hi. this is what I said before it came out:
don't get the season 4 curse don't get the season 4 curse from Sherlock or stranger things I love you TUA I love you don't get messed up please please please
although icl if Klaus is in it immediately 5 stars (so it's going to be 5 stars)
so, that aged poorly.
I watched this show in 2022, in light of season 3 coming out. So I'm not a super long term fan, but this show means a lot to me, being my first massive obsession that rotted my brain and bringing me my favourite character of all time: Klaus. I read the comics before watching this season.
The first part of this season I loved. Finally, more scenes of all the Hargreeves together!!! Diego and Lila being adorable with their family, all the new situations they had got themselves into were fun, even Luther was somewhat funny and fun to watch. Then it got even better, with cool new powers, (though it really does feel like the whole no powers thing was a bit of a cliffhanger baiter considering as it was solved in about half an episode) even more scenes with them all together, humour and actually what seemed to be a fun main plotline. I liked the fact that the characters were all following the same plotline, rather than the subplot structure that we had seen, especially in season 2. Klaus was a highlight (I am bias, though) with some amazing scenes. Viktor felt a little sidelined but the crumbs we got with him were also great. Allison was redeemed.. ish… but in place of, and that's my next point, five.
Can this show go one season without making one of its siblings insufferable? And this time, it was a fan favourite. Admittedly, not my favourite, I only ever really liked Five with Klaus, but I have a friend who's obsessed with him and the whole time I was just like….oh shit. They're going to hate this. Way to destroy an entire character, guys. He just seemed so.. out of character and wrong this season. He betrayed virtually all of his values. And the thing with Lila… I'm just confused as to who the fuck thought that was a good idea. It literally makes no sense whatsoever and just… feels surreal. Guys, Lila and Diego were one of the only straight couples I loved as much as gay ones!! Why'd you have to ruin that?! Hated it all.
And once that dreadful arc was introduced, it all seemed to go downhill. It's unlike this show, or shows in general, to be better at the start and worse at the end, but this season felt like that. The siblings split up and it sort of returned to the original format, and whilst some plots were fun (like Klaus, of course ❤️) it just seemed to get worse.
And the ending created more questions than it solved. What was the whole thing with getting Lila's family on the train? Were they being taken to the correct timeline? In Klaus's words: ‘is anyone else very confused?’ the whole finale confused me so badly, felt really shittly written and mashed together. How did it end so badly? It was going to well!!! And, of course, it was deathly devastating. Cliché everybody dies but so much worse. I hate it so much. Sure, I mean, the monster was cool, stranger things is calling, and the timeline ending stuff was interesting on the surface (incredibly confusing underneath though), but the resolution was what was the worst. I was waiting for there to be some other answer, a twist at the end where there they all are, but no. What the hell??
Not to mention all the other unanswered questions and wasted opportunities. What happened with Ray? Where are Klaus's dog tags? Etc. Etc. All the new powers were sort of wasted, also.
Overall, really disappointed. I still love this show with all my heart, and the whole season was going so well, I was liking it more than any of the others, but the last 2ish episodes were lazy, confusing and bad. Tragedy can be good, sometimes, if you pull it off well, look at Torchwood or good omens, but this was badly written tragedy that was just plain sad.
That was a long one. I'll probably think of more to say later. This show still holds a special place in my heart, but I want to retcon that last episode from my memory forevermore. It could have been so much better, so much less complicated, so. much. better!!