Look, I understand that Derek Simonds may have wanted to avoid rehashing the same formula from seasons 1 and 2, even though it worked well then.
But this...
The appeal of the first two seasons for me was their ability to weave a story with twists and the circumstances as the only main villain.
Season 3 rehashes the same old tired thriller tropes, with very slight changes, and tries to mask the absence of substance with pseudo-philosophical babble. How is that novel?
In seasons 1 and 2 the main culprits were sympathetic and had fleshed out personalities. Cora in season 1 was raised by insane religious zealots, underwent multiple traumatic experiences, and had her memory scrubbed. Julian in season 2 had scarcely an idea how the world outside of the confines of the New Age cult where he grew up functions, while Vera was an interesting combination of "weird" and "determined". On the other hand, Jamie in season 3 is simply an irresponsible a**hole, not really worth cheering for.
There is no real mystery, unlike in the first two seasons. Instead, we just get fed additional details, which merely reinforce the obvious conclusion. Instead of the "why dunnit", we get tropey action.
And the way the characters behave... It's like they are collecting facepalm points. All of them: Harry, Sonya, Leela, not to mention Jamie.
Let's invite a sociopathic former friend because you "don't feel anything" just before your wife gives birth. Let's then try to avoid him, but let him come to the dinner. And let's hide the details of your student exploits from 15 years ago, because... no idea? Let's act surprised every time when people try to avoid you. So what if I killed people, may I hold the baby please? Why would you think I hurt that child?
Let's invite the murderer into your house. So what if he's dangerous and unstable. Let's visit his wife and tell her everything you were told in confidence by the detective in charge of his case. Later, when warned that he is out to kill you, let's disregard the warnings and wait for him to come, and try to kill you.
Harry is no longer a kindly old expert in gardening with kinks and traumatic childhood, but a bumbling fool making rookie mistakes. Apparently, his skills only work when he needs to help the defendants reduce their sentence, not put them behind the bars.
And again, the critics are praising it. Why?
There were two bits that I liked. Bill Pullman is great, as usual, even though the script makes his character do stupid things. And the small subplot with Emma, the talented student who was under Jamie's influence.
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