Alright, I have finished True Detective season 4.
I am actually struggling a bit with what I can say without spoiling anything, so bear with me.
The entire season is very nicely made. The dark, the snow, the cold all feels very real. Nothing stands out as being cheap or shoddy, and while this isn't the most important part, it carries a lot of weight. Filming can't have been easy, and they receive full marks for the effort they put in.
The actors are likewise both well written and the characters well acted. Motivations work, and with the central themes of grief and guilt and how you deal with them, the characters actions feel realistic. You don't have to like what someone does, but you can still understand it.
My biggest problem comes from the supernatural, or should I say, perceived supernatural events. Season 4 uses the horror elements very sparingly, but to great effect when they occur. There is more of it than seasons 2 and 3 had, and where a lot of weird stuff in season 1 could be explained with drug induced nerve damage, season 4 has mental illness as a possible explanation.
My issue isn't with the presence of potentially supernatural goings on, it is that the explanations kind of ignore them. You get an explanation for the central mysteries, and it is a given that law enforcement officers are going to strive for a logical solution, but I felt that all the mystical elements were shrugged off in the end. Not entirely ignored, but pushed to the side, perhaps for convenience.
As this is True Detective, there are some very dark motifs at play. Season 4 does not shy away from these and a few are on par with or better than the previous seasons. These elements are exemplary, and I'm glad they didn't dig deeper. However, don't go into this expecting lots of these moments, they are also used sparingly.
The season is very female centric, and that can be a touchy point for some with modern media. I did not find anything problematic in season 4. All the characters are well balanced and at the end gender roles actually don't matter. There are other forces at work instead. I can't say more due to spoilers.
So, do I recommend this season? Yes. overall, True Detective season 4 is good. It is better than season 2, on par with season 3 but in a very different way. To no ones surprise I'm sure, season 1 still stands heads and shoulders above the others, and I very much doubt there will ever be a season of this show that can match it, let alone top it. There were a few scenes that I think were added only so that another scene would be more impactful. This is fine, but the way they were added felt a bit out of sync, kind of breaking the flow. No deal breaker by any means, but somewhat sloppy. To summarize, if you were okay with seasons 2 and 3, there is no reason you couldn't enjoy season 4.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!
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