Content Consumed: True Detective finale, Masters of the Air, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Dua Lipa, and more

We’re so back, baby!!!

Hi, it’s me, Casey. I’ve had a crazy couple of months so it’s been a while since my last Content Consumed column, but I’m back and I have things to say!

In today’s edition of Content Consumed…
👎🏼 True Detective: Night Country finale was… as bad as expected
💥 I’m in love with the Masters of the Air cast
🔫 Mr. and Mrs. Smith is worth the watch
❤️‍🔥 Dua Lipa, Beyoncé, and more new music on repeat
📚 My 2024 books (so far)

P.S. If you’re new to Content Consumed, scroll to the bottom for a short-n-sweet get-to-know-me.

True Detective: Night Country disappointed

It’s a bummer! We all wanted Night Country to measure up to Season 1! But alas…

I’d give the full season a 3/10 (because I watched the whole thing, I guess) and the finale a 1.5/10 (because… well, I’ll list the reasons below).

My reasons for disliking the finale so vehemently boil down to a list of unanswered (and new) questions. And some complaints.

• Let’s start with one of the more obvious what-the-hells: We’re all dead on the whiteboard makes no sense. And you know something makes no sense if the showrunner has to try to explain it after the show.
• This, by the way, is a common theme—Issa Lopez, this season’s writer, has gotten on Twitter and spoken to other media outlets to defend every episode because there’s been so much that doesn’t make sense. (I’m still not over her claiming that a fishing party on Christmas found Navarro’s sister’s body within hours of her suicide. Cmon.)
• The big reveal is that the scientists were… purposely polluting. Apparently, “the mine” (and we still don’t know what they were mining) could directly melt permafrost. They’ve gotta have some sort of speed-global-warming-toxic-power, I guess? Not a single environmental scientist was consulted for this season—no chance.
• By the way—if Hank was working as a dirty cop to cover up Annie K.’s murder for the mine, why did he leave the tongue? Doesn’t that throw the mine under the bus? It demonstrates that the mine/people associated with the mine “shut her up”… right?
• And who placed the tongue in the station; was it actually Hank? Also, isn’t the tongue many years old (not fresh!!!) if Annie K. died years ago? “Google it,” says showrunner Lopez. Awesome.

• Peter Prior and Kayla’s scene made no sense. What the hell? She’s suddenly in love with him after screaming at him for two weeks—for working overtime on the biggest case he’s ever had—because he “just has to take care of this one thing”? Mind you, that one thing is disposing of some bodies…
• They really shoved in “time is a flat circle”. And the Tuttle name drops, and the spiral, and everything else trying to unnecessarily and unsuccessfully connect back to Season 1. True fan service bullshit.
• The final piece of evidence was an undiscovered handprint from a crabbing lady. That should sum things up. Just plain ole’ bad detective work as usual.
• Sorry, was that house full of Inupiat women a clown car? Where did all those women come from? How did they know Danvers and Navarro were coming? Is this some sort of mafia situation?
• Wait, what caused the eardrum and eye damage for the scientists?
• Why did Annie K. attempt to destroy all the evidence after filming that video? Doesn’t that kind of go against her goal of exposing Tsalal and the mine? Or did she destroy it before? When is she found by Lund? Her video cuts off as Lund finds her right then, but in the flashback, we see he finds her as she’s destroying evidence. SO WHICH IS IT?
• Is Navarro superhuman? How else could she survive being beat up so many times—including being bashed on the head with a fire extinguisher? That woman is concussed.
• The one-eyed polar bear? Did anyone get answers on that?
• The necklace that falls out of Danver’s hair? The hub cap? Are those also just visions? IS EVERYTHING A VISION?
• The romanticization of suicide… especially Indigenous suicide… oof!
• These detectives suck, straight up. So many pieces of evidence are ignored until the last minute (caves close to the station, handprints, etc). They’re torturing their only witness without real cause, not leaving a trail through the ice caves to find their way back, unnecessarily shivering in the powerless Tsalal station when they could’ve hung out in the warm trucks outside… (by the way, no chance Liz could’ve survived after falling into the ice water).
• I do not enjoy the “everyone did it!” trope. All the scientists killed Annie K.! All the Inupiat women killed the scientists! (Another quick Q: how did the Inupiat women even know that all the scientists killed her?)
• A bigger question: why did all the scientists join Lund in killing her? Were they all latent sociopaths?
• I’m so f*cking sick of “Twist and Shout” and the THREE MOODY COVERS played during the finale alone.

Ughhhhh. Ugh. Ugh. Just straight-up disappointing. I have more questions and nits to pick but I’m exhausted.

Yet publications like The Rolling Stone are saying this is the best True Detective series finale ever. This is just incorrect if you’ve watched Season 1 with McConaughey and Harrelson. There’s a theory that HBO has paid off a bunch of outlets and I believe it. Forbes did it right, though.

Anyway, it’s over, thank God. Farewell forever, Night Country. You will not be missed by me.

Masters of the Air… my boys…

Sometimes you see a cast and you think: those are some true stars.

Austin Butler, Callum Turner, and Barry Keoghan, you are my stars. As usual with a Band of Brothers connected series, we cannot get too attached to any of them. Already—and no spoilers, I promise!—there have been some major deaths. After all, with such a high mortality rate as airmen in World War II, it’s realistic to lose some main characters.

Masters of the Air has been fantastic so far. It feels very much in the same universe as BoB, both in tone and visuals. The fight scenes are cinematic, graphic, and important to the story. The other scenes are beautiful, emotional, often funny, and deeply personal. A character can be fully fleshed out within a single episode and devastate you when he dies in a sky battle.

Then Austin Butler will look pensive and you’ll feel your heart flutter (also please watch this clip)… then Callum Turner (despite his silly mustache) will tilt his head and he’ll look like a sad puppy… then Barry Keoghan will say something with his really, really bad American accent and you’ll giggle a bit…

And they’ll all certainly be dead by the end of the season.

Tragic and beautiful. That’s Masters of the Air.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith nailed it

Listen: the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith is one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time. So I was certainly hesitant when Donald Glover announced he was remaking it into a series for Amazon Prime. I was even more hesitant after the whole debacle with Phoebe Waller-Bridge backing out of the creative room.

But boy oh boy, did this deliver.

First of all, the chemistry between Glover and Maya Erksine was off the charts. They’re a great pairing (of course no Brad and Angelina, but who could ever be?) for exactly this show. It’s emotional, high-stakes, funny as hell, and always interesting. Eight episodes was the perfect length.

Second, Glover put a good spin on it—instead of marriage then spy reveal, it’s spies forced to be spouses. They have to get to know each other, and get along, while on high-intensity life-or-death missions.

Third, it’s soooo vibey. Each episode takes us to a new place or lets us into John and Jane Smith’s incredible NYC brownstone (which has more of a plot tie-in than expected in the final episode).

The first season (hopefully there’s a second!) ends on a massive cliffhanger. Are they both dead? Is John dead, and Jane alive? Did they both survive?

What I’ve got on repeat

There’s been so much good new music. Here are a few of my favorite songs right now.

“Training Season” by Dua Lipa
So ready for the Future Nostalgia follow-up album. Btw, she’s dating Masters of the Air star Callum Turner. PR couple? Maybe, but they’re hot, so it’s okay.

“TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES” by Beyoncé
The Yoncé country era is imminent. I’m not a country girl, but she could make me one. Why does “16 CARRIAGES” make me tear up every time?

“Make You Mine” by Madison Beer
I am one of the few and the proud who had Madison Beer high up there on my 2023 Spotify Wrapped lists.

“OREGON” by Kota the Friend
Vibey and local!

“Oblivion” by Grimes
Rediscovered and very appreciated.

“WET PAINT” by SOFY
Discovered on TikTok, unable to get out of my head.

My 2024 Book List (so far)

Here’s my Goodreads if you wanna skip right to it.

Anyways, here are the books I’ve read this year so far—and how I’d rate them.

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez
Short horror stories in Argentina, translated into English.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ — a wee bit too freaky for me

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
A multi-POV novel reflecting on beauty in South Korea.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐—really gripping and good characters

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
A family drama mystery with constant twists.
⭐⭐⭐—didn’t connect with the narrator or the ending

My Husband by Maud Ventura
A week with an obsessive French housewife, translated into English.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ —very, very interesting but I don’t love when an epilogue explains everything

In Memoriam by Alice Winn
A war saga / gay love story set in WW1.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ — good, entertaining novel but wasn’t sure that the end was quite right

Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next week. Love y’all.

Cheers,
Casey

🗯 Wait, what’s this Content Consumed thing?

I’m Casey and I’m a writer based in Portland, Oregon. My day job is writing at an ad agency, my primary hobby is novel writing, and I publish this column about once a week (at least, that was how it went until I took a break from November through January).

In every edition of Content Consumed, I’ll catch you up on the culture of the moment. Mostly entertainment—television, movies, music, podcasts, books, sports.

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👉🏼 Find out what I’m reading at my Goodreads profile.