I hate the main character. He is so irredeemably unlikable, it's practically unfathomable that someone would write this, and it would get greenlit for production. Aside from being more boring than watching paint dry, one of the oddest things about this show, which is incredibly irritating, is the audio. In at least two of the first five episodes, they employed this background audio, which in one case sounded like a cellphone notification and in the other, a high-pitched squeal. I can't believe that no one caught this in post, b/c it's so hideous to listen to.
I felt that this show really should be evaluated in three parts, as it’s almost as if there were three shows in one. The first season was based on the novel of the same name, so the writers had clearly marked signposts to follow. As the novel was quite compelling, so too was the first season of the show. However, this is where the book ended, and the writers had to take up the slack. The natural progression of events led them to follow the court case surrounding the death of Hannah Baker, as well as the criminal trial of Bryce Walker..
I felt that these two seasons should be evaluated in terms of being different shows. The first season was clearly the best season of the four b/c, that’s the material the book covered, and the writers didn’t have to come up w/ any of their own material. The second season, although panned by some fans and critics, still followed the same themes of the first season, yet it was not up to par in terms of storyline or writing.
The third and fourth seasons should be considered a third show all on their own. While they did stick to similar themes from the first and second seasons, the writers clearly had no plan in place to go beyond the end of the novel. These last two seasons, especially, felt completely disjointed from the first two. The third season was long and drawn out, and the payoff in the end was neither surprising nor all that interesting. If they had maintained more of a mysterious atmosphere over what they were doing, it might have been better.
The fourth season was just a mess. Watching a main character who’s moody, bitter, angry, intense, depressed, and slipping into schizophrenia is not a compelling watch. They began this in season three and continued on in season four. It really added no particular value to the show or the character of Clay.
As for the storyline in the final season, it was absolutely ludicrous. I won’t go into the details, but suffice it to say, the writers really didn’t put much thought into what they were doing. The last two episodes of the show were especially pointless. The prom episode was completely unnecessary, as was the finale, at least the way it was filmed. And, it certainly didn’t require 90 minutes to portray the events of what happened in the finale. Not to mention, the last scene of the show was absolutely awful.
I think that the worst part of this show, however, was the treatment of two characters, Bryce Walker and Montgomery de la Cruz. In the third season, the writers actually spend quite a few resources rehabilitating the image of Bryce, as if there was some redemption to be had for him. He was a serial predator, and his actions would have stemmed from a deep-seated psychological disorder that wouldn’t have simply gone away, b/c he acknowledged his wrongdoing and felt bad about it. They did something similar w/ Monte in the fourth season, and I felt that it was incredibly disingenuous, dangerous, and irresponsible to take this path, b/c it showed that they really hadn’t researched the topics they were writing about. It was really surprising to watch this, and even both of Jessica’s relationships w/ Justin and Diego were quite questionable, especially given her role as head of the women’s rights movement on campus.
Overall, this was an interesting story. However, it should've been kept to five or six episodes. There was absolutely no need to string this out into 10 episodes. It really lost purpose in the middle, and it got away from the main focus for long periods of time. In the end, the performances by Amanda Seyfried and Tom Holland were quite strong, and they carried material that otherwise might've been quite lackluster.
This show was better than it was given credit for. For me, the highlight was Tinsley Grimes. She had such great mannerisms and a terrific delivery. It really made her stand out. Glenn Howerton, on the other hand, was the lowlight of this venture. I've seen him in a couple of things, and I find him neither to be funny nor a good actor. He's just sort of there, and he often comes across as kind of a jerk. I really don't care for his presence, and I think that he drags down the material.
Seeing fascists presented as the good guys is always disappointing, but when they use those they oppress to be their cheerleaders, it's unbelievably sickening. This would've been so much better, if Captain America had let the fascists die.
This show was always best, when it led with its heart. They combined the proper amount of emotional idealism with comedy, and they produced a winning formula. This show is one of the few that got better with age. In fact, I can't think of another serialized program that did what Scrubs was able to accomplish. Forgetting the ninth season, which was really its own separate show, I felt that the eighth season was the best of all of them. They wrapped up storylines and allowed pieces to fit together, without having to force them, and they gave each character hope for the future without dismissing their past. The eighth season finale, the de facto series finale, was one of the best I've ever seen. I'm glad that I rewatched this, because it was a series, and characters, worth revisiting.
Edit: I realized that upon finishing this rewatch, it was exactly 14 years to the day, since the final episode of the series aired.
The stories were interesting, if not disturbing, the cinematography could've definitely used quite a bit of work. The extreme close-ups, the shots of highlighted text from documents, while people were speaking, it makes it difficult to watch, and follow, at certain points. My rating was based on the content, which was solid, but the framing of it could've been much better.
I'm still not sure what to make of this mini-series. I love the Maya Lopez/Echo character, an Indigenous woman who is deaf with a disability, that cross-representation is so, so awesome for a number of greatly underrepresented communities. Yet, this story felt incomplete. It seemed as if they had created a much richer story, and possibly filmed quite a bit of it, then cut it out for some reason. That this was only five episodes was one indication and that the final three episodes all decreased in length, w/ the final episode coming in at less than 30 minutes, was another. Also, much of the first episode seemed to be taken from the Hawkeye mini-series.
Usually, when a mini-series ends w/ an episode that's significantly shorter than the rest of the series, it's not a good indication, as it often feels like leftovers from the main story; not so much an epilogue as that the filmmakers didn't really flesh out the story completely, and that was what they were left w/. This series felt less like that, b/c the storyline continuity seemed off throughout, and as noted, episodes got shorter and shorter. It just really left a sense that so much was left behind during the editing process. It really seemed that there had to be more to this story in order to make it fuller and more robust. I had a difficult time understanding how this might of occurred, since Sydney Freedland, of Reservation Dogs fame directed four of the five episodes, and she was more than capable of bringing home a stellar series. It seemed as if Marvel's hand in this might've taken the ship off-course.
One thing that I really wanted to see more of was the relationship between Maya and Bonnie. They played it up as if they were sisters forcibly removed from one another's lives, but they barely utilized Bonnie. She seemed more like a set piece used to move the story forward, and that was through no fault on the behalf of Devery Jacobs, who's a tremendous, young actor. I will say that Alaqua Cox did a tremendous job as Maya Lopez/Echo. For someone w/out a lot of acting credits to their name, she really held her own well, and she did herself proud as a representative of the Indigenous, deaf, and disabled communities. I also greatly appreciated the message that strong, intelligent, capable women could accomplish anything together. I really hope that her character is used to better effect in the new Daredevil series.
This started off well enough, but it ended on a sour note. It's never a good sign, when the final episode of a mini-series is roughly 10 minutes shorter than each of the other episodes. It gives a feeling of watching the leftovers. One thing that I didn't really understand was the jumbled timeline. Griselda Blanco's life story was interesting enough w/out them having to change so many details, and keep in actual events but in an alternate order. It didn't make much sense, and it certainly didn't add anything to the story. If anything, the story that they concocted was more of a rendition of Scarface than anything else. I wish that I knew why they had done this, especially when there were plenty of action involved in her real-life story. I will say that one thing I didn't care for about this series was how they made her a sympathetic figure. She wasn't, and to make her and her family victims was disingenuous and dishonest. Other than that, it was well-acted, but it just didn't flow well.
This was phenomenal. There was such great care taken in the attention to detail that it made so many scenes really stand out for how well fleshed out they were. The acting was superb! There were so many wonderful performances, there were too many to list, but Michelle Dockery and Merritt Weaver were exceptional. I'm not a big fan of the western genre, but this was so far above and beyond a simple western tale. This is one of the best mini-series I can ever recall having watched.
The first season was solid, although the Billy Russo character wasn't very engaging, and they overdid it w/ the government involvement. The second season was a mess. The storyline was convoluted and uninteresting, and the choice to bring back Russo was a bad one. He was all right as a single-season antagonist, but he just wasn't enough of a well-evolved, compelling character to bring him back as a villain for a second season. And, his involvement w/ that doctor was ludicrous and served no purpose in driving the storyline forward. Additionally, the second season antagonist, the Christo-fascist mutt they brought on was boring, and midway through the season, they confused the plot w/ a senator and his family as additional antagonists. The entire season was a victim of poor storyline, poor characters, and a lack of a definitive direction for Frank Castle to go.
This was just awful. I don't know what they were thinking in writing this. They completely missed the mark w/ 99 percent of their attempts at humor. Overally, it was an unnecessary project.
The Stark mongrels all deserved to be deskinned just as much as all the Lannister subhumans. That's about all I have to say about this show. Sansa Stark may have been the most vile of them all. Everyone knew what the Lannisters were, but she connivingly worked her way into an undeserved seat of power. She should've had her skull bashed in, instead. At the end, the people of color and a woman win two wars and bring peace to the realm, and the whites decide to betray and murder the woman, and tell the people of color that they'll die, if they enforce justice for the murder of their queen. They should've slaughtered all those white mongrel subhumans right there in the dragon pit, starting w/ the Starks.
I just finished the final season, and given the show was what it was, a cultural phenomenon that was essentially about nothing of great importance, the final season was a mixed bag. For large stretches of the first five of six episodes, they moved away from their witty, back-and-forth banter that won them so many fans and dove into actual content that indicated potential future directions for the characters. However, they seemingly gave up on this idea, blew off the apparent changes that might take place in the lives of the characters, and had the show end on a disappointing note, where everyone was still in the same place, doing the same things, they had been in the first episode of the show. There was seemingly very little growth from any of them.
Having noted that I like the actual real storyline they started the final season w/, there were a number of things I questioned about the final season, as well. First, they introduced a number of new characters, something that's never a good idea during the final season of a show, especially an ensemble show such as Letterkenny. Second, they introduced these characters at the expense of other established characters who received little-to-no screen time during the final season. The characters essentially missing from the final season included Joint Boy, Coach, Glen, Bonnie and Mrs. McMurray, Rosie, Tanis, Dax and Ron, Aly and Bianca, Barts, Yorkie, Scholtzy, Fisky, and Boomtown, Mary-Anne and Betty-Anne, the Dyck family, and Anik. Of all these people, some were seen in the final season and had small roles, but most of them either weren't seen at all or had no lines. This was incredibly disappointing, and I don't know why they chose to go this route w/ the final season. Third, in the final episode, Jonesy and Reilly stopped by the produce stand to offer their thanks and respect to Wayne and Dary for all the times they'd stood by one another in times of trouble, and instead of showing any growth from Wayne and Dary, the writers chose to have them chirp the boys the same as they'd done in early seasons of the show. I felt that this was another missed opportunity to give validity to previous seasons. In other words, by not acknowledging Jonesy and Reilly, they essentially said that all the times they'd been there for one another didn't matter, and that was really a shame. I think that writing like that devalued their own show. Fourth, the whole idea of having each of the main characters move on to something bigger in their lives was a good idea, but they scrapped it all over nothing. I will never understand the decision to build this storyline, then forget all about it by disregarding it in its entirety. Finally, they spent a significant portion of the final episode, and the only segment of the season Glen was a part of, rehashing the episode Fartbook. This was really a head-scratcher, as it was one of the most lowest-rated episodes of the entire series as shown by its rating on multiple platforms. It was really a poor choice to include this, and it also said that the writers were really out of touch w/ what their audience wanted and expected from them. You don't see that very often in hit TV shows. The writers and producers usually pay great attention to what the audience responds and doesn't write more of something that failed spectacularly in previous episodes. I really don't know what they were thinking, but it wasn't a good look for the writers.
This show will likely continue to be one of my favorite comedies, but I really felt that the final season could've and should've gone in an alternate direction. They started off really well, and the whole thing imploded in the last two episodes for no reason. I think that they would've been better off simply sticking to their formula and doing the same bits they'd previously done w/out the teaser of having ending arcs for the characters. There really was no character arc for any of the characters on this show. Instead, it was more of a flat line.
I felt that this show never really found its footing, which was disappointing, b/c it had an interesting premise and relatable characters w/ one notable exception. I felt that Craig Roberts, as David in the lead role, was written in an odd fashion. This wasn't a knock on his acting ability but more in how the character was created. He, more or less, was simply there in each scene. There wasn't much affect from him, so his character came off as more of a bystander in his own life. Aside from him, the other characters, as written, were quite enjoyable to follow.
One thing I found questionable about the direction of the show was that, after the first season, they largely moved away from the country club setting. I thought that this was a poor choice, since the setting of the show was what made it unique in many regards. This show, as originally planned, had the feel of an adult summer camp-type vehicle. However, when they repositioned this show to follow the characters from the club to other areas of their lives, it lost much of the distinctive feel it originally held. I felt that this was a mistake in the direction of the show, and it ultimately led to its downfall, which was unfortunate, b/c it held so much promise and could've easily run for five or six full seasons.
My score for this show is a reluctant seven. It really deserved a less, but I based my per-episode ratings on production values and topics touched upon. Based upon story and writing, I would've given this show a three- or four-star rating. The writing and direction, as in direction of the storylines, was incredibly lazy. This show was a constant stream of the relatives of those killed by Barry coming back to seek revenge against him. It wasn't all that interesting of an idea to begin w/, and it certainly didn't get better as seasons progressed.
I was immediately bored w/ this series, and I never really grew an interest in watching any of it. I found the characters to be really "meh." I thought that the best character was NoHo Hank, but his role in this wasn't very consequential. Then again, no one's role in this was consequential b/c of the way the show was designed. There was no one to root for, and practically everyone on this show was some self-serving individual. In nearly every instance, these characters were incredibly one-dimensional.
And, what was w/ the final season? There were what, three consecutive episodes leading into the finale which Bill Hader didn't appear in? What were they thinking? It recalled a line from a great movie, Quiz Show, where one of the main characters, Charles Van Doren, wasn't called to testify during a congressional investigation, where he was a central figured, and the wife of the main protagonist stated, "Quiz show hearings without Van Doren was like doing Hamlet without Hamlet." How do you have a show focused so completely on one man, and three of the four final episodes don't feature this character? It's mind-boggling how this show received such incredible ratings.
It was absolutely criminal that Netflix refused to meet the pricetag necessary to continue this series.
I would have preferred this story much more w/out so much input from Luka Magnotta's mother. The filmmakers could've just as easily introduced the character of Manny w/out placing the mother front-and-center as an apologist for her animal abusing, murderous son. There was no need for her input, other than maybe some background on Luka's upbringing. Even then, any information from the mother was tainted by her severe bias. It was pretty clear, she believed what she was saying, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that she's a Republican who believes in any number of right-wing conspiracies. She's that far off the deep-end.
There's so much to love about this show. The representation is amazing! The writing and acting is really spectacular. I greatly appreciate the deep-dive into the lives of women, especially queer women, and queer women of color. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult many of their lives must have been, to have to live in secret, or live a life of lies, in order to protect oneself. I hope that in coming seasons, they explore more of living in a white supremacist, Christo-fascist society that brought on these hardships for these women.
If i had one critique, it would be that they should lay off the CGI during the baseball scenes. I understand that it's designed to make these women look like professional baseball players, but it's obvious that they can play, b/c you can see it in their movements on the field. It's one thing to use CGI to effect a homerun or some extraordinary play, but in general, each throw didn't need to have CGI behind it. They should simply let these women play ball.
What can be stated about this program that hasn't previously been stated? In all aspects, it's terrific. The writing, direction, acting, flow of the storylines, and feel of an oft-forgotten culture is tremendous. I felt that that the particular efforts of Devery Jacobs and Paulina Alexis were amazing. They both played quite difficult, delicate roles, and they absolutely nailed them!
Some of what I greatly appreciated about this show was how deeply-ingrained the culture of Native American peoples were into the storylines. This show existed on so many levels at once, and all done so well, it was truly astounding. It was quite the achievement in television. Most importantly, the writing didn't gloss over life events that affect us the most. This show encapsulated a tremendous sense of loss on the behalf of many characters, b/c that was a fact of life on many Indigenous reservations. The fact that the writers didn't create a singular episode from it, but instead, used it as an overarching storyline was to their credit and should be commended.
This show could be difficult to watch at times, b/c it wa so powerful, but the lives of the characters were important and deeply-rooted in a community that mattered. This was the type of television we should be watching, not just b/c it was so fantastic, but b/c, it was so important to how we relate to one another.
This story had so much heart rooted in its message of family, friendship, and togetherness in community. It's unfortunate that we were only honored with three, short seasons of this masterpiece, but in a way, I believe that its brevity will cause it to linger in our collective conscience for a long, long time. These characters, especially the four at the core of the series, Elora Danan Postoak, Willie Jack, Cheese, and Bear Smallhill, left an indelible mark of how friends and family were there for one another through thick and thin. I'm glad that I got to spend some time w/ all of them, and learn of their culture and community, while gleaning a bit of understanding of what makes them who they were as a people and as individuals. Mvto, Rez Dogs.
The source material for this could've been constructed much better by the writers. Frankly, I'm surprised that Dennis Lehane carried much of that workload. He's a much better writer than was presented in this mini-series. This very much had the feel of a made-for-TV movie, and given the content of the storyline, I think that it would've done much better as that type of presentation. There really wasn't enough story for six hours of a mini-series.
Taron Egerton's performance was uneven, and while Paul Walter Hauser put in his usual strong performance, the character he portrayed simply didn't have enough depth of material to draw from. There was something missing in the depiction. Both Sepideh Moafi and Greg Kinnear played interesting roles quite adeptly, and Robert Wisdom, in his limited screen time, was excellent, as usual.
I gave this a seven based on the interest of the true-crime aspect of the material, but if I were giving a rating based on how the entire mini-series was pieced together, I'd likely have given it a grade of six.
This is a stunningly gorgeous tale. In an account about loss of humanity, it's the chronicle of our connection to community, our humanity, and the ties that bind. The first season of this program is a master-class in storytelling, filmmaking, acting, and scene setting. There were a number of episodes that focused solely on the connections among characters, and it was so well done that it made them all come alive. We got to actually feel what it would be like to love and lose those most special to us.
I am not a fan of zombies, and I never have been. That being said, I played The Last of Us, and the game stood out for me, as it did for most who played it, as a story of a father and daughter, the loss in their lives, and their ability to reach out to one another, not to fill the hole of what was once missing, but to make complete their sense of being. Those responsible for this production brought this to life during the first season.
I have to give one special set of props to Bella Ramsey. What an absolutely incredible actor she is! Her performance in this season was so utterly remarkable that I can't wait to see how her career progresses. There were a number of standout performances, and even among them, hers rose to the top. She was simply amazing in this.
When I first watched Community, it was already off the air, and I binged the entire thing. As I made my way through, it quickly became one of my favorite shows. However, upon rewatching it a few times over the years, it definitely lost some of its luster. While I rated the entirety of the program an eight, I still think that's being generous. In reality, this show was a handful of really great episodes, mainly those w/ a thematic nature, surrounded by a lot of bad television. Over the years, a number of fans leaned on the idea that this was dependent upon Dan Harmon leaving the program as show runner after three seasons, as the fourth season was considered weak in comparison to the first three, and the fifth was a return to greatness. I don't subscribe to this hypothesis, though. I felt that the fourth season, while not in the same tone as the first three, was just as good. The fifth season made changes that didn't fit w/ the current of the program, and as for the sixth, much of that was truly awful television. The ending of the show felt pushed together, b/c for all the Annie-Jeff will they, won't they talk, the reality was that the writers really didn't explore this much beyond the first couple seasons. Yes, there were the furtive glances and off-handed remarks, but in totality, there wasn't much exploration of this storyline. Thus, in the finale, Jeff's outpouring of emotion toward Annie was really out of the blue. And, more than anything, the homophobic jokes and toilet humor by Chang really killed any semblance of a mood. I saw no purpose to those, but it gave me some insight into Dan Harmon's abilities as a writer, and it told me that he really was overhyped. For every great idea he had, he had seven or eight that were unremarkable or outright terrible.
Through all of this, the show was solid throughout the first two seasons and midway through the third, but the writing seemed to take a nosedive at that point. While some of the program's best episodes were aired during the third season, the writers also began leaning heavily into certain characteristics of the characters: Shirley's cloying behavior, Annie's neuroticism, Pierce's political incorrectness, Troy's ridiculousness, Britta's , Abed's tenuous grip on reality, Jeff's superficiality, and worst of all, Chang's full-blown psychopathy and the dean's creepiness.
Recently, it was announced that a Community movie would be produced. I'm not sure how I felt about this, b/c many aspects of this show didn't age well. Dan Harmon also announced that the movie wouldn't rely on aspects of the show that made it really great, such as Dungeons & Dragons or pillow/blanket forts. This might be of concern, if Harmon tried to go w/ old tropes, rather than the fresh takes that made this show great, when it really hit its groove.
I have no idea which demographic this show was made for. Is it young adult, teen, middle-school age children, or family entertainment? It's one of those shows that doesn't look good, b/c the sets look like they're on a sound stage at some studio, and the cinematography was just awful. They really need to hire a proper cinematographer to direct the camera operators. The story was all right, but it really dragged over 10 episodes, and there weren't nearly enough puzzles being solved for this to be considered the type of show that it is. Some of the cast was good, especially Lisette Olivera and Zuri Reed and their efforts to promote social justice and cultural recognition, but other than that, there was really nothing about this show worth mentioning. I particularly didn't understand why so many episodes had Jake Austin Walker singing and playing the guitar. I wasn't interested in that in the least, and I don't see the purpose that it served, either.
As strong as some of the cast members were, this deserved to be a lot better than it was. Instead, it was a completely overbaked, neo-noir series that strayed from facts to tell an alternative history story of the Jewish mob in Los Angeles. It was shocking that Frank Darabont had a hand in this, b/c the dialogue was awful in this show.
This was far and away my favorite of the Marvel TV/mini-series. I thought that storyline, the characters and their arcs, the writing, and the acting all meshed well together. The cast was top-notch. Hailee Steinfeld turned in another terrific performance, as did Florence Pugh, and newcomer Alaqua Cox was truly impressive, all the more so as an actor in their first role. I'm particularly looking forward to Ms. Cox continuing on w/ her character in Marvel's upcoming Echo. I also hope to see Ms. Steinfeld continue on w/ her character, as well. All in all, this was just a really well-produced, well-written, and well-acted mini-series.
What began w/ such great promise ended w/ lots of questions for what might have been. This show began as an original production of an old idea repackaged in a way that was fresh and new. I think the problem w/ this was the backstory was particularly interesting, but the writers let the audience in on the secret much too early on. There wasn't enough here to sustain nine full episodes. Instead, they should've slowly let out details of what was going on. However, as w/ many Marvel/DC vehicles, this was also used to setup a future project, so the introduction of certain characters took precedence over the total effects of the storyline.
On a related note, I will say that the production value of this show was quite high. I never looked at the CGI and thought about suspending disbelief. All the way through, it was an enjoyable watch. In comparable DC television shows, such as Titan, for example, one of the main problems, aside from the awful writing, was the undeniably bad CGI. It was such a problem, main storylines and characters had to be rearranged in order to facilitate a reduced reliance on these effects. One of the reasons why She-Hulk's CGI effects were called into question was that it was an anomaly for a Marvel show, whereas in DC shows, it's been commonplace across their spectrum of television offerings. But, I digress. This show looked great, but unfortunately, we were let in on the secret far too early.
The writing on this show, as on all shows created by Greg Berlanti and Geoff Johns, is just awful. Their storyline continuity couldn't be found by a team of writing experts w/ the most advanced tools known to humankind. They write teleplays that confound, have no bearing on the overarching state of the series, and combine it w/ the need for terrible CGI, intentionally dark lighting to mask those effects, and formulaic tripe they consider quality storytelling. I had hopes for this series, since Akiva Goldsman involved in the creation of it, but even his prodigious talents were weighted down by Berlanti and John's incessant need to be inferior. It's a shame, really, b/c there are actors who participated in this who are quite talented, and given a reasonable storyline, they could've turned this into a decent show.
A couple episodes really saved this mini-series for me. Throughout most of this, I kept asking myself what I was watching, but in the end, there was enough semblance of a storyline that I was able to see the true purpose of this series.
The first season of this was really strong. It's not the most well-made television program ever, but it's definitely watchable, and main character actors are quite solid. Alan Ritchson is great as Reacher. For a character who can be monotone, he's quite funny, charming, and compelling in his nature. Willa Fitzgerald was an excellent choice as his partner this first season. Her acting ability covers a wide-range of ground, and she's as tough as nails as she is soft as silk. She really defined her character well. Malcolm Goodwin was also strong addition to the cast. He played a strong character who did an excellent job of looking outside of himself to find answers to a befuddling case. I also really loved Maria Sten in her role. She was tremendous as Reacher's only "friend." Although her part was limited in this first season, I'm hoping to see more of her in the seasons to come.
Overall, the script was interesting, as it intermingled many subtle layers to bring the story to life. It wasn't necessarily an original story, but it was told in a way that kept me engaged. I cared about the characters and what happened to them, and to this point, I liked that the writers introduced some side characters, who were the focus of parts of a few different episodes, that were designed to get me to care about them, which I did. In too many of these types of shows, these side characters are introduced, then quickly forgotten. In this show, however, these characters were introduced, and we were able to follow their progression through the remainder of the story to see the outcome of their character arc. I really appreciated that aspect of the writing, and I felt that it was the sign of a strong writer's room.
