Maybe….Yes…? I think so….Okay, let’s discuss.
First off, I haven’t read the series so it’s possible that I’m missing something other viewers would get out of reading the books along with the Netflix series. But I just finished Part 1 of Season 4, and have seen so many other people on social media sharing their (apparently largely negative) opinions of this season, and I honestly have no idea if I agree or not.
I’m a little mixed on how Season 4 is going so far. My immediate reaction to the first episode was that it was really good. I won’t give spoilers away here, but where other seasons seemed to take a little bit of time for the action to pick up (with Joe doing his usual stalking whichever girl and learning about them before making any kind of move) I feel like this season just throws you right into the action.
It does turn into a bit of a who dunnit, which is what seems to be the issue for a lot of people who aren’t liking Season 4 so far. Again without giving away the details, I actually really like this approach. We’ve seen so much of Joe’s usual behavior in past seasons, and while I know last seasons especially with Love was much more intense at least in their romantic relationship, I’m not sure I needed to see a similar story rehashed with a different woman.
It seems there will still be a love interest and that’s fine, but the murder mystery sort of dynamic adds something we really haven’t seen before alongside the things I think fans generally do love about the show, so I don’t know, I’m enjoying that side of it so far.
What I am not enjoying is the characters. Again, I haven’t read the books, so maybe it’s possible I’d have more of a connection to the characters if I did. But aside from Joe, I feel like I hate almost everyone. If I don’t hate one of the characters as an individual, I at least hate the trope they’re playing off of and I am so over Joe just finding his way into a clique of a bunch of insanely wealthy people.
I kept finding myself thinking that the way the characters’ frankly ridiculous lifestyle factors into the story is just stupid. I understand what the writers were trying to do here, but it’s exhausting. I just wish they were normal people and more time could be spent seeing different actions followed through or just with some character development outside of stupid over-the-top, well, rich people stuff.
It also takes away some of the realism from the story just from the angle of, really, again? I feel we’re suspending our disbelief a lot to trick ourselves into believing that Joe can get away with everything the way he has, and yet he just keeps finding himself entangled in the drama of wealthier people each season?
Aside from those grievances, I am really still just hooked on what I’ve seen of Season 4 so far (all of Part 1), and while I have to cringe a lot of the characters’ personality traits and interests, I’m looking forward to seeing where the rest of the season goes.
So, is You still good? Uh, I guess.
