Why does this show suck so much? Five episodes into Season 4 and I am exactly in the same point where I am with The Walking Suck [uh, I mean Dead] -- just watching each episode once, sometimes while doing other things, just to mentally get a rough track of the season gist.
- Season 1: Sublime. Still one of the best, most beautifully constructed TV shows and seasons I have ever seen. Easily in my forever Top Ten.
- Season 2: More convoluted, but at least it tied together to Season 1 in terms of continuation of story arcs + had really meaningful moments and setup for leaving the park. Really beautiful cap on the Native Americans and Maeve's search for her daughter.
- Season 3: Felt like it was completely by another creative team more interested in plot than character. Also felt like some exec wanted a "fight between top two Hosts, Dolores and Maeve" and thus Maeve became an action hero. Also became a show more about really broad big ideas but not necessarily about implementation strong enough to make one care.
- Season 4: Double down on Season 3. Beautiful production value, but very little sense of the actual story arcs involved, and people are just doing shit to generate plot. I don't know who anyone is, I don't care who anyone is. Maeve really is just another action hero so far, and there's no real connection between the characters and who they used to be. We used to be tracking William through his slow disintegration, now there are multiple Williams and I don't care about any of them. Such a meme-ready show (not in the good sense) -- last episode my kid walked in halfway through and was like "OOOH THEY SAID THE LINE" [quoting something from first season] but mainly just like being a namedropper, which is a huge red flag as if that justifies this season's existence. No real development of ideas in ways that can be followed emotionally and rationally, just relying on goodwill from better seasons. Like WTF happened to this show? I noticed episode 5 ended better than some prior episodes this season, but... is that too little too late?
There are some big ideas. I like they are trying to again compare between humans and hosts and flipping the tables to put each in the other's role, for example. But that is a Big Concept that is just not at all satisfyingly executed, especially because none of the characters are generating emotional interest.
Like, I am never going to rewatch these seasons. I will rewatch Season 1, and I will occasionally rewatch Season 2, but the rest is just forgettable. It might be worse than the decline in Game of Thrones, because at least we got 4+ decent seasons out of GoT.