Jodie Foster and her wife Alex Hedison at the SAG Awards, 24 February 2024.

KALI REIS as DETECTIVE EVANGELINE NAVARRO in TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY (2024) - EP. 1

I’d like to add that the men at Tsalal didn’t just kill Annie K. They killed so many babies, who were stillborn because of the pollution. They killed people who had no drinkable water. They killed dozens upon dozens and they weren’t ever planning to stop until they got what they wanted. It was a horrible way to die. But everyone else was experiencing a horrible way to live.

she just misses that guy, prior. don't let liz ruin that guy, okay?

Issa Lopez calling Navarro and Danvers "a romcom" 👀

True Detective: Night Country Part 1

haphazard danvers fancam. i'm just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks at this point

Come on Night Country lovers! Let's get it out of its rotten audience score and defeat the racist/misogynistic losers complaining about it being "woke"

Jodie Foster photographed by Brian Bowen Smith for The Rake, February 2024.

i really do not understand who complains about the pace of true detective: night country as if it wasn’t obvious that it’s following the movement of the spiral. from very slow to very fast as relationships rapidly fall apart and chaos reigns supreme. like? i thought it was clear that it’s the whole plot of the season? ngl

Danver’s specific brand of racism is so intrenched in love it’s fascinating. Her daughter is precious to her and her daughter is Indigenous and in this town, an Indigenous woman is not viewed as a precious thing. They are abused and raped and murdered and therefore, being white is the ‘better’ choice. She is actively whitewashing her daughter, not only because she’s afraid of what she doesn’t understand and because of typical coloniser mentality, but because she doesn’t want to lose her. Danvers can’t distance Indigenous identity from white violence and it’s killing what she loves.

Adam and I also watched the first episode of True Detective: Night Country, which I instantly fell in love with. I saw someone bitching on Twitter that Issa López is “not subtle” about a potential supernatural element because there is a copy of The Thing resting on one of the shelves in the TV room. I had to laugh. You silly bitch, that’s not even the half of it! FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF is stuck on loop at the crime scene, a film that explicitly breaks the fourth wall at multiple points. Danvers has to find a concealed entry point in a furniture panel and bash the machine around physically to get the Blu-Ray player to stop. You’re right, López is not subtle: she’s brilliant. She’s toying with you and you’re taking the bait hook, line, and sinker. When the Model Author speaks, you, Model Reader, ought to listen!

That movie playing in the background is also the second overt Chicago call-out that I was able to catch in the opening episode. A city with a rich history of police corruption and brutality, revolutionary student and racial justice movements, and labor racketeering. I’m calling it now. There will be no “supernatural element.” There will be a conspiracy that runs deep…

True Detective: Night Country, Ep. 6

Spoilers, y'all.

Okay, first thing's first. The single most important question about this entire season: How fuckin' many dead bodies has Rose gotten rid of? Because that was obviously not the first time she'd done that. It wasn't even the tenth time she'd done that. That stoned-ass old lady has put a lot of bodies in the ice, kids.

Somebody on reddit called that it was the cleaning ladies, LOL. Nicely done.

Also, loved that the cleaning ladies came and cleaned shit up. Loved the hell out of that. That whole thing, the vigilante justice by angry women with guns and an utter lack of fucks left to give? Delightful. 10/10, no notes.

So, this was one of those things that was written to be ambiguous on purpose. You can decide for yourself if Navarro was having visions or if she had the same mental illness that claimed her sister and mother, if she lived or died and came back as a ghost, if any of that fever dream that took up half the episode even happened like all that or if two gals were half frozen in a garage and hallucinating/dreaming or what.

The scientists doing the murder, and the way it went down... eh. Felt a bit much. All of 'em stabbing her to death? Clarke smothering her (and lying and/or delusional about it, the shithead). A bit much. Better if one of them had stabbed her in a fit of rage and the rest were complicit by keeping their mouths shut and going along with the cover up.

They were encouraging the mine to pollute more? Really? I think that's my main quibble about the actual murder mystery. I'll forgive the rest, but that feels a bit clumsy and contrived so that the mine could be involved.

Okay, I didn't hate the ending, I'm not mad about it, but it was a little weak. I really feel like this whole season could have used another pass by an editor, maybe another episode or two to flesh things out a bit and give it some room to breathe. Or, failing the extra episodes, maybe just a lighter touch on the supernatural vibes and a little more heft to the murder mystery.

I did like the vibe of the season, though. The incessant darkness was oppressive, and really screwed with your sense of time over the course of an episode.

Overall, I'd say it wasn't quite as solid as the first season, but it was easily as good as the third season, maybe better. It's been awhile since I saw season three.

Of course, it goes without saying that the cast was fantastic. They get the best people for this show, really.

But for real. How many bodies has Rose put in the ice? Is anyone keeping an eye on her? She was way too good at that.

(FYI, you're gonna want to stay out of the True Detective subreddit. They are having a whole entire temper tantrum meltdown over there.)

danvers, confused and bothered by navarro saying that she prays, because for danvers prayer was begging and pleading as a child for help that never came. but navarro says that, for her, it's not asking, it's "listening." and yet we see how much listening hurts. because there are no easy answers to what navarro knows and hears. watching annie k midwife was a beautiful moment of listening, being in a moment so real and different than the job she came to do as a cop. but it hurts so much in retrospect? and she listened to the woman she served with as she died and it made her believe there's a god - but not in a comforting way. there's a lonely god, like all of us are lonely. it hurts. she listens to the ghost of danvers' little boy and all she gets for that is danvers refusing to hear it. the story doesn't believe that just knowing the truth will do anything so simple and kind as set you free, nor does navarro. and yet she seeks the truth. she listens.

and the way that danvers is constantly using her white noise machine and tracks on her earbuds to avoid listening. block her ears. drown the truth out. how she refuses to think about the poisoned water, the stillbirths, the mining corporation that is what she really works for at the end of the day. loving and wanting to connect with her daughter but pushing her away so cruelly because she will not listen. her daughter needs to be heard, but danvers can't stand what she'd hear. and yet she feels compelled, at the same time, to look into things, to take risks seeking the truth even while she's afraid of seeking it. she actually did read annie k's case file, but she pretended that she didn't. she blocked it out.

listening is definitely better than not - it's being alive and present. but it hurts like hell too. there aren't any simple answers. i'm really intrigued to see how all of these threads--plot and themes--come together in the finale.