Oh that’s disappointing to hear. Maybe it’ll benefit from me tagging it onto the end of a full rewatch? I did notice it had fewer episodes.
Must admit, I’m not feeling it.
Don’t think Barry Keoghan (probably my favourite modern actor) adds anything, the Sully/Dushane stuff just feels like a show going through the motions, and it’s annoying how everyone keeps reminding the audience that “it’s about family”.
Agree with the general sentiment that it is one of the very best British TV shows of recent years. Absolutely excellent.
Felt like the Irish gang was a bit of misdirection. Set it up to be the new bad guys for this season and foreshadowed an end of season boss battle, then killed them off. And in the end, maybe Sully and Dushane’s real enemies were themselves etc.
Agree Sully’s killer was deliberately ambiguous. So many enemies by that point he was on borrowed time.
Currently a few episodes into S4 and something is really bugging me about the end to S3. Huge spoilers for S3 finale/S4 first episode.
Ats plants the bag with drugs and guns in Aaron’s room. The police arrest Aaron. Jamie confesses the bag is his. Dushane gives the police footage of Ats going into the building with the bag, and presumably other footage of Ats leaving without it. This evidence is enough for Jamie to get released.
But, the police would argue all this proves is that an unknown boy with a similar type of backpack went into the building for an unknown reason. That footage doesn’t draw a link between Ats, the bag, and Aaron’s room. I think the only way this could exonerate Jamie is if Stefan and Aaron told the police that Ats came into their flat with the bag. If they did that, the police would take Ats in for questioning. Even if the brothers didn’t tell the police the boy from the footage was Ats, the police would be searching for him. But none of that seems to have happened? Ats’ Mum states she has no idea what Stefan and Ats fell out about.
Maybe the rest of the season will explain this further but I’m not expecting it.
Just finished this yesterday and really enjoyed the finale although it definitely seemed like they were trying to go for as conclusive an ending as possible with both Dushane and Sully dying.
Thought this at the time but Dushane really messed up killing Jeffrey and it seemed strangely pointless given that it didn’t put him any closer to getting his money, I get it was supposed to be somewhat of an irrational moment but it also seemed a little out of character for someone who’s usually so calculated.
Spoilering this but I found the parallels between this amazing Kano video he dropped over lockdown and the end scene of the final season quite interesting
Loved it.
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Sully, Jaq, Jamie - fantastic characters who drive things forward in a really fun way. All the acting is great (perhaps Kano is the best of the lot). Dushane a bit less interesting but his moments of ruthlessness were fantastic.
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S1 + S2. Great setup and I think they were more visually interesting. All the pieces fit together so well - it felt like relentless conflict and there weren’t any lows
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S3 was the best season for me, despite a slow start. The Netflix stuff its a more sentimental and the look is cleaner, but the highs are so high! The brothers on the park bench, ZT violence, Stefan and Ats, Dris on the rooftop, Sully’s development, Dushane getting even more ruthless. I could go on. Banging
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S4 was a bit less good and had some obvious filler. E.g. Shelley’s blackmail, the police. It had a few too many plotlines - none as big as the S3 Jamie/Dushane stuff. The final scene though… Shocking (even though it had already been spoiled by google autocomplete
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S5. I think fewer episodes made this season more focussed which was good, but the pace is too fast and some things weren’t built up enough. Feels a bit odd to complain that one season had too much filler and the next should have had more, but that’s how it is. If the alternative was for Netflix just to cancel it outright, then obviously a shorter (and cheaper) season was a much better way to go than having nothing. And the final few episodes/the ending itself were great!
Ranking them I’d go 3 top, 1/2/4 joint second and 5 third. This was mostly superb.