True Defective
The latest edition to TRUE DETECTIVE lumbered through (NIGHT COUNTRY), and I'm convinced that HBO needs to just walk away from the series.
Season 4 was the worst season ever. It serves as a warning that good intentions aren't as necessary as good writing for a television show, because this one desperately needed good writing, and just didn't have it -- the showrunners failed the cast, failed the show, failed the series, and failed the fans of TRUE DETECTIVE. And all because the writing sucked.
There are boosters of this season who look at the female-led cast and the indigenous women (and issues) of the season as the touchpoints for why people aren't liking it. While there may be some bros doing that, I'm not one of them -- I don't have any problem with a female-led cast nor with indigenous people's issues driving a show. I really wanted this season to be good. I was very hopeful that it would be.
However, it wasn't. The writing just wasn't there. The dialogue wasn't there. The characterization wasn't there. The humor wasn't there. The story wasn't there. All of the elements that made TD1 such a phenomenon weren't there.
What WAS there? Jodie Foster pretending to be straight (a weird choice -- they should have just run with her gayness). A bizarre overuse of the color teal, as if that signified anything. A mumbo-jumbo storyline. Boring, dreary dialogue. Pointless character actions without narrative payoffs. Bad acting from some in the cast. Needless nods to TD1 in an attempt to gin up audience interest (again, without purpose beyond goosing audience expectations). The detectives not being particularly good detectives. Rotten motivations for the characters to do anything, just haphazard plot spackle at certain moments.
It goes on and on, to the extent that I've taken to calling it TRUE DEFECTIVE, because that captures the spirit of how badly this season faceplanted.
There's a telling scene near the end where some characters confront the detectives, and this silent mob basically piles up behind the main perpetrator with an implied threat that makes the detectives basically chicken out and look the other way. Strangely, it's symbolic of this entire season -- media people are afraid to criticize the show because they don't want that mob coming after them.
Thankfully, there's a lot of backlash for this season to offset the fearful accolades in some media quarters boosting this season.
This show would've been better served being its own independent thing, versus carpetbagging on the TD name. But then, without that name, maybe it wouldn't have gotten made at all. What it desperately needed (and didn't have) was GOOD WRITING.
People are rating each season nowadays by their preferences. They have their own reasons for doing so, but let me give you the actual ranking of the seasons from best to worse:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
In that order. The first two seasons are best, and the last two seasons are the sucky ones. TD2 caught a ton of hell when it came out, undeservedly -- it was punished because it dared to be difference from TD1. However, it's actually a good season (and is positively top-notch compared to the two that followed it).
My willingness to rewatch something is a quality indicator -- I've rewatched TD1 countless times. I've rewatched TD2 three times. I've never rewatched TD3, and I absolutely will not ever rewatch TD4 -- hell, I'm peevish that I lost six hours of my life watching it to begin with.
Some people are raving about it. However, they're wrong (that is probably verboten in this day and age, but I'm calling that out -- they're wrong). It sucked.
I'll say it one more time: good intentions are no substitute for good writing, where a show is concerned. Just because it highlighted women and indigenous people's issues doesn't automatically make it a good show. What it needs is good writing to bring it all together. The showrunners for this season thought the good intentions alone could carry it. In that, they're perhaps cynically idealistic in gulling an audience, and hoping nobody notices.
The last thing I'll say is some critics gushed about this season, and it makes me question them as critics, honestly. They're clearly captive critics and terrified of being slagged by the mob for not-liking a show with so many signifiers in place as this one had. The gushing critics were wrong. The gushing fans were wrong. The ardent identity politics folks were wrong (yes, nice to see underrepresented groups getting screen time, but for the love of the gods, please give them good scripts, not junk ones).
Oh, and I should add: some of the boosters/ravers are basically slagging men for not liking this season, and certainly some could say of me "Oh, you MAN, of COURSE you didn't like this season, you evil, evil man."
However, they'd be dead wrong about me -- I didn't like this season because the writing wasn't there for the characters, the story, and the actors. It just wasn't there.
If good writing isn't something you value, you will absolutely love this season. If you don't care about good characterization or narrative payoffs, you will love this season. If you don't care about humor or good (or even memorable) dialogue between characters, you will love this season. If you love the color teal, you will love this season. If you like gratuitous jump scares that serve only to wake up doubtlessly drowsy viewers, you will love this season. If you like dreary, boring scenes that fail to build an iota of suspense, you will love this season. If you like to give blank check accolades to women-led stories regardless of actual artistic merit, you'll most definitely love this season.
I'll be curious to see if those same ravers will rave about it in a year's time, or two years, or more. I think it will have disappeared from their memories and passed into infamous oblivion. This season was possibly the worst-written big name show I've ever seen. Writing matters, big time.
Season 4 was the worst season ever. It serves as a warning that good intentions aren't as necessary as good writing for a television show, because this one desperately needed good writing, and just didn't have it -- the showrunners failed the cast, failed the show, failed the series, and failed the fans of TRUE DETECTIVE. And all because the writing sucked.
There are boosters of this season who look at the female-led cast and the indigenous women (and issues) of the season as the touchpoints for why people aren't liking it. While there may be some bros doing that, I'm not one of them -- I don't have any problem with a female-led cast nor with indigenous people's issues driving a show. I really wanted this season to be good. I was very hopeful that it would be.
However, it wasn't. The writing just wasn't there. The dialogue wasn't there. The characterization wasn't there. The humor wasn't there. The story wasn't there. All of the elements that made TD1 such a phenomenon weren't there.
What WAS there? Jodie Foster pretending to be straight (a weird choice -- they should have just run with her gayness). A bizarre overuse of the color teal, as if that signified anything. A mumbo-jumbo storyline. Boring, dreary dialogue. Pointless character actions without narrative payoffs. Bad acting from some in the cast. Needless nods to TD1 in an attempt to gin up audience interest (again, without purpose beyond goosing audience expectations). The detectives not being particularly good detectives. Rotten motivations for the characters to do anything, just haphazard plot spackle at certain moments.
It goes on and on, to the extent that I've taken to calling it TRUE DEFECTIVE, because that captures the spirit of how badly this season faceplanted.
There's a telling scene near the end where some characters confront the detectives, and this silent mob basically piles up behind the main perpetrator with an implied threat that makes the detectives basically chicken out and look the other way. Strangely, it's symbolic of this entire season -- media people are afraid to criticize the show because they don't want that mob coming after them.
Thankfully, there's a lot of backlash for this season to offset the fearful accolades in some media quarters boosting this season.
This show would've been better served being its own independent thing, versus carpetbagging on the TD name. But then, without that name, maybe it wouldn't have gotten made at all. What it desperately needed (and didn't have) was GOOD WRITING.
People are rating each season nowadays by their preferences. They have their own reasons for doing so, but let me give you the actual ranking of the seasons from best to worse:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
In that order. The first two seasons are best, and the last two seasons are the sucky ones. TD2 caught a ton of hell when it came out, undeservedly -- it was punished because it dared to be difference from TD1. However, it's actually a good season (and is positively top-notch compared to the two that followed it).
My willingness to rewatch something is a quality indicator -- I've rewatched TD1 countless times. I've rewatched TD2 three times. I've never rewatched TD3, and I absolutely will not ever rewatch TD4 -- hell, I'm peevish that I lost six hours of my life watching it to begin with.
Some people are raving about it. However, they're wrong (that is probably verboten in this day and age, but I'm calling that out -- they're wrong). It sucked.
I'll say it one more time: good intentions are no substitute for good writing, where a show is concerned. Just because it highlighted women and indigenous people's issues doesn't automatically make it a good show. What it needs is good writing to bring it all together. The showrunners for this season thought the good intentions alone could carry it. In that, they're perhaps cynically idealistic in gulling an audience, and hoping nobody notices.
The last thing I'll say is some critics gushed about this season, and it makes me question them as critics, honestly. They're clearly captive critics and terrified of being slagged by the mob for not-liking a show with so many signifiers in place as this one had. The gushing critics were wrong. The gushing fans were wrong. The ardent identity politics folks were wrong (yes, nice to see underrepresented groups getting screen time, but for the love of the gods, please give them good scripts, not junk ones).
Oh, and I should add: some of the boosters/ravers are basically slagging men for not liking this season, and certainly some could say of me "Oh, you MAN, of COURSE you didn't like this season, you evil, evil man."
However, they'd be dead wrong about me -- I didn't like this season because the writing wasn't there for the characters, the story, and the actors. It just wasn't there.
If good writing isn't something you value, you will absolutely love this season. If you don't care about good characterization or narrative payoffs, you will love this season. If you don't care about humor or good (or even memorable) dialogue between characters, you will love this season. If you love the color teal, you will love this season. If you like gratuitous jump scares that serve only to wake up doubtlessly drowsy viewers, you will love this season. If you like dreary, boring scenes that fail to build an iota of suspense, you will love this season. If you like to give blank check accolades to women-led stories regardless of actual artistic merit, you'll most definitely love this season.
I'll be curious to see if those same ravers will rave about it in a year's time, or two years, or more. I think it will have disappeared from their memories and passed into infamous oblivion. This season was possibly the worst-written big name show I've ever seen. Writing matters, big time.
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