The Official Good Television Thread

[CiG]

I wouldn't go out of my way to defend it yet. Maybe it's more interesting because I'm watching it with someone.

 

[Einherjar86]

I'm likewise not smitten with it; I just thought E3 was strong in its pacing and presentation. E4 felt like a letdown afterward.

S1 had a remarkable arc and narrative pacing, which ramped up to the robbery fuckup with the Crusaders in E4 and finding Ledoux in E5. After that, E6 was a lull, followed by E7 that pitches us back into the conspiracy, and the E8 climax. It all felt extremely well tethered and presented.

This new season lacks the cohesion, I think, but I find myself quietly compelled by some of the S1 echoes: Danvers and Navarro altering their story about what happened in their past case (a la Hart and Cohle lying about the shootout at Ledoux's), Navarro seeing things (a la Cohle's visions), the mimicry of the spiral, obviously (but the explanation is that the unsolved murder victim "dreamt it"), and the plot point in S1 about Cohle's father living in Alaska. And of course the bit about Tsalal's tax records leading back to Tuttle, which drove my wife insane (she works in tax and always goes on a tirade about the S1 resolution hinging on tax records, which likely wouldn't have been digitized and also probably didn't even exist in the form the show claimed).

I'm not convinced the new season is doing anything substantive with all this in terms of plot. That is, I'm not sure they're actually trying to expand on the narrative mythos of S1. I honestly sometimes get the feeling that S4 is trolling S1, but not always doing it well. I think my interest as more to do with what feels like a protracted and unsteady sarcasm--unsteady because it also feels like this season wants us to take it very seriously.

So yeah, ambivalence and uncertainty all around. Maybe it's just morbid curiosity, lol.

 

[Slammed]

I just finished watching S1 and at the end of each episode there was a chit chat with two blokes, who I don't give enough of a fuck about to remember their names, taking about what they were trying to do with each episode and explain points that weren't as clear as they should have been.
Producer, Co-producer, writer, whoever the fuck they were shouldn't need to explain shit that wasn't on the screen, or try to elaborate further details on shit that was on the screen. That's called story telling and if it's not in the show then it's a failure of the team making it. Last 4 episodes were definitely better than the first 4.

Started watching S2 the other night and fell asleep before the half way mark. Not sure that bodes well for continuing.

 

[CiG]

My biggest issue with TD s4 so far besides the pretty weak script is that it feels way too in service of its political message, which is not something I really remember any of the previous seasons doing. This new season's themes feel very fashionable (environmentalism, protest suppression, indigenous stories etc) which would be fine if it didn't come across so cheaply.

 

[Slammed]

The way I'm going with S2 I wont get to S4 until 2028

 

[King Richard]

I just binged The Boys first three seasons and Gen V. Good shit.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Hank Prior gets catfished once and starts writing brooding country about how god is dead. Still better than 90% of the music choices in this season!

Decent episode though, probably too little too late in terms of fixing the season but at least I wasn't bored out of my gourd watching it.

I'm not convinced the new season is doing anything substantive with all this in terms of plot. That is, I'm not sure they're actually trying to expand on the narrative mythos of S1. I honestly sometimes get the feeling that S4 is trolling S1, but not always doing it well. I think my interest as more to do with what feels like a protracted and unsteady sarcasm--unsteady because it also feels like this season wants us to take it very seriously.

I don't get the feeling they're trolling s01, but rather that these references to s01 were inserted ad hoc to tie what was likely an original screenplay initially to the True Detective universe.

 

[CiG]

From Wiki:

When preparing season 4, subtitled Night Country, director and writer Issa López chose to create a "dark mirror" of the first season: "Where True Detective is male and it's sweaty, Night Country is cold and it's dark and it's female." In an interview with The A.V. Club, López credited John Carpenter's The Thing, the Overlook Hotel from The Shining, and the spacecraft Nostromo from Alien as inspiration. She said (to HBO) "Guys, me being who I am, I'm going to tap into that and go for it." referring to the supernatural elements of True Detective's first season, that it had Carcosa and the Yellow King. López has also cited the Dyatlov Pass incident and Mary Celeste as inspirations for the season.

 

[Einherjar86]

Really wish I could pick up more on the Nostromo influence, haven't seen much of that at all. Maybe in the ice caves...

Definitely caught the Dyatlov vibes though, I actually thought of that incident when they discovered the scientists' bodies.

 

[CiG]

Definitely caught the Dyatlov vibes though, I actually thought of that incident when they discovered the scientists' bodies.

I mean, they basically directly reference it with the "slab avalanche" thing.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Palate cleanser time.

 

[Slammed]

Finished watching Boy Swallows Universe last night.
Bryan Brown, Simon Baker, Anthony LaPaglia, Travis Fimmel, and Rapper Briggs as Sergeant At Arms of The Rebels OMG.
Loosely, very loosely at times, based on a true story. A little bit funny, a little bit over the top and typical Aussie.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

SMALLVILLE

Season 3 SUCKED
the Series Finale SUCKED
but the rest of the 10-season-series was pretty good

 

[CiG]

Palate cleanser time.

View attachment 35434

Ever read the fan theory that Marty is the actual Yellow King?

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Nah, any merit to it? I recall many such theories from while the show was still airing, but I haven't read any that actually take the complete season into account.

 

[CiG]

Nah, any merit to it? I recall many such theories from while the show was still airing, but I haven't read any that actually take the complete season into account.

You tell me. It's pretty fucking convincing, but the show isn't fresh enough in my memory to really judge it.



Also it isn't listed here but a crumb of evidence I'd add is that "Hart" is an archaic term for a stag.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

You tell me. It's pretty fucking convincing, but the show isn't fresh enough in my memory to really judge it.



Also it isn't listed here but a crumb of evidence I'd add is that "Hart" is an archaic term for a stag.

Interesting. This post was made before the season had finished airing, so I guess after the finale the implication would be that Marty led Rust to a patsy twice (Ledoux then Childress) which fits well with the whole "time is a flat circle"-theme. It would be a pretty dark read that undercuts the moment of optimism the series ends on, not to mention the entire central bromance. There are definitely some compelling arguments here, like Marty never showing his face to Ledoux (and then killing him) and the whole ring thing.

I'll add an argument that isn't listed here. Tuttle is the "obvious" Yellow King candidate, being the apparent ringleader of it all and also very fond of the color yellow. But someone Epsteins him after Rust steals compromising photos from his home. This suggests that he's not the real Yellow King or that there's someone above him in the hierarchy. I didn't finish the last two episodes yet, but I recall the season ending with this plot thread open, which definitely invites speculation about unrevealed participants in the cult.

But I do have a few issues with this theory.

* The entire investigation into the cult begins and ends with Rust. He has no support from his superiors in the police department (who want to treat it as an isolated murder/hand it off to the Tuttle-founded anti-christian crimes task force) and eventually leaves the police to pursue the case on his own. If Marty was involved, why didn't he just kill Rust? He had ample opportunity to off him at any point during their investigation, and we're not given the impression anyone would look too hard into Rust's disappearance.
* It doesn't fit with Marty's character, who is depicted as a hothead both in his interactions with Rust and in his domestic life. I don't think he has the character to carry out a long-running deceptive scheme like that. He is also shown to feel emasculated by Rust in a way I don't think he would if he was secretly outsmarting him the whole time.

 

[rms]

• The lawnmower guy appears to have scarring around his jawline. It almost looks as if his face had been ripped off and sewn back on. Marty threatens to rip the face off of his mistress' new guy, before saying "I'm not a psycho."

lol they told us what happened?? he was burned as a child??

• When they are at Ladoux's place, Cohle asks Marty if he's ever been hunting. He said he killed a ten point buck a year earlier. Typically, a person would put those antlers on display in their house, but there's nothing like that at Marty's place. That's because he put those antlers on Dora Lange's head.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

lol they told us what happened?? he was burned as a child??

They explained that in episode 7. This theory was posted before episode 7, cut the guy a break.

 

[rms]

They explained that in episode 7. This theory was posted before episode 7, cut the guy a break.

I think Cig got caught by some troll, last part of his post was saying Marty's father in law couldn't be the Yellow King because he only appeared in one episode lol Cig is a sucker,