another S2, I don’t think we’d be seeing an S5.
I certainly agree that, from the outside, Pizzolatto could have been classier, and that Lopez seems to be taking the high road (again, from the outside; who knows what communication was like not in the media?). I just found season 4 pretty overrated (mostly liked the ending, though), and can’t help but feel like, as with a few well-known examples from recent years where women are centered, there’s an overpraising that almost feels forced, as if we have to act like something is better than it is to counteract the perceived misogyny of the other side.
I think there are layers of impact and story that the male-centered gaze may sometimes undervalue, miss, or ignore, and that creates divisions between critics, female viewers, male viewers, etc. Personally, I didn’t like Wonder Woman. Like, it was “fine”. But someone I like and respect spoke at length about how much it meant to her to see a powerful female hero who was designed to look strong and capable and yes, beautiful, but not exclusively crafted to appeal to the male gaze. And I was like “ohhhh”. So I can see a scenario where maybe it’s lost on some viewers what it means to have a bunch of low-wage women-of-color crack a mystery and exact violent retribution on a cadre of wealthy, educated, mostly-white men for the crime not only of murder but of a systemic crime that has poisoned their community, that has literally buried their birthright and dreams in tiny coffins under toxic soil. I can even see where some viewers not only “don’t get it” but personally find a revenge tale like that to be off-putting or threatening. So to some (not necessarily you) the praise for a story like that may feel “forced” whereas to others it feels earned and right. And I think that’s going to color how some receive a story or piece of art, in either direction. And it’s hard not to notice a lot of the folks who seem most animated and exaggerated in their response to S4 — especially juxtaposed against their praise for S1 and adulation for Pizzolatto — are male fans in traditional male pop culture spaces talking about a female creator finding success in a traditionally male genre.
Okay. I appreciate the exchange.
Very few thought the female Ghostbusters was good, but the hype and zealot defense was real. I loved the “idea” of this season, but overall I guess I am holding on to what I felt with S1, which is dumb I know.
I don’t know how dumb it is; everything else aside, when something comes first, it makes sense to hold that up as the standard. Not always, of course, but that’s often the default. I don’t know that it shouldn’t be. Although he could probably be a little classier.
Many could argue with your comparison as not exactly being apples to apples. But not my criticism of the show. I thought it was fine. Better than S2, not as enjoyable as S1 &3. I’m interested in the next season for sure.
No one is concerned about women vigilante justice. There were so many unexplained and nonsensical things at the end of S4 but suuure ignore them and focus on one silly point.
I don’t know, I had very high hopes here (vs no/low expectations for s1 or 3, and high hopes that were quickly dashed for 2) especially because it seemed to be heavily influenced by Scandinavian dramas which I’m a fan of. I was disappointed in the season because it feels rushed (like it was supposed to be a 10 episode series heavily trimmed down) and HBO forced heavy-handed connections to season 1. I don’t think these are Lopez’ fault and the end result was still very watchable, it just seems like something that was truncated and compromised. Kind of sucks that to express that makes it sound like I’m team Nick Pizzolatto who I don’t know or care anything about.And the thing is I don’t even care about True Detective itself, if anything the show has been one pretty good season and two that I didn’t like much so I wouldn’t have bothered with a Nick Pizzolatto season 4. I was just left wanting to see what this season could have been rather than what it was.
I agree the show would have benefitted from standing on its own and an extended episode order.
“Kind of sucks that to express that makes it sound like I’m team Nick Pizzolatto who I don’t know or care anything about.”
This isn’t the case, though. You expressed your perspective in a way that actually reflected your experience of the show. Some people come online seemingly motivated to have the most scalding take they can muster. All you have to do to continue to differentiate yourself from the latter is to continue to do the former.
That’s fine. I thought it was ok. Had good ideas but it was also frustrating and uneven at times in the execution. There was definitely room for improvement. Still good enough to keep me watching each week though, and I was fine with the ending.I think someone only sounds like they’re perhaps on team Pizzolatto if they’re over the top trashing it. Some of the criticism comes off similar to, “but this is different from the book!” in the rules that some fans are holding the show to. Hopefully by the next installment, people will have less narrow expectations (or the people that didn’t vibe with it won’t be watching), and López will have the experience to improve on plotting out a miniseries.
This is such a flawed reasoning as to why people didn’t like Season 4. When Season 2 came out, everyone hated it. It was a pale comparison to Season 1 and none of the seasons have lived up to that 1st Season, including Season 4.
Cool story that didn’t demonstrate any flaws in my reasoning.
Your reasoning is that people look back fondly on S1 when it really wasn’t ever that good. You’re wrong, it was excellent and its the bar that everyone has held every other franchise to. And Season 4 isn’t close to being as good as 1, and I’d say its not as good as 3. There is no character arc for the two main characters and the ending is just a shoddy put together mess that isn’t at all satisfying.
That wasn’t actually my reasoning. I think they were both good but imperfect, but that many of the dudes who are saying this season was shit are doing it because of things that were true about the season they now think was perfect.“No character arc?” That’s fucking weird.
So basically you’re saying that people who loved the first season didn’t really love it because it has problems that they don’t remember and the current season they just watched they can’t have an opinion on becuase the first season was imperfect. Got it. And yeah, the character arcs were shit in this season.
“So basically you’re saying that”No. Everything you wrote is incorrect. You shouldn’t try to argue if you don’t understand what the other person is arguing.
No, that’s not what I’m saying. Maybe you didn’t like it because you have comprehension issues.
I agree to a certain extent. I watched Season 1 for the first time a few months ago and was shocked people hold it in such high regard. All the mystery drained away within the first hour or two. And it became a bloated family drama with scattered references that went nowhere. Don’t even get me started on the end.
I did go back and re-watch season one for the first time in a decade after finishing this up.I also went back and re-watched Tigers Are Not Afraid, which I loved the first time I saw it.Yeah, they’re both significantly better than season four.I think a lot of what you’re seeing are misdirected complaints that hint at problems existing without entirely understanding what they are. It’s fairly common in audience / consumer reactions: they can tell you when they’re not happy and point in the vague direction of why, but can’t pinpoint the problem or actually solve it for shit. So yeah, you’ve got a lot of stuff that mirrors across both seasons but comes through far better in 1 than in 4. Whether that’s down to the direction, writing, acting, editing… it’s hard to know for sure. Everyone has their theories, and I certainly have mine, but in the end we have what we have.Personally, I was quite enjoying the show until the final episode because it felt like we were going somewhere and I wanted to see how they would wrap up a lot of the loose ends. When the conclusion ultimately became “they didn’t” or “it was ghosts / a malevolent spirit on the ice” with a sort of shrug, it was hard to feel like the mystery had been worth the investment, and a lot of character beats felt weirdly mistimed and ultimately unsatisfying (Prior killing his dad, cleaning up the corpse and then dumping it in the drink feels like it deserved some sort of follow-up, but nah, that’s just where we left him). And every last link to the first season felt like hollow fan-service in a show that absolutely does not need to do hollow fan-service, and all it served to do was distract.
Also, the first season benefited tremendously from its aesthetics. And while she’s almost certainly an infinitely better person than Cary Joji Fukunaga, she’s not quite as solid a director. You can also really feel the loss of T Bone Burnett as the music director… the needle drops in season 4 ranged from obvious-but-inoffensive to utterly ridiculous. Sadly singing “Twist and Shout” has become a joke between my partner and me.
I plan to go back in a couple months and re-watch it to see if my feelings change and if it holds up better when binged all at once rather than spread out over more than a month. And I think it’s entirely possible Issa Lopez has a great season in her. But as it stands, I watched the final episode of season 4 and the entirety of season 1 in February 2024, and I found one significantly more compelling than the other.
I’m definitely not saying it didn’t have flaws, merely that most of the dudes spending a lot of time discussing it are more flawed. We definitely missed Burnett, and I could have done without the fan service.Let’s not forget how different the ending of S1 was compared with what everyone was expecting and the complaints at the time that have been sanded over in memory, not to mention the huge online industry of plumbing all the Carcosa connections that didn’t really end up going much of anywhere or mattering. Or that the actual key clue had fuckall to do with almost anything we invested time in during the season.People seem to still be confused, at least with regard to S4, about what kind of show this is, expecting a tightly constructed whodunnit where everything matters rather than a drama about homicide detectives centered around some linked cases. It’s been more PD James than Agatha Christie, something that appears to have been cool in S1 but not cool at all this time.
oh man the slow “creepy” versions of songs definitely felt forced. Hell, I didn’t even like the credit song (as a credit song).
It would be an interesting exercise to see if the show could stand on it’s own merits without the IP recognition and culture war branding…
Nah. S1 was nowhere near as silly as S4.
I’ve been wanting to get into this with commenters for weeks. I want to know how many:
* Rewatched recently, if at all
* Watched when it first came out/relatively soon after it came out and became a fan vs watched more recently
It’s a great season of television, I’d never argue otherwise; I watched the first season as it aired and had a great time. But part of what made that so enjoyable was that it felt very unique (which no followup season can ever do, no matter how inventive the plot) and it was at an interesting apex of internet discussion; kinda the pinnacle of forums and longer form back and forth. True Detective Season 1 benefited from a lot of online communities doing deep dives in the week before the episode, spinning up a lot of theories, and bonding a bit in the process. I seriously suspect this puts a nice tint on memories of the series as a whole. Re-watching, I noted that it – like the current season – has really strong acting performances that often do a lot to mitigate wobbly writing.
I liked the season, though I think the dialogue was weak and some of the characters were so despicable that it was hard to root for them. But I was happy with the ending and the overall show.
It can’t possibly be worse than True Detective season 2.
Aw, I feel bad for season two. It’s really not terrible. It just so desperately needed someone to check over the dialogue and cross out shit like “Never do anything out of hunger. Not even eating.” (paraphrase, but it was really stupid.) The other thing I remember getting a lot of criticism was the one dude being in the closet, which I never understood. Sure a ton of progress has been made but there are still closeted gay men. I thought it was mostly a good neo-noir story with a few dumb bits.
Yeah, but VV’s accent…. what was he going for there?
I don’t remember Vince Vaugh having an accent in season two of True Detective. I’m from new york so maybe he was going for some kinda new york accent and it just sounded normal to me?
He definitely sounded like a poor man’s Soprano
Yeah, exactly, but it was inconsistent. Just talking, he sounded normal, but when he said something “gangstery”, he sounded like he was trying to do a Sinatra voice.
I have 02 a rewatch recently and I agree it’s not as bad as we remember. Great performances, dread filled world, a couple hack plot lines but also some all timer line reads (pretty much any time Colin Farrell is on screen).
“It’s really not terrible.”It really, REALLY is.
Maybe give it more than 6 episodes next time?
I feel like they were spinning their wheels already with just six.
How THE F*CK did they all get burnt corneas and ruptured eardrums?? That not being explained really pissed me off.
Additionally, how the fuck did they not realize the ice caves were DIRECTLY UNDER TSALAL?
We get it, you really hate Nic Pizzolatto for daring to have an opinion about *checks notes* the show he created.
Idk, somehow I think “having an opinion” and “posting a bunch of whiny, passive aggressive instagram posts about how terrible the new season is of the show he created which *checks notes* he is still profiting off of even though he had seemingly nothing at all to do with said season’s creation” is pretty different, but maybe that’s just me
There’s a difference between “having an opinion” and “acting like an asshole online.” That difference is harder to spot when the person with the opinion is an asshole who happens to be online. That’s the challenge here: He’s got the whole waterfront covered.
He’s having an opinion in an asshole way, all while his name is listed as an executive producer and he’s getting paid for the thing he’s undermining.
So many keep bringing this up. If someone wants to be assholishly opinionated, are we saying getting paid makes it invalid? If anything, it lends credibility to his belief, as a jilted former creator who is no longer associated, would seem like sour grapes.
Yes, being paid for something that you are publicly attacking, that makes it invalid. There’s also the hilarity that Nic openly plagiarised other people throughout his run, and now he’s bitter about a couple of throwaway references to season 1 stuff.
Honest question…why exactly? I mean are you saying if you get paid you can’t voice your opinion? That seems…incorrect?Must he say “I am not accepting any money so I can now say I am unhappy with choices made on this show”?
Yes, if you are being paid for something, you can’t criticise it. Yes, he must rescind his financial stake if he wishes to be negative about the show. Becuase right now, he’s playing both sides. Being paid money due to the success of the show, but also bitterly sniping at the show and booing it from his platform. Why is he expressing negative opinions at all? Why is he being an asshole about it? Why can’t he simply support another creator who has been nothing but complimentary to him? Answer that for me.
Criticizing women is internet illegal.
We get it. You’ve done absolutely nothing of worth since the first season of TD, but waving around your sad, pathetic insecurities is not the right path. Sorry, Nick.
This pleases me greatly. Let the Great Incel Immolation begin!
Me! I’m FURIOUS! Why? Well, I’m not sure, because I have seen an episode. But everyone seems to be pretty upset, inc the original twat waffle dude who writes dumpster fire level scripts, and I want to belong, so, yes, I am very, very upset, thanks for asking.
It’s just disappointing that despite her lack of talent, Lopez gets to keep working because of her race/gender.
I’ll say it again. Season 1 was the highpoint of Nic Pizzolatto’s career. It’s been downhill since then. He should shut up and take his EP cash.
Meh, it’s been all downhill since Season 1. This season I watched, but it felt like a chore. A lot of people liked it, and that’s great, but for me, it failed to engage. I found myself nodding off during the finale, and at that point I pretty much decided I’m done.
“Meh, it’s been all downhill since Season 1.”Three was better than two and four was also better than two.Maybe you just don’t understand what downhill means?
My fiancé and I watched Season One on President’s Day (the day AFTER season 4 ended) and while I was already a HUUUUGE FAN of the first season, after watching it again with the immediecy of having just finished the one that everyone is so crazy about, I couldn’t be further from their perspective. What Nic and Cori Joji did with Woody and Matthew was EPIC TELEVISION! Matthew was ON FIRE at the time, fresh off of his Oscar winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club and The Wolf of Wall Street and the character traits and nuanced levels he pulled out of the written words was worthy of a Golden Globe! (I’m not sure if he won one for it but he absolutely should have) It’s an insult to their work to even be compared to the cluster wreck that Night Country is. The cinematography in Season One is TO DIE FOR. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to have the still frame of the top down look at the brick maze and the tall green grass with the sunset in the background for the climax. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING! Ms. Lopez tried to recreate the essence of the visual aspect when they went under the ice during the last part of the finale, but again, it failed miserably. I know I’m trashing it, but after watching all of Night Country on Sunday and then Season One on Monday, I am 100% firm in my view. As a last thought, Woody Harrelson was EQUALLY BRILLIANT as the twisted up, hard drinking cop and he echoed Matthew’s performances. Peace, Johnny Joseph
Don’t call people by their first names if you don’t know them.It’s massively douchy.
Hard pass. Season 4 sucked.
The thing about the Easter eggs in S4 is that they had bugger-all to do with S1, which is fine as Easter eggs are just fun secrets, but the execution was keen to point out “Oh look!” like it would mean something to the existing narrative. Maybe the next season will provide an origin story for the spooky oranges. An oringe. Orangin.
It feels like they were intended as Easter eggs but like… Red Apple cigarettes are an Easter egg. The ghost of the father of season 1’s protagonist doing a dance that leads to the discovery of the corpses is more than an Easter egg. The same symbol from the first season cropping up constantly and being a central aspect of the case is more than an Easter egg. They were full-fledged pivotal plot developments, which makes their ultimately superficial connection to the thing they’re calling back to stick out much more than if, say, Hank had a habit of carving figures out of beer cans or something.
“but the execution was keen to point out”Utter horseshit.
Unless Noah Hawley is taking over, I could care less.
…should I be?
S4 had some cool shit, the setting in Alaska. The vibes were really great and spooky. But goddamn there was so much that just didn’t make any sense and never got any answers. In won’t go into it, but it was a LOT. Not that everything needs to be tidied up, but when there is so much happening, you can’t leave that much unanswered. But I am still ok with this crew doing another season if they can clean some of that shit up. On the other hand, I have never enjoyed a season of television as much as I enjoyed S1. S2 was a trainwreck. S3 was much better, but not anywhere close to S1.Is that fair criticism?
I’m good with this.S1 over rated. Remember how it was the greatest thing ever and then at the end fizzled into nothing more than a standard police procedural befitting CBS?
Both Pizzolatto and Lopez have ample shortcomings in their TD seasons; I think it’s fair to point those out. The difference is that only one TD creator is actively trying to tear down the other. Pizzolatto complained loudly but has recently pivoted to behaving as if all the kerfuffle is meaningless “internet talk” as if he didn’t instigate the entire conversation. The faux high road. He should just delete Instagram from his phone, turn on his laptop and write his ass off. Good work is the only revenge afforded to creators.
I have not watched this season. It does seem Nic is a little butthurt about his series being handed to someone else. Season 1 excelled because Cary directed the shit out of it and Woody and Matthew acted the shit out of it.The story was good but in lesser hands it would have fell flat. Like the other seasons did.
Is anybody mad that Issa López will be helming another season of True Detective?Well, I wasn’t…but if the almighty A.V. Club requires it, I guess I will be.
What a weird response to a QUESTION.
Nope.
Personally, I like season 4. Even though part of it feels like it played out as some type of misandrist female fantasy. There is lot of lgbtq undertones that I’m sure that Pizzolatto disapproved of as well. Season one had a lot of Macho bravado, that was missing in season 4 . For the most part, all of the male characters in season 4 were portrayed as weak, and as we all know that is not reality. If I could have changed anything about season 4, is that I would have placed a more accomplished and well-known actress, alongside Jodie Foster, something more comparable to the Dynamics of Woody Harrelson and Matthew mcconaughey. Although Kali Reis did do a good job.
Season 4 was a pretty good mystery, a lot more straightforward than the sometimes pretentiously convoluted seasons 1-3, although character development def. suffered from the short 6 episode length – some plot points were just too sudden and/or revealed hastily at the end and seems like bits were cut out.But it was quite satisfying anyway, the most important parts in a True Detective mystery for me are always: 1) the dynamics between the main cop characters and 2) the setting, which is a main character in itself. Just feeling being there in the weirdest parts of the deep south or Alaska is part of the charm.(Season 1 is still some of the best TV ever, nothing will top that one…)
S4 is pretty much a much longer and shittier version of Wind River.
The man child who helmed the 1st 3 seasons sowing sour grapes all over the internet like a 3 year old that had their favorite stuffed animal taken away is both sad and funny to watch.
Mad? No. Underwhelmed? Somewhat. Lopez is a fine director (I liked Tigers Are Not Afraid as well as her directing here), but the writing this season was pretty messy. Let Lopez direct the next season but bring on a writer to help her streamline her ideas – maybe the guy who wrote Mare of Easttown.
Nic seems like a real dingus but boy, what a mess Night Country was.
I’m honestly pretty excited. This past season was really enjoyable – not amazing, but far from being bad in my view. It had really great performances going for it and a storyline/plot that was overall compelling (if one that I felt would have benefited either from a bit less going on or more episodes so that it felt a little more balanced). If Issa is allowed to put the next season together without requiring references to complete “universe” storytelling I think it’ll be better still. I had a great time watching this season.
Is anybody mad that Issa López will be helming another season of True Detective? Yes, me. This “season” was beyond atrocious. So slow & sluggish, so silly & sad-just all around poorly executed-a total joke to compared to the standard set 10 years ago in season 1. Carcosa, man.