I must confess that I saw S4 a year ago and the rest of the series like a year before that, so while I clearly remember walking away with the feelings I expressed in my original comment, I'm having trouble reconstructing what made me felt that way, in enough detail to be convincing.
basically, the first version was "and now, the world goes *completely* to hell". Several cast members were dead, Carlos and Julian were about to found Liber8; honestly, I was pretty sure they were going to do a reset at that point because the show was rapidly becoming non-viable.
True. I agree that they couldn't have just gone forward from the reset point.
What I meant was, there was some interesting stuff that happened along the way that I cared about, that I was sad to lose from the story. (I think this was particularly about the Betty plot, which I think still did get addressed in the reset but less interestingly? But I don't remember much about what happened with Betty in the reset other than not dying.)
But they then used the reset as the basis for a *ferociously* interesting season. In particular, the Green-Alec / Red-Alec duality was a fascinating exploration of how a few days can change your life completely, and the slow playing out of Alec's and Carlos' very different resolutions of "You're not *my* Kira" explored that problem nicely.
Agreed, absolutely! I thought that plotline was compelling and well done (and it's the kind of thing that makes me keep coming back for time travel stories).
(Although, minus points for the part where they introduced a kickass ninja girlfriend mostly for the purpose of refrigerating her/saving her.)
I'll agree that the first season didn't give enough impression that Kira had actually sparred with most of Liber8 personally before. But I didn't notice anything that was really inconsistent. What are you thinking of here?
Unfortunately, I can't remember the details, but in addition to the "Kira meeting most of Liber8 before," I felt like there were some scenes that showed individual members of Liber8 learning more about What's Going On In The World than they had seemed to know in season 1. I have a vague memory that one place I felt this was the flashbacks with Sonya and Kagame and the hidden medical base, and that wasn't the first time I'd felt that.
I *don't* think I noticed inconsistencies of the variety where a flashback contradicted something that was positively known/done in an earlier episode (not that I was watching with that kind of fine-toothed editorial comb :) ).
I'll grant that there's some of that -- but honestly, I'm having trouble thinking of a TV show (except, notably Person of Interest) that has *less* of it. This show is all *about* consequences, and they come up all the time. That's part of what I love about it: because of those consequences, by the end of the show nobody is even remotely who they started as.
Hm, I don't think Person of Interest was immune from the "consequences sometimes" TV problem. But I'll agree that both Continuum and POI did a better job with consequences, than, say, Battlestar Gallactica (another show that tried). I don't watch enough current TV to have a sense of what the norm is for consequences in this era of arc plot.
Brad, OTOH, was basically a brief (and ultimately awkward) fling in the middle of desperate circumstances. That feels pretty honest and real to me...
Huh, I didn't read it that way (or rather, I didn't think that's what the writers were going for), but I'd be more okay with the plot in your interpretation. :)
Kiera also gets pretty "serious" about Brad in the sense of emotionally loyal -- the writers make this a central dilemma/conflict of S4, and admittedly S4 is kind of distorted by the "OMG, have to wrap up!" constraint, but that particular conflict seemed pretty important to the writers. I think that feeling of emotional attachment/loyalty doesn't have to indicate "he's my One True Love!" or anything, and in fact it's more interesting if it doesn't, but...the whole thing just felt unearned to me, especially in a show that did so well with gradually-developing relationships in general.
But, I should also say, mostly I minded the Brad love plot because I'd spent 3 seasons rejoicing in the super-rare phenomenon of a female protagonist with no major romantic plot/partner. (Mostly. Functionally. Because let us remember, she does come pre-married, even if the marriage is on the rocks and probably wiped out by messing with the time stream.)
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basically, the first version was "and now, the world goes *completely* to hell". Several cast members were dead, Carlos and Julian were about to found Liber8; honestly, I was pretty sure they were going to do a reset at that point because the show was rapidly becoming non-viable.
True. I agree that they couldn't have just gone forward from the reset point.
What I meant was, there was some interesting stuff that happened along the way that I cared about, that I was sad to lose from the story. (I think this was particularly about the Betty plot, which I think still did get addressed in the reset but less interestingly? But I don't remember much about what happened with Betty in the reset other than not dying.)
But they then used the reset as the basis for a *ferociously* interesting season. In particular, the Green-Alec / Red-Alec duality was a fascinating exploration of how a few days can change your life completely, and the slow playing out of Alec's and Carlos' very different resolutions of "You're not *my* Kira" explored that problem nicely.
Agreed, absolutely! I thought that plotline was compelling and well done (and it's the kind of thing that makes me keep coming back for time travel stories).
(Although, minus points for the part where they introduced a kickass ninja girlfriend mostly for the purpose of refrigerating her/saving her.)
I'll agree that the first season didn't give enough impression that Kira had actually sparred with most of Liber8 personally before. But I didn't notice anything that was really inconsistent. What are you thinking of here?
Unfortunately, I can't remember the details, but in addition to the "Kira meeting most of Liber8 before," I felt like there were some scenes that showed individual members of Liber8 learning more about What's Going On In The World than they had seemed to know in season 1. I have a vague memory that one place I felt this was the flashbacks with Sonya and Kagame and the hidden medical base, and that wasn't the first time I'd felt that.
I *don't* think I noticed inconsistencies of the variety where a flashback contradicted something that was positively known/done in an earlier episode (not that I was watching with that kind of fine-toothed editorial comb :) ).
I'll grant that there's some of that -- but honestly, I'm having trouble thinking of a TV show (except, notably Person of Interest) that has *less* of it. This show is all *about* consequences, and they come up all the time. That's part of what I love about it: because of those consequences, by the end of the show nobody is even remotely who they started as.
Hm, I don't think Person of Interest was immune from the "consequences sometimes" TV problem. But I'll agree that both Continuum and POI did a better job with consequences, than, say, Battlestar Gallactica (another show that tried). I don't watch enough current TV to have a sense of what the norm is for consequences in this era of arc plot.
Brad, OTOH, was basically a brief (and ultimately awkward) fling in the middle of desperate circumstances. That feels pretty honest and real to me...
Huh, I didn't read it that way (or rather, I didn't think that's what the writers were going for), but I'd be more okay with the plot in your interpretation. :)
Kiera also gets pretty "serious" about Brad in the sense of emotionally loyal -- the writers make this a central dilemma/conflict of S4, and admittedly S4 is kind of distorted by the "OMG, have to wrap up!" constraint, but that particular conflict seemed pretty important to the writers. I think that feeling of emotional attachment/loyalty doesn't have to indicate "he's my One True Love!" or anything, and in fact it's more interesting if it doesn't, but...the whole thing just felt unearned to me, especially in a show that did so well with gradually-developing relationships in general.
But, I should also say, mostly I minded the Brad love plot because I'd spent 3 seasons rejoicing in the super-rare phenomenon of a female protagonist with no major romantic plot/partner. (Mostly. Functionally. Because let us remember, she does come pre-married, even if the marriage is on the rocks and probably wiped out by messing with the time stream.)