With season three having concluded Sunday, let’s talk about it!
No spoiler boxes needed for stuff from this or past seasons, if you have dish on season 4 please use spoiler tags!
I’ve really enjoyed this season, more than the previous two. CowLip has said all along that the theme of the series is “boys becoming men” and that growth has been reflected in all the major male characters. More than any other I’d say it’s been shown in Brian and Justin’s relationship. Brian has always been my least favorite of the four guys. But the way he was shown dealing with Justin’s departure, while still honoring the commitments he had made to Justin, showed a depth to Brian’s character that had been lacking in earlier seasons. Justin’s growth in understanding that what he had and what he got from Brian was love even without the words being said was very well done. Ted and Emmet’s relationship and the snags it hit were very well done and showed the bumpiness of growing up. And of course Michael, the most childish of the group, has pretty much had adulthood thrust upon him with having Ben’s issues and now Hunter’s.
I liked that Vic is getting some. I liked that Debbie is getting some. I appreciated the increased length of some of the storylines, like the Stockwell campaign and Ted’s legal issues/job woes/addiction. A big complaint from previous seasons was the tendency to wrap up potentially interesting storylines in two or at most three episodes and more often than not never revisit the story. Also the storylines felt less “issue-driven” than in previous years. Before it was like “OK, let’s have the GSA story, then the gay-bashing story, then the HIV scare story then the ‘ex-gay’ story.” This season the stories seemed more character-driven.
I did not like that the best they could come up with for the lesbians was another baby. There must be something non-child related going on in the lesbian world that we could get a story about!
Thoughts? Opinions? Diatribes?