Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

This fight is for everything.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / True Detective’s Nic Pizzolatto Needs a Time Out

True Detective’s Nic Pizzolatto Needs a Time Out

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Nic Pizzolatto Needs a Time Out 1

When compared to comedic gems such as The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Silent Movie, I have to confess that History of the World, Part 1 is disappointing. This lackluster 1981 film by Mel Brooks feels like a series of hit-or-miss comedy sketches barely held together by duct tape.

However, a highlight of History of the World, Part 1 for me is the hilarious “Dawn of Man” sequence in the beginning of the film. Underneath the sitcom caveman schtick, Brooks sees a fundamental truth and happily knocks it out of the park.

Narrator: Even in primitive man, the need to create was part of his nature. This need, this talent clearly separated early men from animals, who would never know this gift.

[a group of cavemen is intently watching someone doing something on the wall]
Narrator: And here, in a cave about 2 million years ago, the first artist was born.

[a drawing of a buffalo is shown, and a proud artist exhibiting his work to the tribe]
Narrator: And, of course, with the birth of the artist, came the inevitable after birth… the critic.

[the critic urinates on the drawing]

And millions of years later, some things never change. The war between Artists and Critics goes on, with no ceasefire in sight. However, oddly enough, there are times where the combatants will switch roles and go to the Dark Side.

Case in point, Nic (True Detective) Pizzolatto. He went all in and Nic ain’t taking any prisoners.

Pizzolatto created the True Detective series for the premium cable network, with the first season starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. The fourth season, titled True Detective: Night Country, stars Kali Reis and Jodie Foster and is the first season without Pizzolatto’s involvement, although he is still credited as an executive producer of the drama.

Night Country recently wrapped its season and now ranks as the most-watched season of the franchise that started in 2014. Although the show created by Issa López has enjoyed good ratings and positive reviews, franchise originator Pizzolatto has thrown shade throughout the series’ run. 

Pizzolatto has reshared posts from some viewers criticizing the fourth season of True Detective. In a screenshot posted on social media, Pizzolatto shared an opinion from a fan slamming the finale, calling it “some of the sloppiest writing” and praising the show’s first season.

Is it me or does Pizzolatto sound like a bitter divorcee who’s enraged that his ex-wife has the gall to be happy without him? Worse, Pizzolatto doubled down on his online blitzkrieg.

Phillip Maciak@pjmaciak . Feb 19
You may have liked the TRUE DETECTIVE finale or you may have hated the TRUE DETECTIVE finale, but one thing is indisputable: Nic Pizzolatto is on Instagram, posting other people’s stories about how Issa López ruined the franchise like an absolutely enormous baby.

I see a “cease and desist” order in Nic Pizzolatto’s future. Nic has already found out to his dismay that if you can’t stand the heat, stay out the kitchen you tossed a grenade in. If this public meltdown was happening at a bar, Pizzolatto would have been cut off already. Sorry, dude. You don’t gotta go home, but you can’t stay here.

Anyway, in response to these slanderous comments, Issa López refused to get into the trench and wrestle in the mud with Pizzolatto. Instead, López released a statement that was more gracious and compassionate than he deserved.

In an interview with Vulture, López said, “I believe that every storyteller has a very specific, peculiar, and unique relation to the stories they create, and whatever his reactions are, he’s entitled to them.”

Translation: Not my clowns, not my circus.

(Wanna bet López choosing to take the high ground made Mr. Pizzolatto feel like she was rubbing salt into his wound with a Brillo pad?)

Still, it begs the question: why did Nic Pizzolatto decide to piss in his own bowl of cornflakes?

Here’s a theory: Sometimes the creative architects who build franchises get lost.

Maybe Pizzolatto is freaking out that True Detective became a puzzle he forgot how to solve so he does the guy thing and blames the women who he thinks don’t deserve to keep what he used to have even though he can’t tell you why.

It’s not Ms. López’s fault, Nic. You’re on the same side. Stop acting like a drunk Fred Flintstone writing your critique on the wall in the cave.

Sometimes the Muse stops speaking to you. Poetry becomes gibberish and the lovely melodies you used to sing together abruptly degenerated into loud and intolerable static.

The last thing an Artist ever wants to hear from their Muse is I’m not into you anymore, goodbye. Sadly, it’s an occupational hazard that inflicts creative people, and it happens without warning.

Why? Who the hell knows? Creativity is fragile magic to begin with. But yeah, it happens. A lot.

Chris Carter of the X-Files forgot who Scully and Muldur were.

Star Wars needed to step out from the enormous shadow of George Lucas to find itself again.

It took a while for Star Trek: The New Generation to build an identity because a Gene Roddenberry-sized road block was in the way.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movies were such a joyless, by-the-numbers corporate product that moviegoers would be justified in asking for a DNA sample just to confirm that Peter Jackson was somewhere in there.

James Cameron, one of the best action movie directors of his generation, is trapped in a time loop making endless sequels to Avatar.

These visionaries got served an eviction notice from the franchises they built from the ground up and nobody knows why.

Too much interference from the Boss who signs the paychecks? Burnout? A cunning pickpocket stole your Karmic Lottery Ticket? Ain’t got a clue. Sometimes it goes and all you can do is hope it comes back.

I hope Nic Pizzolatto works it out soon and gets back in the game. No more standing outside your ex’s house with a boom box over your head. Please. It wasn’t a good look when John Cusack did it.

Reader Interactions

123Comments

  1. 1.

    eclare

    I’ve only seen the first season of True Detective, so I can’t comment on year to year quality.  Plus the first year had Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, hard to miss with those two.  But Nic’s piss fest reminds me of when Katherine Heigl withdrew from Emmy consideration for Grey’s Anatomy because the writing for her character wasn’t good enough.

    Why would you dump all over your own show?  It certainly didn’t do her career any favors, and I suspect the same will happen to Nic.

  2. 2.

    Dangerman

    Person of Interest was great then went wayyyyy off the rails. Creative license on that one should get revoked.

    If there were an Olympic medal for shark jumping, POI gets the gold.

    ETA: What would we call shark jumping if Fonzi didn’t jump the shark?

  3. 3.

    Sean

    Perhaps the most baffling part was that he was credited as executive producer and getting paid to do absolutely nothing. Free money, with a big ol’ created by credit in there.

    You have to be a special kind of vindictive sad dude to be mad about the success of a franchise you kicked off that keeps making you richer, even as it has expanded beyond you.

    I’d take the money and give my happy thanks.

  4. 4.

    satby

    Is it me or does Pizzolatto sound like a bitter divorcee who’s enraged that his ex-wife has the gall to be happy without him?

    Nope, not at all just you. Great to see you posting!

  5. 5.

    MattF

    My guess is that something happened. We denizens of the peanut gallery may or may not ever find out exactly what.

  6. 6.

    Ejoiner

    Speaking of a great series – check out the new “Shogun”! I was a big fan of the first at the tender age of 13 and loved the book. The new one is excellent and has some great production work (on top of the phenomenal cast).

  7. 7.

    Yutsano

    It took a while for Star Trek: The New Generation to build an identity because a Gene Roddenberry-sized road block was in the way.

    To be fair, a lot of that had to do with him dying. But even before that it could have been other producers who were really interfering in ST:TNG being what it could have been from the outset. For example, firing the wonderful Gates McFadden and setting up such a poison pill for Diana Muldaur that she has since refused to return to the franchise. And I’m one of those rare ducks that actually LIKED Pulaski!

  11. 11.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Yutsano: It wasn’t just Roddenberry’s health issues, unfortunately. From some reports I read, there were several instances where Gene would do some unsolicited “revisions” on ST:TNG scripts in the early seasons. More to the point, as much of an advocate as Gene was in regard to having a diverse crew that looked like America, the sexism in a lot of episodes were cringe-inducing. It’s not a coincidence that the best episodes featuring Tasha Yar was after she died.

  15. 15.

    NeenerNeener

    @eclare:  Heigl was right though; the writing for her character really did suck. That was the “brain tumor caused her to have sex with Ghost Denny” plot.

    True Detective seasons 2 and 3, which as far as I know were Pizzolatto’s output, were both underwhelming. While Season 4 didn’t approach the quality of season 1, it was no worse than seasons 2 and 3.

  17. 17.

    H.E.Wolf

    Great to see your ‘nym on a front-page post again! I always appreciate your writing – and when it’s a topic (like this one) that I know virtually nothing about, I learn a huge amount. Thank you!​

  20. 20.

    Citizen Alan

    The only thing I ever found interesting about True Detectives was the fact that S1 appeared to be a stealth HP Lovecraft story. And then, after the first season, they dropped all the Lovecraft elements.

    Fun fact: Johnny McPhail, who played creepy bartender Robert Doumain in two episodes, was a casual friend of mine when I was living in Oxford, MS.

  23. 23.

    Anoniminous

    I enjoyed Jackson’s Lord of the Rings because I know movies ain’t books and the back room efforts were truly marvelous.  His The Hobbit however sucked little green donkey balls.  I walked out after the Goblin Kingdom rip-off of Raider’s Temple of Doom roller coaster through the mine sequence and never came back.  Since learned Jackson didn’t want to make The Hobbit but he got stuck when del Toro quit so he came on the pictures and dialed it in.  The films grossed $2,914,620,020 world wide so I concede my opinion counts for nothing, nada, zip.

  25. 25.

    cthulhu

    The first season of True Detective was masterful but season two went completely off the rails, good acting notwithstanding. Season three was fine and I personally liked it a lot but most people I’ve talked to much prefer season one overall by a large margin. So can’t really say Pizzolatto’s run was that great in any case.

    Haven’t yet finished season 4 but it definitely beats season 2 no matter what is going to happen, writing-wise.

  26. 26.

    Citizen Alan

    @Salty Sam:

    “That was when the show jumped the shark.”

    “That was when Cousin Oliver moved in.”

    “That was when the did the musical episode.”

    “That was when Coy and Vance showed up.”

    And for some shows, “That was the pilot episode.”

  27. 27.

    Leto

    Sometimes the Muse stops speaking to you. Poetry becomes gibberish and the lovely melodies you used to sing together abruptly degenerated into loud and intolerable static.

    You’re talking about S2 of True Detecto (what the wife and I call it) aren’t you? That was such a shit show. S3 was good, but we both really enjoyed this season. Maybe it’s the fact that it centered on primarily women and indigenous issues, and not white dudes and their flat circles, that so rankled him. Doesn’t matter.

  28. 28.

    E.

    He is right though, in my opinion, that the writing was sloppy. I liked watching the two leads do the best they could with what they were given but some of that writing was pretty cringe.  Like I started to wonder if it was done with AI. Still do.

  29. 29.

    Soprano2

    @Dangerman: Yep, I totally agree. Same with “X-Files”, it was great and then they went crazy. I think the people involved with the show get bored, and that’s when the craziness begins. I like what JMS did with “Babylon 5” – he plotted out the 5 seasons and said when that was done, the show was done, so although it did get changed some because he was afraid of cancellation after S4 and didn’t want to screw the fans the story completed and then ended. No going off into Crazytown because they were tired of the characters as they were. I wish he would have told the story about the Telepath Wars, though.

  30. 30.

    Shalimar

    Star Wars needed to step out from the enormous shadow of George Lucas to find itself again.

    Has Star Wars really found itself again though?  The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker were creatively worse than any of Lucas’s movies.  The Last Jedi was good as a standalone movie but doesn’t work at all with the other 2 movies in it’s trilogy.

  31. 31.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Anoniminous: The “Might Have Been” repercussions of Del Toro dropping out from The Hobbit t is heartbreaking. From looking at some of the preliminary drawings and set designs, it definitely had a darker tone to it. It didn’t help that Peter Jackson used a lot more FX while filming it. McKellen complaining about trying to act opposite a tennis ball on a stick.

  32. 32.

    Brent

    The whole discourse around Season 4 is… I wanna say weird, but it very much reflects what has become a common pattern around shows with female leads and directors.  I personally found this most recent season to be a pretty run of the mill example of bad storytelling. Certainly better than season 2 and on par with if not better than season 3,  which isn’t meant to be high praise.  But attempting to engage in any type of real discussion around the show, either online or in real life, too often devolves into a whole culture war discussion that I do not enjoy.

    As I say,  this has become a pattern in recent years and as someone who has always loved to discuss movies and television,  even especially when those discussion involve real social stakes around topics like gender and race, the quality of these new sorts of discussions has been dispiriting.

  33. 33.

    Old School

    @Shalimar:

    Has Star Wars really found itself again though?

    I assumed TBD was referencing the TV shows which have been more well-received.

  35. 35.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Shalimar: But I really liked Rogue One, and other than the lead being terribly miscast, I thought Solo was a solid addition to the franchise. And the TV shows are much better than the new generation of movies.

    (Old School nailed it.)

  36. 36.

    Jess

    S1 was amazing. S2 and S3 were each a disappointing and depressing mess in their own ways. S4 was an amazing mess. I really liked it for it’s eerie darkness (both literal and psychological), and thought it had the right balance of poetry and grit. But I agree with others who complain it ended in a tangled, anticlimactic jumble of plot lines. Another episode or two might have pulled it together more gracefully, but I’m thinking they focused too much on the journey and shortchanged the destination. I appreciated the issues it focused on, though. That made a nice change from the earlier seasons, and I wonder if that’s what triggered Pizzalatto.

  38. 38.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Old School: Disney’s Star Wars TV shows have been a mixed bag, too.

    Mandalorian was fun in S1 and beginning of S2. (I still have my baby yoda coffee mug!) Andor was good, and had lots of fans. Otherwise, it’s just live action Clone Wars and empty fan service (exhibit A: the Obi-Wan Kenobi show).

  40. 40.

    WV Blondie

    Don’t knock History of the World Part 1 – that gave our household our Jan. 6 song. Every time we hear a talking head refer to the insurrection, my husband and I sing in chorus, “Wow! What a show!”

  41. 41.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @The Thin Black Duke: Especially the TV shows that came out of Lucasfilm Animation – The Clone Wars, Rebels, and especially The Bad Batch. The Mandalorian and the recent live-action miniseries have been hit-and-miss, I’ll grant you, but the animation house has been knocking them out of the park.

    (And Dee Bradley Baker, man. You would not believe how many characters – distinct characters – that one voice actor can bring to life.)

  42. 42.

    P Thomas

    Who?

    I find myself asking this a lot these days.  Who?  What?  So?  Why is this a thing?

  43. 43.

    Citizen Alan

    @Anoniminous:  What killed the Hobbit for me was the fact that Bombur was basically a single never-ending fat joke with a silly moustache. There’s a scene in the first movie which is just Bombur stuck in a barrel rolling down a hill that lasted forever. 

  46. 46.

    3Sice

    The Rings of Power >>> The Hobbit

    While ostensibly based on different IP, much of it simply regendered The Lord of the Rings through lines, so the baby-men were enraged.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    @Anoniminous:

    I enjoyed Jackson’s Lord of the Rings because I know movies ain’t books and the back room efforts were truly marvelous.

     

    As a trilogy, it stands up 20 years later. Not only the storytelling, but, the visual effects. It still works.

  49. 49.

    eclare

    I watch Only Murders in the Building.  Season one was very good, season two was meh, there were too many subplots and back stories.  I am still not sure I understand what happened.  But season three, wow!  I was worried but it got back on track and more.  Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd were the guest stars.  Meryl Streep, of course, was great, but Paul Rudd was a revelation.  I know him as the goofy guy from Friends and rom-coms, he stole every scene he was in.

    I don’t know if the show changed writers or showrunners, but it more than recovered.  If you’re interested, you don’t need to watch the prior seasons to enjoy season three.

  51. 51.

    Marcopolo

    Curious why you didn’t mention Blazing Saddles in the intro?

    Also, creativity is a weird special thing.  Most artists can’t just turn it on and off.  The idea of having to create new episodes in a series (after the first idea is played out) is hard.  Hell, a lot of writers only have one (or two maybe) good books in them.

    Funny, Faulkner wrote some novels (and screenplays) I like a lot but take a look at his poetry! It’s bad! I mean, was he aware of his deficiency there?

  52. 52.

    P Thomas

    @The Thin Black Duke

    Sorry, I was thinking about my own shortcomings here, not being up to date on “stuff”!

    Not questioning anyone’s “thing”, sorry I made it sound that way.

  53. 53.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Seems like Nic’s angst is coming from the same place as all the armchair directors lecturing us all on the entirely objective greatness of The Godfather how Greta Gerwig didn’t really do anything special with Barbie, unlike Christopher Nolan who created the greatest Masterpiece of modern film…zzzzzzz…..  And don’t get them started on that over-rated Taylor Swift!

    Like the Academy showed us on Sunday, men in Hollywood often feel compelled to shit on hugely successful art made by (and largely for) women.  The Oscars did so in particularly egregious fashion by giving it almost zero awards while at the same time completely riding on its’ coattails, with several Barbie stars as presenters, many joke references, multiple musical performances including Gosling’s “Just Ken” stealing the whole damn show etc. in order to attract viewers.  But you know, it just wasn’t the kind of serious film that the Academy loves (despite the fact that Barbie made audiences stand and cheer and bawling their eyes out and actually feel stuff).  The mostly-old, mostly male Academy prefers, WW2, atom bombs, Great Men, and pointless nudity, now those are what makes real film greatness…

    I think he also has an extremely oversized opinion of True Detective S1-3.  Every season of True Detective has had some pretty glaring flaws.  Who cares?  The whole appeal of the show is the talent of the cast, the weirdness of the cases and the cool vibe/atmosphere.  Nic should be happy that Lopez got people actually talking about True Detective again.  I loved that Lopez brought the Native/Indigenous angles and story into the mix and had everything centered around women.  That, to me, more than makes up for any issues with the writing, since every other season has also had issues.

  54. 54.

    geg6

    @MattF: ​
     
    Having watched Season I and 2 (skipped 3 after the disaster that Season 2 was), my guess is that the newest season was better than any of his and definitely got better ratings. And it was a woman who bested him.

  55. 55.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @eclare: One behind the scenes factoid that I appreciate about OMITB is since the majority of the cast are older, the shooting schedule of the show is only eight hours per day. One actor said it was wonderful to get home in time for dinner.

  56. 56.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @P Thomas: Hey, no worries –I didn’t mean to sound hardcore. Bottom line, it’s impossible to keep up with everything, which keeps Life interesting.

  57. 57.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @UncleEbeneezer: Good points, man. I’m thinking of writing something about how Barbie got hosed. To cut to the chase: Comedy isn’t taken seriously by auteurs.

  58. 58.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Brent: The whole discourse around Season 4 is… I wanna say weird, but it very much reflects what has become a common pattern around shows with female leads and directors.

    Exactly.  See also: Barbie, Taylor Swift, Lovecraft Country (Misha Green), several projects by Issa Rae, several projects by Ava Duvernay etc. It’s like the artistic embodiment of America Ferrera’s monologue/rant.

  59. 59.

    geg6

    @Shalimar: ​
     

    The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker were creatively worse than any of Lucas’s movies.

    Must disagree. Nothing is worse than Episodes 1, 2 and 3. Just horrible and, even worse, boring as fuck.

  63. 63.

    NeenerNeener

    @WV Blondie:

    And then there’s the Unemployment Line scene with the philosopher:

    “Did you bullshit last week?”

    “Did you try to bullshit last week?”

  64. 64.

    Chris

    Star Wars needed to step out from the enormous shadow of George Lucas to find itself again.

    I’m not at all sure that the post-Lucas era has been better on balance than the Lucas era, but I certainly agree that a lot of my favorite products in that franchise both before and after did not come from him.

    Based on Star Wars, Star Trek, and Stargate, my general theory of sci-fi is that it needs an Ideas Guy who comes up with the original premise and the shape of the universe and everything, and then… steps back and lets other people take it from there.

  65. 65.

    rikyrah

    Like the piece.

    Haven’t seen this season. I am going to watch it because of Jodie Foster.

    I see a “cease and desist” order in Nic Pizzolatto’s future. Nic has already found out to his dismay that if you can’t stand the heat, stay out the kitchen you tossed a grenade in. If this public meltdown was happening at a bar, Pizzolatto would have been cut off already. Sorry, dude. You don’t gotta go home, but you can’t stay here.

     

    LOL

  67. 67.

    Chris

    @Dangerman:

    Person of Interest was great then went wayyyyy off the rails. Creative license on that one should get revoked.

    Person of Interest is a crime drama that evolves into a sci-fi drama.  Most fans seem to either like the crime drama and lose interest as the sci-fi takes over, or like the sci-fi and consider the early crime drama something you have to endure or skip over.  (Like the first season of Babylon 5 or Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    Thin Black Dude,

     

    Would love to see a piece from you about the Black writer who won the Oscar for Screenplay this year.

    I understand the thought process behind those who are tired of Black ‘ trauma’ entertainment.

    On the other hand, we have so many stories of absolute heroes of those times that literally have never been done at all, or not done correctly.

     

    I was reminded a couple of weeks ago that I would love a movie or a limited series of the Davis Generals. The thought, that a father and son became GENERALS in the US Armed Forces, and, in the times that they accomplished this…I know their stories are remarkable.

     

    Hell, I’d love a series about Jr’s four years at West Point.

     

    There are just so many stories that we need to hear. No biopics of Ella, Dinah, a good one of Sammy..Oscar Micheaux….Dorothy Height…Mary McLeod Bethune, etc….

     

    I just would love the balance….honoring our ancestors, and getting new stories that we haven’t seen.

  71. 71.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @The Thin Black Duke: Thank you.  It was pretty ironic seeing Gosling make a joke about Oppenheimer “riding our coat-tails” on a show that was so clearly doing the same.  Hollywood isn’t completely opposed to Movies For Women™ but they have to be a particular type of film and fit into a narrow artistic box like Women Talking, The Favorite, Little Women, Suicide Virgins etc.  But how can a comedy, about a toy doll, with bright pink sets be taken seriously?  I suspect this was the mental starting point of many Men in the Academy.  Of course, Greta showed us all exactly how, but I think a lot of people never got past their initial biases.

    Sadly, it probably would’ve helped  her chances if she had thrown in some disturbing violence or pointless nude scenes. /sarcasm (but not totally)

  72. 72.

    Dagaetch

    I enjoyed True Detective s1, didn’t watch s2 or s3, but loved this season 4. Sure it’s a little hand wavy with the plot at the end, but it holds together enough that I feel satisfied, and the incredible performances and ideas really made it click for me.

    @Chris: this. I love PoI, both parts, but it definitely changes from one thing to another. And neither would be as good without the other. The early crime episodes also taught us who the characters were and what drove them, without which the later sci-fi episodes wouldn’t have been so good.​

  75. 75.

    Chris

    @Soprano2:

    Never got into it when I was younger but I’ve been rewatching The X-Files (currently on season 3) and it’s definitely a really good show early on.

    What was really nice at the beginning was the sense that Mulder wasn’t the central figure tied to the conspiracy by family that he was eventually revealed to be, but just some guy who’d had his life destroyed as a kid by the kind of phenomenon he was now investigating.  Mulder starts out being no different from any of the victims of the week, just with a badge and a gun, which is why he believes and empathizes with them.

  76. 76.

    Barbara

    @UncleEbeneezer: The New Yorker thought that season 3 was a bust and season 4 is a huge improvement.  I haven’t watched, but I might now.  Anyhow, it’s possible Nic is trying to get people to go back and binge watch everything so they can see for themselves.  I never discount the possibility that many in show business consider all publicity to be good publicity.

  77. 77.

    JWR

    @Anoniminous:

    I enjoyed Jackson’s Lord of the Rings because I know movies ain’t books …

    Same here. I probably read the books 5 times or more and wasn’t bothered at all by Jackson taking a few artistic liberties. Case in point: the Ent’s destruction of Sauron’s (?) tower, which was only mentioned in the book

    ETA that as soon as I heard that The Hobbit was gonna take place over 3 movies, my interest faded quickly away, and I never saw the damn thing.

  78. 78.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @The Thin Black Duke: Generally, yes.  Though Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, Knives Out and going way back, Sideways, show that if it’s the right kind of comedy then even the auteurs can get on board.  But yeah, there’s definitely a film-snobbery that hinders comedies, when it comes to Oscar wins.

  79. 79.

    RaflW

    OT (semi, I mean, it is entertainment, right?), but oh my g-d.

    Semafor is reporting that Don Lemon did not sign a prepared contract with X / Musk. But Don’s still seeking payment.

    Dusting off ancient contract law from biz school, he might have a shot, since he could argue that both parties made some amount of specific performance on the contract even as it went unsigned. But what a parade of idiots.

  80. 80.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Shalimar: The Force Awakens was Abrams pandering to fan expectations, signaling a more original-trilogy-styled return to form after the prequels. I remember thinking “OK, but they need to take some chances next time around, mix it up a little.”

    The Last Jedi took chances, mixed it up a little. It was interesting. The superfans HATED IT, blamed Kathleen Kennedy, made up strange theories about Woke.

    The Rise of Skywalker was Abrams pandering as hard as he could to fan expectations, trying to pretend The Last Jedi never happened. This time, everyone hated it.

    I think I liked Rogue One best of the Disney-era movies.

    These days Star Wars seems to be more viable as a TV franchise.

  81. 81.

    trollhattan

    S1 was perfect teevee, full stop.

    S2 tried hard but failed to engage and immerse viewers like S1 (L.A. does not reel the viewer in like the other LA plus I kept waiting for Vince Vaughn to say “The beautiful babies love you.”)

    S3 was the inbetweener and in balance, excellent.

    Don’t currently have Max so I got nuttin’. Hard not to watch Jodie Foster in anything, even if she fails to give Nyad something resembling a pulse.

  82. 82.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @zhena gogolia: I used to totally be one of those guys who looked down on any art/literature/music/film centering women, by women, for women etc.  Thankfully, I eventually woke up (and now really love it) but I still know that mindset very well and see it all over the place.

  84. 84.

    zhena gogolia

    @JWR: I didn’t get very far into The Hobbit, but Richard Armitage yelling “Dragon!” was pretty fab.

  85. 85.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Matt McIrvin: Rouge One and Andor are absolutely the best thing to happen in the Star Wars universe in a long time. I did really like the Mandalorian too. They told different stories. They were interesting.

  86. 86.

    trollhattan

    Anybody know if the Perry Mason reboot is coming back? Loved the first run and miss seeing Phillip Jennings.

  87. 87.

    Chris

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    @Dagaetch:

    Oh yeah, I definitely enjoyed them both.  My observation is just that a lot of people don’t.

    I also just appreciate how you see the same beats repeated in both “genres” of the show.  The crooked cops from HR abusing their power to keep the streets under their thumb, make a nice predecessor to the black budget Big Brother types from Northern Lights who’re ultimately exactly the same kind of people, just with power and spy-fi toys to play with that the cops can only dream of.  And then there’s the visionaries like Root or Greer or even Finch, the techno-wizards, and Elias the modern-day Luciano – they live in very different worlds, but each of them’s ultimately a man who has a vision of how his world could be better and is determined to see it through.

  89. 89.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @trollhattan: L.A. absolutely can reel you in (Perry Mason, Southland, Training Day, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Mulholland Drive, Memento, Heat etc.), I mean it’s the damn center of the Noir Crime Universe for good reason, but it definitely failed to do so in TD S2.

    Totally agree on Nyad.  We turned it off after 5 minutes and I said “is this some sort of Hallmark Channel film?”

  91. 91.

    Chris

    @Matt McIrvin:

    These days Star Wars seems to be more viable as a TV franchise.

    Mirroring the way it was when I discovered it in the late nineties – Star Wars back then wasn’t just the three original movies, it was dozens of books and comics and, for those who were into these things, video games.  Like the TV shows today those were hit or miss, but there’s definitely a whole generation of Star Wars fans for whom reading the Thrawn trilogy or playing Rogue Squadron was “their” Star Wars, as much as anything released on the big screen.

  92. 92.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Excellent post, don’t need to have watched any True Detective (not my cup of tea) to get into the meat of the matter.

    I wonder what many dead authors would think of the movies their writing inspired. A mix of horrified and delighted?

    I have issues with multi season streaming shows with the same characters… I have rarely watched one where the subsequent seasons don’t get formulaic, like Kramer entering the room way back in TV land. So, I fall in love with the first season and I drop off somewhere in the 2nd season and shocked to see some shows lasting five or six. No doubt many commenters have series they love through and through…I‘ll admit to a short attention span.

    So, I think unlike Nic, I might be flattered that someone took my kernels and made some popcorn that many people thought was tasty.

    I am enjoying Shogun redux, luckily for me not a multi season production.

  93. 93.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @trollhattan: Sadly, Perry Mason was cancelled :(

    HBO dumped several good series’ to make room for other projects.  Brittish/Japanese Noir series Giri/Haji also got the axe even though there was already a second season planned.

  94. 94.

    geg6

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​
     
    Barbie, hands down, was the best movie of the year. I have now seen all the best picture nominees and it was superior to all of them, though I really enjoyed American Fiction and The Leftovers. It was superior pretty much every way it could be. Pissed me off that the Academy simply will never value great movies made by and for women. And “I’m Just Ken” was superior to “What Was I Made For.” But it wasn’t “serious,” so it had to lose.

    And I just want to say that I am madly in love with Ryan Gosling and his utter bravery.

  96. 96.

    Marmot

    Still, it begs the question: why did Nic Pizzolatto decide to piss in his own bowl of cornflakes?

    Raises the question. Begging the question is to assume facts not in evidence.

    Yeah, I’m sure there’s a grammatical error in this too.

  97. 97.

    trollhattan

    Thanks all for the sad news on Perry Mason. Gone too soon, it was working its way up the ladder of excellence.

    Reboot I’m enjoying is the new Shogun. Wonderfully cast (okay, Blackthorne is serviceable but everyone else is fantastic) and a visual feast. You won’t miss Richard Chamberlain buckling his swash even once. I cannot say how much pillowing there may ultimately be.

  98. 98.

    trollhattan

    @geg6: Greta now twice snubbed. {sadface}

    With Barbie’s vast income, Greta gets to do whatever Greta now wants so our hometown girl is going to continue putting her mark on Hollywood.

  100. 100.

    Chris

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    I wonder what many dead authors would think of the movies their writing inspired. A mix of horrified and delighted?

    Not a movie, exactly, but Dynamite Comics had a pretty good run of James Bond stories last decade (I think it’s still going, I just haven’t ready any recently) with Andy Diggle in particular writing a couple of stories that are a very pointed fuck-you to the Trump/Brexit crowd (one has Bond going up against an insane arms manufacturer who wants to Make Britain Great Again, another has him facing a revived SMERSH that’s promoting neo-fascism and isolationist politics in the West).  With the author’s rationale being that, look, Bond is canonically not just a WWII vet but a volunteer, who signed up to fight the Nazis – which side do you think he’d be on in the current political moment?

    Which is fascinating, because I suspect Ian Fleming would be very much at odds with Diggle’s take on politics both then and now, and yet I can’t really argue Diggle’s point.  If he wants to latch on to the “James Bond, Anti Fascist” aspect of the character’s origin because that’s the part that resonates with him in light of where the world around him’s going, well, good for him.

  103. 103.

    Roberto el oso

    I have watched all 4 seasons of True Detective and enjoyed all of them. The repercussions of S1 have been something of a revelation, from the praise early on to the subtle backlash that has followed (the degree to which even ‘woke’ males tend to dwell on themselves when in the midst of a slaughterhouse filled with dead women and girls). S2 remains watchable (I know I’m in something of a minority here) because no one does self-destructive-depressive-sadsack better than Colin Farrell, and Amy McAdams was also very good, despite being saddled with the name ‘Antigone’ (I’m sure there are other real-life Antigones out there, but it stretches belief a little, like discovering someone has named their kid ‘Clytemnestra’ or ‘Pasiphae’). Taylor Kitsche’s character was also interesting (suffocating mother, partially closeted) and who gets more or less treated as a sex object by everyone he encounters. Vince Vaughn was suitably spooky, however unlikely his vocabulary (‘louche’, ‘motility’, etc.). S3 continued the overall theme of general sorrow pretty well, and Stephen Dorff (who I’ve always liked) was excellent. My only real complaint about S4 was that it should at least have been 2 episodes longer.

  104. 104.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @trollhattan: I swoon pretty hard for Anna Sawai (who is also great in Pachinko, Giri/Haji and to a lesser extent Monarch: Legacy of Monsters).  Here is a good interview with her about Shogun and making this version much better in its’ depictions of Japanese culture and especially the women characters.  Apparently she’s gonna eventually start kicking some ass.  Can’t wait.  Shogun has it’s cheesy moments but we are still very much enjoying it.  The sets and costumes alone are worth it.

  106. 106.

    Mike E

    @trollhattan: I think you got it right. Season 2 is a trainwreck that I couldn’t recommend to anyone but I didn’t hate it and couldn’t look away… elements of the story’s underworld have some resonance to today, heh. Season 3 I found enjoyable with it’s mysterious intrigue and the main character’s journey. People who watched season 4 get its wrap up in the last episode may recognize a similar plot resolution in season 3. This last season had me a bit impatient at times (“WTH are you doing??”) and the head fakes had me smarting but I enjoyed how it didn’t care to assuage men’s egos (probably why Mr Executive Producer was so butthurt, haha).

  108. 108.

    Jerszy

    @Sean: Without defending his attitude, let me just point out that this payment and credit weren’t largesse or good will or for an extra “thanks, please be silent in your opinion”.

    They are what was minimally due to him under the WGA writers’ contract with Warner Bros/Max.

  113. 113.

    moonbat

    And thank you TTBD for including Chris Carter in that roll call of creators who lost the thread.

    By the time the second film,  I Want To Believe, came out, I was screaming at the movie screen, “Do you even know who Mulder is???!!!”

  114. 114.

    PaulB

    @JWR: Case in point: the Ent’s destruction of Sauron’s (?) tower, which was only mentioned in the book

    I think you mean Saruman. If I recall correctly, the Ents didn’t destroy the tower in the book because they couldn’t. The tower was built by people who really knew how to build things that would last. Instead, they kept Saruman confined in the tower until he finally talked his way out and went on the road, leaving the keys to the tower with the Ents, and setting up the final scenes in the Shire.

  115. 115.

    Craig

    @moonbat: Tony Gilroy really understands Star Wars better than anybody working in that Galaxy. His view of Star Wars is how I saw The Empire when I was 10 yrs old in 1977. The Empire is evil. Full Stop.

  118. 118.

    Chris

    @Craig:

    I was surprised how many fans in the early episodes seemed to buy that Dedra was going to be a good person who just happened to be on the wrong side. Not that Star Wars has never done that before, but it was obvious from pretty early on that Andor was too smart, and too antifascist, to be giving us Clean Wehrmacht Imperials.

  120. 120.

    Paul in KY

    @West of the Rockies: I wonder why he didn’t whack Vader when he had another chance? Should have been done, IMO. I don’t give a shit how much you pity him or whatever. Eliminate with extreme prejudice.

    The girl who played ‘young Leia’ was no athlete, obviously.

  122. 122.

    Paul in KY

    @JWR: Pedant point: The Ents destroyed everything around it. Orthanc was built in such a way that the Ents couldn’t really damage it.

  123. 123.

    BillD

    Loved Jodie Foster since Taxi Driver. Great acting in TD4. She even convinced me she liked sex with men.

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