So I'm past the halfway point. Three stories in three timelines, and finding out who the killer and kidnapper actually are in sight. The main couple in the 80's are still investigating and finding out who could have (but didn't) kidnap the kids. In the 90s, after the case is reopened, the investigators team up again to search for the missing daughter. And what does the main character do during his retirement in the 21st century? He throws himself into his own investigation, following the clues the documentary filmmakers provide, and goes back into his lost and scarred memory to find all the unpleasant and displaced memories.
We've really got the first half down, but we've learned nothing. The trailers show more than we actually get in the episode. With the trailer for the fourth episode, I thought we would have found both the killer and the child kidnapper by now, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Another blind detour from the right killer and it gets even more convoluted.
Main character Wayne Hays is really thorough and whatever clue he finds he investigates and follows it through, gradually getting to know his future wife, who becomes a famous writer thanks to the case he investigates as a detective.
His partner Roland West, thanks to not making a mistake like Hays did in his investigation (we don't know what it was yet), continues his work well into his 90s and brings his partner in to finish the case.
But we don't yet know what actually happened, either in the 80s or the 90s, so I commend the main creators for a story that doesn't let fans gasp and gradually gives them clues to discover the main culprit for themselves .
This time Nic Pizzolatto directed the episode himself, so the standard is really maintained and he and his co-writers and co-directors have shot the first four episodes with just enough consistency that the differences between the directors are not visible. Every shot is important, and every moment with the main characters is interesting.
The case doesn't move much in the fourth episode, but we do get to enjoy some action towards the end of the episode, which I'm sure will have quite a lot of build-up in the next episode.
What about my rating? The story didn't really move much, but the main plot points gave us a hint that it's not going to be as easy as it seems and, more importantly, it's not just going to be a simple kidnapping and murder.
Rating: 90%
Original release January 30, 2019 – Kritiky.cz
