re: True Detective S4 Season Long Thread

Just a few thoughts since I binged the first five episodes and read this whole thread:

1) I'm not too sure what was written before and after it was determined to be a TD show. Obviously some elements had to be written at both points. This may have led to the poor execution. We're watching two shows merged together with a serious lack of focus. That being said, it is kind of fun trying to figure out which elements go to which show, knowing the show we actually got is a trainwreck. It's own detective work.

2) The writer(s) are working with imagery they don't understand. I'm assuming these are young writers that have little knowledge about literature outside of their writing bubble. There is serious biblical imagery in the first few minutes alone that gets dumped because the writers either didn't know how to use it, or didn't know they were even using it.

3) I don't know much about northern Alaska but I'd imagine there are serious issues with psychological problems and drug use in a place that has little in the way of job prospects and is dark for months on end. I think the idea that people "see" things all the time isn't far fetched. They are playing too hard and too fast with it though. Once again, it could be the meshing of two shows, one that was supposed to be a supernatural thriller and one that wasn't. Also, I'd imagine that like many recent shows, the show count had to be reduced and a lot of development to explain these types of things got left out.

4) You can tell there was some thought into certain elements that we can never know the true importance of. For instance, the connection between the one-eyed polar bear, the one-eyed native girl that is in a couple of scenes, and the polar bear toy. I have a feeling we won't get the background to the connection between the clearing ladies, the facility, and the laundromat. The fact that the cleaning lady describes the spiral as a devil symbol without anything leading her in that direction is a tell that gets left and really, a true detective should have asked why she brought that up.

5) A theory I have is that the spiral symbol is actually related to DNA and the idea is to find a solution to aging. We know extreme cold can stop the aging process (or at least the decomposition process) and the facility is connected to this concept. Yes, the hunter says it is for people to make sure they fall into caves, but this doesn't remove that possibility. People use symbols for many different things. Also, this could even be a diversion, as it could just be told that is the meaning to keep people away.

6) I don't think we're going to get a favorable resolution this weekend. HBO struck out (most likely) with this one, but they have a high hit rate. They will need to come back very strong in season 5 to salvage this series. Maybe even focus on resolving lingering issues from this season and 1 in a way that makes fans happy.

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Group think its people agreeing with the majority because they are fearful of retaliation/being made fun of.

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yeah i actually defended this show for the first half of the the thread.

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Terrible shows don't get 50 page threads. They get 1 page then disappear. Look, I know none of you are going to admit it. I mean, who would?

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wait...so your assertion is that we actually all like the show and that it's good?

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i mean i realize you think you are scoring some kind of "better than all that" points here, but you are accurate, at least as far as i am concerned. i am only continuing to watch this show because it has gone completely off the rails and i have enjoyed coming on this thread to talk shite about it. not sure if that is really "bizarre behavior that should really be studied" though?

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I don't find it to be terrible. Disappointing, maybe.

And I like talking ish about shows...especially bad ones that so many people are passionate about. Namely, Yellowstone. That show started OK but went from bad to hilariously bad.

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I think every one considers s2 to be complete shite but did y'all like s3 more than this? It's not even close for me.

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Season 3 is miles better in every way. Even season 2 is better than this garbage season.

Season 2 is not better. It’s not even close to season 1, but this thread is ridiculous. Its OK, I’ve seen a lot worse (refer to new season of Justified)

took a white guy's job and did it better

respnding to insta comments

encouraging positive RT reviews

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Season 2 is not better.

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Season 2 and 4 both suffer from the same issues (too many characters and too much going on), but Season 2 is vastly superior for a number of reasons, primarily (1) they actually do detective work and (2) they didn't try to make it into a PG13 horror movie from the 90s. Season 2 actually made sense, as well. S4 is just complex by being dense and vague at the same time.

I was hate watching Season 2 in real time and I wouldn't say it's good, so it's probably not worth your time, but Season 4 is just real bad.

Season 2 for sure has a ton of issues. The problem with comparing it to 4 is that 4 has all of the same issues (dour mood/characters, too many stories/characters, too much going on for the sake of complexity, etc.), but is worse at all the bad things and the 2 things I cited above.

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wait...so your assertion is that we actually all like the show and that it's good?

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Nah, you just think the hate posts are cool.