Reviews

British Reviewer.

It says something about the toxic battle going on right now that I am re-writing my review of Night Country Part 6 for the third time. If anyone looks at my reviews they'd see that a) identity has nothing to do with whether I love a piece of TV or cinema (Moonlight is one of my all-time favourite films) and b) the language I use is specific to my cultural heritage - if I disparage a piece of cinematic output I don't use offensive language.

Firstly, the good parts. Night Country looks pretty good, it sounds alright and the choice of opening song is inspired. The casting is great, Kali Reiss is brilliant, so too Christopher Ecclestone despite the most awkward, cringe sex-scene I have ever had the displeasure of watching (which is pretty damning considering Hounds of Love, Once Were Warriors and SCUM spring to mind).

The problem with Night Country lies with Issa Lopez I'm afraid. The script and screenplay she has concocted is in no shape or form developed enough for production and certainly, unequivocally not polished enough to merit being part of the brilliant True Detective franchise. Somewhere, someone said that as a writer you can create the most incredible reality and readers will go with it but you have to follow the rules you set out otherwise you will lose all credibility. Or something to that effect. I was fully on board with Lopez and the horror/supernatural angle. The first 2 or 3 episodes were pretty good, or at least passable enough to keep interested in but then, frustratingly, the writing went off a cliff. It's interesting to note that in the later episodes the producers brought more writers in to save their investment.

I've actually said a lot there without really discussing the problems with this particular episode. If you're like me you'll have already upvoted and read the reviews which score the episode low and if you're one of those brave souls who downvotes any of the same reviews, you'll probably not be reading this anyway as, like I said previously, this TV show, this episode has transcended from being merely a poorly written piece of television into the latest skirmish in a culture-war that most non-Americans don't understand.

I digress - there's just too many plot-holes and deviations from logic and common-sense in TDNC5.6, like characters falling several metres from a great height onto that most unforgiving of surfaces - solid ice without injury. Danvers overcoming what would have been severe hypothermia in an instant. The lack of equipment Danvers and Navarro set out with. Torturing a suspect, murdering suspects. You see, I don't think Lopez realised just how odious, repugnant and incompetent she'd written our protagonists. I read an interview with Issa Lopez where she confessed to doing all her research on the people and location via social media, and boy does it show. There's no connection with the darkness, the cold. Everyone just walks into each others houses, the character development non-existent.

Ultimately this season is a big mess. I would love to see a show written by Issa Lopez that didn't have the pressure of the True Detective label. I'd love to see the show where there's no supernatural element and it's the indigenous Alaskans protesting and fighting against the polluters/destroyers of their natural habitat and customs.

I can't believe the creators of this thought that John would love herself to the extent that she would impregnate herself, unknowingly creating herself! Utter drivel.

We were actually enjoying Predestination up until we had 35-40 minutes of the dullest exposition where John explained his backstory then followed an unknown bartender into a dark cellar, with a gun, who padlocked them in! Just some advice ladies; if a bloke lures you into a basement office, has a gun then locks you both in together on the premise of time-travel revenge please don't follow him.

If you want to watch a decent interpretation of this genre watch the first season of Dark (German) or 12 Monkeys.

British Reviewer.

Firstly I'm not a hater, I gave the 2nd episode of this season 7/10 because I genuinely thought it was good. So believe me when I say my criticism is not without just cause.

The warning signs were there. The episode before this had an extra writer, this episode is credited with 2 extra writers and boy have they made a mess of it. I can only imagine that is the producers panicking over how this show will get wrapped up.

I like the ideas that Issa Lopez has brought to the show, I mean, it's not True Detective in any shape or form other than on the poster but this melange of The Thing... and Eastenders and maybe Erin Brokovitch is interesting albeit unoriginal.

The editing is awful, the sound and cinematography are good. The casting is great, even self-insert Kali Reiss but the directing is woeful and the screenplay is absolutely amateur and should have gone through a rigorous editing.