Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Good Night Country

So, I hope you’ve had a chance to watch the season finale of “True Detective: Night County” because hot damn do I want to talk about it. The series, while leaving some things purposefully ambiguous, stuck the landing as far as I’m concerned. No, it wasn’t perfect. But goodness was it satisfying.

The fourth season of the anthology series was no doubt deeply gratifying for its intended audience. And I should know, because I am exactly that intended audience. A viewer who loves complex mystery narratives, but is bored by the genre’s tendency to mythologize its Complicated/Suffering Men.

“Night Country” can best be read as a photo negative of the original “True Detective” a decade ago. That series was unapologetically all about its dual male leads, a male creator and male sensibilities (and self importance, ahem). So you can see why its fanboys might feel as if the new season is a huge departure with its dual female leads, female creator and similarly unapologetic female narratives. But, you know what fellas? We’re more than half the world’s population. You can watch one season about us, it won’t kill you. Probably.

Season 4 creator Issa Lopez defly straddled the line between the sensible and the supernatural, leaving it up to us how we want to interpret everything we’ve seen. To guide our journey to whatever truth might be out there are Arctic Mulder/Scully archetypes in believer Navarro (Kali Reis) and skeptic Danvers (Jodie Foster). But the truth about Night Country is not all questions have an answer – just like in real life.

Now, as is so tiresomely always the case, not everyone is thrilled about this shift to female-centered storytelling. Chief among the whiny men brigade is series creator Nic Pizzolatto, who spent last weekend reposting (and then deleting) post after post from his fanboys criticizing the new season of the anthology series (and, naturally, stroking his own ego and other parts).

It should be noted that Pizzolatto was not involved in any of the creative decisions in “Night Country.” And given what I’d read about him behind the scenes from his former glory days of Season 1, I continue to feel entirely justified in skipping his seasons. What can I say, thin-skinned pseudo-intellectual macho posturing just isn’t my thing. I’ll let Kali have the last word (and then some) because, um, you’ve seen what Kali looks like, right? I’ve also seen what Pizzolatto looks like, and that ain’t a fair fight – for him, obviously. Damn, girl.

SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON FINALE AHEAD

Now that we all know how Annie K’s murder ties into the deaths of the male researchers at the Alaskan outpost, the show’s take on frontier justice feels at once familiar and invigorating. Vengeance stories are nothing new for men. There’s a whole comic named Punisher, after all. But female vengeance stories, they’re so fertile given the millennia of injustices at the hands of, you guessed it, men we have to draw from. So that was a real, fuck yeah moment for me when watching the finale.

The other fuck yeah moment was the very, very end. That last image. The one people keep calling “ambiguous,” but I read as 100% stone-cold gay. That’s unequivocally Navarro appearing on Danver’s lake house deck. My interpretation is she came back, like Danvers said, from the Ice and they’re now living their best lives together. But it’s still just as gay if you read it as Navarro’s ghost coming back to visit – and not haunt – Danvers in a tranquil, romantic setting. Like, I don’t know if this is one of those cases of the straight world reading queer women through history as “just roommates” or “best gal pals.” But there is an unquestionably gay reading to the final scene which fulfills the unspoken promise of a series where both leads looked SO DAMN GAY the whole time. Like, even the most oblivious straight people must recognize Jodie and Kali’s aesthetics as capital L Lesbian, right?

So, thoughts, theories? Honestly, even if I didn’t love the series it’d be worthwhile to have this female-fronted version because it makes all the right people mad. Luckily, I also loved the series. I mean, you get that many talented women together, how could you not? We’re watching, and we’re awake.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:17 AM

    Yeah, I couldn't undestand what was it with this all "what happened to Navarro?'
    Navarro got back and lives with Danvers, they put this scene there...
    And they were together in the past, how the hell else would Danvers noticed that Navarro CHANGED place for canned goods in her kitchen.
    I didnt see other seasons, but this one was satisfaying.

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  2. Solid take on this season.
    Like you, I hadn't watched any other TD. I was here for Jodie and Kali.
    I would only watch another season if it was them.
    The story ending was exactly as it should be

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  3. Anonymous6:53 PM

    I freaking loved season 4!!! TD earlier seasons had way too much macho nonsense for me to enjoy. Season 4 was wonderful, I never expected the ending at all but it all made sense when laid out there. Sad it's over and I am hopeful for a season 5 helmed by Issa Lopez. I love the 2 women dynamic, there are way too many male cop shows. I loved this one with 2 female leads

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  4. Lesbian Representation Matters9:11 PM

    "A viewer who loves complex mystery narratives, but is bored by the genre’s tendency to mythologize its Complicated/Suffering Men." It's me! I (too) am "a viewer.'

    This is a fantastic analysis. I wholly agree! Especially with your reading of the final scene. In my opinion, the sexual chemistry between Danvers and Navarro was fully evident from scene 1. It felt deep and real. The opposite-sex relationships in the series felt transactional and shallow in comparison!

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  5. Carmen San Diego11:20 AM

    I had not watched True detective before, I only came because of Jodie.
    At the end of episode five I did not think it was going to be possible to close all of the openings, but they stuck the landing.
    I loved the series I would totally watch another season of this.

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  6. Anonymous3:30 PM

    Huh, seems I’m the outlier here. Wasn’t impressed.

    Was I biased in thinking Danvers so queer coded why not just make her queer?
    Was that just me? My bias? Two blatantly queer women fucking men.

    Said originally it gave me Fortitude vibes and those stuck. Right down to the vague organisms in the ice crap.
    Too much style over substance for me.
    I’m all for a tint but almost every prop being blue and orange was so contrived it jarred.

    Ach, it wasn’t as utter shit as Fortitude but I was just seriously underwhelmed. Bummer.
    Still love you Jodie 😂

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