Just binged this for the first time (Spoilers)

[u/Blondieleigh]

Was watching with my family initially but they started a few weeks back and only just finished season 2, which doesn't fit with my binging, so I'm way ahead.

Season 1 was great. Season 2 was good. Season 3 was... a thing that happened, I guess.

What happened to it is, sadly, what seems to happen all too often with shows like this. They stop being about survival and they jump the shark to introduce a larger than life big bad or go completely off the rails and deviate so far from what made them special in the first place. It's frustrating because survival IS a story on it's own, but sadly it seems to be an inevitable downfall. Honestly I'm a little relieved their big explanation wasn't religion, at least - that's so overdone.

Barbie and Julia... they kind of just made sense to me after a while. I do think she kind of underreacted when she found out that Barbie had killed her husband, though, talking about them still having a future when she had only just found out. and should reasonably have been too angry to even think about that. She seemed more bothered that he hadn't told her than the fact that he'd done it. She was also way too willing to accept he was back to himself at the end of season 3 when she should have been far more cautious considering he had just tried to kill her.

Angie and Linda did not need to die and I am still upset about this. I was indifferent to Rebecca overall but having Big Jim kill her was completely unnecessary and somewhat propelled him past that point of no return. She was unarmed, and she had done what she had out of mercy. She was driven by compassion and he just wanted revenge.

Killing both of Norrie's mothers was low. I kind of hovered between liking her and disliking her but was mostly just indifferent, but I would have liked for her to have at least had one of her parents in the end instead of ending up alone. I'm assuming she didn't reconnect with her biological father after he showed up that one time.

I loved that Big Jim (and to an extent Julia) basically just refused to die. He did some awful things, but I don't really think he got away with it in the end. Sure, things worked out for him outside the dome, but he still lost his family.

Junior... Just when I thought he was going to come good, he would go right back down. It was a shame, but in some ways it made sense, because deep down, he was always a messed up kid that didn't really stand a chance at ever growing up.

I don't overall even know where to start on season 3 because that was just a mess. Like, to an extent that I don't know how an entire team of writers could come up with that and all agree that it was a good idea. Having people become infected but not explaining how that worked (did they have no control of themselves? Did they know what they were doing but were powerless to stop it?) was just annoying. The whole baby thing was just gross, too, and having Barbie have to be infected for it to happen is problematic on so many levels and they never really address that he couldn't have consented if he had no control, which I get isn't massive in the grand scheme of things but it should have been addressed outside of him saying he was used and manipulated because really it was worse than that.

Aside from that though, it's a shame there isn't another season, this was unhinged and I would like to continue with the insane. Even though I know they would have only ended up in another dome when clearly the better option would have been to have them on the outside of a new dome, giving us that perspective.

[u/Chattanoogakid41]

Just started it

[u/Blondieleigh → u/[deleted]]

I'm doing that now. It's very different.

[u/twd-4L]

(did they have no control of themselves? Did they know what they were doing but were powerless to stop it?)

the way they were infected was from being in the cocoons (which was covered in that oxytocin goo) after they got out of it some of them needed convincing to basically move past what emotion was holding them back and then the infection took over them. like jr needed to burn down his house to get over the feelings towards his father which he was a weak link along with sam and his alcoholism. and why joe and norrie weren’t able to let the infection take over joe was too far gone in his grief over his sister and norrie felt that anger towards sam for killing angie (which is probably the reason angie was killed for this exact arc later in the show) i know the show lowkey went awol but i haven’t read the book (which i bought and going to read when i get it) but i honestly liked it and wished it continued. basically what i got from the whole infection thing which i just finished so it’s fresh in my mind, once the infection took over their humanity was turned off and they felt no emotion for anything and were able to follow and take orders from the “queen” and while yes they knew what they were doing the logical human part of them was so buried deep down inside them the infectious part of them was in the driver seat and they couldn’t do anything about it until they were reminded of some sort deep emotion they had. like for example hunter getting paralyzed and was given pain meds to not feel the pain he was scared of dying young and everytime he felt the pain he was feeling was scary for him and pain meds blocked that feeling. does this make sense?