I am so much sadder about this than the last show I quit.
I am always so disappointed when there was a show I actively enjoyed, that was getting better than it had been when it started, and then it crashes and burns and leaves me feeling like I've been conned.
Right now, that show is Grimm.
I am pretty perpetually here for shows about hunting monsters (yes I did enjoy the hell out of Buffy despite its issues, I'll fight you) and Grimm billed itself as coming from the producer of Angel, so I was already pretty interested. Husband and I watched it from the beginning and it was very monster-of-the-week, which is fine. (My TV tastes fall into two categories: Intense Drama With Long Arcs and Plot-of-the-Week Monster Hunting, and I'm OK with that.) We enjoyed picking out the mythology behind the different critters, and the whole hidden society that the show had going on. One of my early complaints was that there were not enough female characters, but the show started introducing more (and they were rad) and creating complex relationships. It knew when to stop playing "hide the secret" from a given character. I was really delighted by the characters, even the ones I intensely disliked, because they were well-constructed and the show had a lot of different types of people (both physically and in terms of personality.) I was enjoying the hell out of the tension between Nick-as-Grimm and Nick-as-Cop, which I thought was done really compellingly.
And then.
Let's talk about season 4 and why I can't bring myself to even start watching Season 5.
I loved seasons 2 and 3. We moved beyond monster-of-the-week; we had cool characters (Rosalee, my heart) and interesting interpersonal tensions (Renard vs his family vs Adalind vs Nick vs everything) and the show was funny and sometimes heart-rending and intense and kept me guessing. The stakes were high and I was just so fascinated.
And then we had season 4.
Let me be clear: I love the idea of Juliette becoming a hexenbiest as a side effect of what Adalind did. I am actually really into the tension between Adalind and Juliette as foils for each other. (I was not especially fond of the "motherhood changes Adalind completely" trope but it was pulled off decently, so I rolled with it.) I loved Juliette learning to use her power.
And then suddenly we all fell off a cliff and everything was wrong?
Maybe Juliette's actress wasn't cool with the way things were going and she wanted out. That is the only reason I can think of for the fact that Juliette transformed from "reasonable human being out of her depth" to "and now let's go crazy with power." I couldn't tell what the character motivation was for her going off the cliff. I don't think the writers knew what the motivation was. I can, grudgingly, get behind giving Diana over to the royals--and that was a completely perfect way to write out her character by having her go to Europe and betray all of them there.
But no, instead, we kill off three rad female characters (Henrietta, Juliette, and Nick's mom whose name I'm drawing a blank on right now) in the space of like two episodes, and I don't even have to watch Season 5 to know it's going to be All About Nick's Manpain.
I love the mythology of this show; I love that Nick has been forming relationships with wesen characters and trying to work with them instead of lol murderation. I adore the characters in this show (Bud is the actual best character, oh my god.) I liked a lot of what was going on in season 3 and even the stuff that made me mad about season 4 could've turned into really interesting things up until the end, when let's just kill Juliette because okay?? what?? I HAVE NO IDEA. (Also: very not down with the slut-shaming when Adalind got pregnant again.)
I just. I don't know what happened. Did the writing team quit en masse and get replaced with less competent people? Did I imagine the parts where this show was shaping up to be way more than it started out as? Did I misinterpret everything in season 4? (I suspect it is not that last; I have asked around, and people who are still watching it have pretty much confirmed that I was correct to stop when I did.)
I keep not wanting to delete it from the TiVo, even though I haven't watched a single episode from this season, because I want it to be what it used to be, but apparently that's just not going to happen. And now I am sad, because the show I wanted teased me with its existence and then left me holding a handful of warm squishy mess instead. :(
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1141691.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.
Right now, that show is Grimm.
I am pretty perpetually here for shows about hunting monsters (yes I did enjoy the hell out of Buffy despite its issues, I'll fight you) and Grimm billed itself as coming from the producer of Angel, so I was already pretty interested. Husband and I watched it from the beginning and it was very monster-of-the-week, which is fine. (My TV tastes fall into two categories: Intense Drama With Long Arcs and Plot-of-the-Week Monster Hunting, and I'm OK with that.) We enjoyed picking out the mythology behind the different critters, and the whole hidden society that the show had going on. One of my early complaints was that there were not enough female characters, but the show started introducing more (and they were rad) and creating complex relationships. It knew when to stop playing "hide the secret" from a given character. I was really delighted by the characters, even the ones I intensely disliked, because they were well-constructed and the show had a lot of different types of people (both physically and in terms of personality.) I was enjoying the hell out of the tension between Nick-as-Grimm and Nick-as-Cop, which I thought was done really compellingly.
And then.
Let's talk about season 4 and why I can't bring myself to even start watching Season 5.
I loved seasons 2 and 3. We moved beyond monster-of-the-week; we had cool characters (Rosalee, my heart) and interesting interpersonal tensions (Renard vs his family vs Adalind vs Nick vs everything) and the show was funny and sometimes heart-rending and intense and kept me guessing. The stakes were high and I was just so fascinated.
And then we had season 4.
Let me be clear: I love the idea of Juliette becoming a hexenbiest as a side effect of what Adalind did. I am actually really into the tension between Adalind and Juliette as foils for each other. (I was not especially fond of the "motherhood changes Adalind completely" trope but it was pulled off decently, so I rolled with it.) I loved Juliette learning to use her power.
And then suddenly we all fell off a cliff and everything was wrong?
Maybe Juliette's actress wasn't cool with the way things were going and she wanted out. That is the only reason I can think of for the fact that Juliette transformed from "reasonable human being out of her depth" to "and now let's go crazy with power." I couldn't tell what the character motivation was for her going off the cliff. I don't think the writers knew what the motivation was. I can, grudgingly, get behind giving Diana over to the royals--and that was a completely perfect way to write out her character by having her go to Europe and betray all of them there.
But no, instead, we kill off three rad female characters (Henrietta, Juliette, and Nick's mom whose name I'm drawing a blank on right now) in the space of like two episodes, and I don't even have to watch Season 5 to know it's going to be All About Nick's Manpain.
I love the mythology of this show; I love that Nick has been forming relationships with wesen characters and trying to work with them instead of lol murderation. I adore the characters in this show (Bud is the actual best character, oh my god.) I liked a lot of what was going on in season 3 and even the stuff that made me mad about season 4 could've turned into really interesting things up until the end, when let's just kill Juliette because okay?? what?? I HAVE NO IDEA. (Also: very not down with the slut-shaming when Adalind got pregnant again.)
I just. I don't know what happened. Did the writing team quit en masse and get replaced with less competent people? Did I imagine the parts where this show was shaping up to be way more than it started out as? Did I misinterpret everything in season 4? (I suspect it is not that last; I have asked around, and people who are still watching it have pretty much confirmed that I was correct to stop when I did.)
I keep not wanting to delete it from the TiVo, even though I haven't watched a single episode from this season, because I want it to be what it used to be, but apparently that's just not going to happen. And now I am sad, because the show I wanted teased me with its existence and then left me holding a handful of warm squishy mess instead. :(
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1141691.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.