#in approx 1 min of screentime

[lunar-years]

It’s actually extremely frustrating that Jamie reaching out to his father and attempting to make amends makes a lot of sense for who he is as a character, because the rush-job the writers did of showing it, plus having it collide it with “oh James Sr. is in rehab so ALL IS WELL father and son reunited in harmony <3” sends suchhh a dangerous message to abuse victims. im never not going to be pissed off about this

[gleefullypolin]

The discourse over that scene is really just ridiculous at this point. The spoilers for episode 1 make it pretty clear why it exists and even so, the reaches people are going to over it to make Colin some sort of toxic, near abusive love interest is wild. Saying he's fetishizing, grooming, etc over the fact that he has a threesome? The shaming of it all is a little much.

Calling it a power imbalance as well? I...got nothing. Someone having more experience sexually than you is not a power imbalance. The complaints over it feel very out of touch and projecting of people's own insecurities over the whole thing. I don't love the idea of it, I don't even think it's needed but at this point, the bad takes have me like sure okay get yours, Colin. Sorry to them but at this point if the spoilers are right, they do serve a narrative purpose as much as some people want him drawn and quartered for it.

He's pretty much immediately going to go fall for Pen as soon as he helps her with her confidence to *find someone to marry who isn't him* so really, he gets the karma they want I guess.

They'll have to do a lot more work for me to give a single sliver of care about Cressida, ha. Eloise, I can be won over far easier.

Since Marina does actually die from sickness (even though she tries to you know what) in the book, they could take her out that way I suppose. The thing is, which is sort of sad, is that the general audience is not going to give a fig. She was awful to everyone and even in the 2nd season she was still so unpleasant to Colin in general. She truly comes off like she thinks she's better than everyone and if it wasn't so off-putting, I'd be impressed.

Oh for sure. Their dislike of her is usually boiled down to pretending she did things she never did, making what she did worse than it was, excusing the behaviors of literally everyone else and when all else fails, making it about screen time, her not being a Bridgerton (and when she is one, then what?), comparing her to the other leads, etc etc.

There's always one complex female character that is a favorite and everyone will shit on her no matter how bad everyone else is. I think there's a word for that. Hmm.🤔

Yeah, we’ve seen scenes already at the brothel with Anthony and Ben and we know what happens there and to then suddenly make it something its not is just too much. I feel like people just want to get upset because they didn’t get the story, they wanted but its gotten too much. Let it ride. See the episode first and then see how you feel. I don’t want it either mind you, it truly isn’t something I would have written for this season but if I’m going to get it, I get it and I’ll figure out how to get that into my feels.

Plus, I feel like Colin in the book is more experienced than Pen and cocky shall we say! I mean we wouldn’t have that sure of himself Colin if he had zero experience at all. He would not be like that with her, so I think we had to have some of this with him. So, I do think this is karma and also gonna be super-hot for us in the endgame LMAO!

100% because I don’t think I could like Cressida ever! I’m bad like that. I always have a villain and no matter what they do or how they get redeemed I always hate them (Neal on OUAT was that person for me)

I can see them doing that and just having her pass from sickness and just have it pass without much fanfare to move through the storyline. And I’m good with that because I’m ready to pretend none of that happened!!!

Yes they like to inflate things she did to include it into things that she didn’t do and then yes screaming about screen time when honestly, looking at the screentime that’s not even true that she has more than the mains = Truth below:

S1: total time approx: 462 min Daphne: 249 Simon: 166.25 Anthony: 105.25 Violet: 96.75 Eloise: 63.5 Colin: 62 Featheringtons: 60.25 Marina: 52.5 Ben: 51.5 Pen: 54.75 Danbury: 45.75 Queen: 24.75

S2 total: approx 479 min Anthony: 209.75 Kate: 206.5 Edwina: 116.25 Violet: 92.25 Eloise: 85.5 Danbury: 84.25 Pen: 82.75 Ben: 64.25 Colin: 58 Featherington: 52.75 Daphne: 37 Queen: 32.25

And you hit it on the head! Complex female characters tend to have targets on their backs!

[lizacstuff]

Hi, I have just started watching SCK and I am already obsessed with it! I hope you don't mind me asking you a few questions. The episodes are 2 hours 20 mins approx compared to US and UK shows, how do they manage to do that every week, it must be insane hours for them. Is this normal running time for Turkish dramas? Any idea when the season will close, I saw it mentioned that Saturdays episode will be the last for a month, how many episodes are there in a season?

Sorry another query. The American shows normally run for approx 8 months (with small breaks in between) then are on hiatus for 4 months, is it the same with Turkish TV industry What was the relevance of Efe collapsing the roof on his friends house, was it to bring out the Eda story of her parents into the public, is this something that will be playing out later, when Grandma arrives. The arrival of the new woman is so cliche, Blindspot bombed when they did that, I guess it's the format!

Hello there. I also enjoy Blindspot! But I still haven’t watched the final season, I need to get on that, maybe over the holidays. 

Happy to answer your questions as best I can. This is my first Turkish dizi, so I’ve been learning along the way, all to say I’m by no means an expert. 

The episodes are 2 hours 20 mins approx compared to US and UK shows, how do they manage to do that every week,

They shoot at a breakneck pace. The cast and crew post a ton on social and if you follow any of that on instagram and twitter you’ll see that they’re constantly shooting until 2 or 3 in the morning.  Kerem and Hande recently answered an ask in an IGLive about how long it takes to film one episode. They said 4-6 days. Kerem was a bit tetchy about it towards TPTB, so they obviously feel the strain on how much they’re working and producing. In the US, a standard network hour-long drama takes 8+1 days to shoot (meaning 8 full days and 1 of second unit shooting usually done while they’re shooting another episode) and that’s for about 44 minutes of content. 

So how do they do it? Just from watching the show I’ve observed a few things. First, while the episodes are almost 3 times as long, the scenes are also much longer than you’d find in a US produced show.  So for instance a scene in a US show might take 2 minutes of screentime, in SCK that same scene might be 6-8 minutes. But it doesn’t take 3-4x longer to shoot to get those 6-8 minutes because it’s all one set up and all one scene.  

Additionally, from what I can tell, everything is shot on location, no sound stages, and they have a finite number of locations per episode. So they’ll go in and shoot all the scenes at ArtLife for that ep in one set up, all at Serkan’s house in one set up, all at Eda’s house in one set up, all at Aydan’s house in one set up, and then all at the speciality location(s) for that episode in one set up. So they’re not doing huge set ups to get one shot or one scene like you see on uber high-production value US shows. Also everything is mostly dialogue based, very little action, no effects, so it’s pretty straight forward. No time consuming stunts.

Also I don’t think the actors get near as many takes as they do on US-based shows. I think they get the scene and move on, no re-dos to improve one emotional reaction and the like. Thankfully the actors are great. Usually the production value is pretty decent despite this, there have been a few locations where I’ve noticed bad lighting or cramped camera angles, where they are obviously just making due, and that would not fly on a US network show.

 it must be insane hours for them. Is this normal running time for Turkish dramas?

 Yes, that seems to be the standard timing format for shows in Turkey. What’s crazy to me is that they are shooting episodes only like a week out from the air date.  That is next level pressure. 

Any idea when the season will close, I saw it mentioned that Saturdays episode will be the last for a month, how many episodes are there in a season?

I’d seen speculation about that, but then I heard they were only breaking for a week. I haven’t seen anything official. The latest news I’ve seen is that they are trying to shoot episode 24 before the break. In Turkey, the big holiday is New Years, so I think episode 24 may air on December 26, then no episode on Jan 2nd, then back on Jan 9th. As a note, I’d also heard there would be no ep on Dec 26th and then ep 24 airing on Jan 2nd, so we’ll see how it turns out. In this scenario the cast/crew will only get like 4 days off.That sucks for them, I was hoping they were actually going to get at least two weeks off before coming back. However, we’ll see, it all seems oddly speculative. 

Sorry another query. The American shows normally run for approx 8 months (with small breaks in between) then are on hiatus for 4 months, is it the same with Turkish TV industry 

It seems to vary.  I talked a little bit about it in this post. 

What was the relevance of Efe collapsing the roof on his friends house, was it to bring out the Eda story of her parents into the public, is this something that will be playing out later, when Grandma arrives. 

Efe did not mean to cause that level of destruction. He was so panicked after it happened, because that wasn’t his intention. As for his motives, remember earlier that episode he had told Serkan he wanted to review Serkan’s drawings of the house and Serkan was like, “HARD PASS.” Efe was pissed, so I think he was trying to teach Serkan a lesson, that he’s not infallible and that if he had consulted with his partner and let his partner see the drawings it probably wouldn’t have happened (you know second set of eyes.)  I think Efe hoped it would make Serkan lose confidence and as a by product Efe would gain trust and be let deeper into ArtLife and the holding to further Grandma’s plan. However, it blew up in Efe’s face because he ironically didn’t know what he was doing, made a change too extreme and the roof fully collapsed, instead of just causing a smaller issue. Eda’s unwavering belief in her man led her to uncovering that it wasn’t Serkan’s fault and Efe wound up losing his reputation all over Europe. Oops. 

The arrival of the new woman is so cliche, Blindspot bombed when they did that, I guess it's the format!

Some might describe most things about this show as cliche, it’s unapologetically about the tropes. I love that about it, it’s like a giant AU fanfic come to life. This woman is another device to push Serkan and Eda towards each other and to give us some fiery Eda jealousy. Serkan only has eyes for Eda, there is no “triangle” or third-party love interest.  Just a lady with some psychological issues zeroing in on our hero, she will be dealt with soon enough. 

I’m glad you’re enjoying the show!

[merry-melody]

Hi! If you’re up for it, I want to hear your takes about season two Klaus. All your TUA takes have been amazing food for thought and I saw you said something about season two sucking (sorry tag stalking). I’m intrigued, have my own laundry list of problems with s. 2 and would love to compare notes if you’re interested. Thanks for putting Klaus gif sets on my dash again!

You read my mind, I was just batting around the idea of a rant! (Especially as I flunked a test yesterday, so I’m in the mood for distraction.) So thanks  💌  And share your own ideas away, please, I love discussion.

*cracks knuckles*

So, my issues with S2!Klaus (and how ultimately those issues were reflected by the writing etc. of all the characters)

* Lack of time - So, comparing, Klaus has approximately 2 hours of screentime in S1 (counting in scenes with the ensemble in which he may not be central, but is present) and approx. 1 hr 25 mins in S2. (I haven’t compared screentime for each sibling, although Ben’s would necessarily mesh with a lot of Klaus’. If anyone else does, shout, I’d be interested to see the numbers!) We also know from cast interviews/social media etc. that alternate material was cut/edited for a particular approach. 

So, necessarily, you’re going to have less time to get across your arc for your character. Luckily, no one really has one here, with almost every advancement being reset in preparation for S3 and presumably yet another fresh start. 

We learn little about Klaus that we didn’t already know (deals with conflict by substance abuse, motivated largely by love for Dave) and he’s not involved in much of the plot for whatever reason (the Swedes don’t pursue him, despite him being presumaby famous); so his main purpose here is comic relief. (And it turns out...Umbrella Academy is not super-hot on writing humour, if the 18305 fart jokes didn’t clue anyone in. I was not surprised to learn they retained none of the S1 writers, as there was an appreciably different approach this season that didn not work for me.)

-> Overarching issue: Huge chunks of the siblings character development was mainly offscreen or described in reams of exposition (which definitely happened in S1, but one would expect better writing by a second season.) I get that it’s necessary in a time travel plot in the style they chose to write (e.g. the siblings scattering across different years) but it’s pretty glaring. There’s also a quantity of filler for stuff that wasn’t really necessary (the Handler, the Swedes, Pogo/Reginald/Grace storyline) and is a shame when there was less interaction between all combinations of the siblings, and Ben was still undercharacterised.

* Lack of ghosts - If you take away the powers which brought the kids into Reginald’s sphere, and in Klaus’ case were presented in S1 as a power that’s uniquely awful and difficult to overcome (even drugs and alcohol only seemed to give him respite for a short time – we see he dreams about ghosts and starts to see them after only a few hours) without a reason (I’d give the latter half of S1 the benefit of the doubt and say with the impending apocalypse, we can assume all we need to about offscreen withdrawal etc. from what we saw in 1.6 and 1.7 and just chalk up no extra ghosts to distraction on Klaus’ behalf and the effort summoning Ben; but in S2, not so much.) you’ve basically just…halved your character. 

It almost suggests that Reginald’s view is correct, Klaus can apparently control his power and overcome the ghosts (as well as easily master his addiction, also offscreen) and the only reason he struggles is because of his own cowardice/narcissism/selfishness (not wanting to save Vanya/starting a cult/not wanting to ‘share Ben’ as I believe Steve Blackman put it.) Which isn’t to say Klaus, like all the sibs isn’t massively flawed; it’s just the ways in which he’s flawed are either a departure from previous canon or else…well, I’ll go into that in the cult discussion.

-> Overarching issue: lack of powers. I was going to compare this to a sibling, like if you’d just started S2 where Five no longer time travels and just never mentioned it, ever; but actually, I think almost all the characters’ powers and the effect they bring to their lives was fairly underused.

Allison is about the only one who does anything interesting, in that she seems to fall off the wagon herself in terms of trying not to use her powers (and the promise they may deal with this eventually instead of pairing her up endlessly is one of the few reasons for me to tune in to S3.)

Vanya’s character development and her inability to control her emotions is essentially divorced from her S1 incarnation with the memory loss dominating most of the season.

Luther they backed and forthed about in S1 in terms of presenting him as damaged; actively benefitting and winning approval for his strength; and as comedic; which I think was doubled down on here (his yelling ‘Look what you did to me!’ to Reginald being accompanied by the reaction shots of the others eyerolling/spit-taking; jaunty musical cues; and ‘Check please!’ punch line.)

Five, like Luther and Diego, seemed significantly dumber in a way that really only made sense as a contrivance (aka, Five needed to never once have considered using his gift to move across smaller amounts of time so he’d Suddenly Realise in the finale; and he needed to not realise that meeting their father would…get this, affect what their father might do and therefore their own lives so that we can get the ‘Oh shit!’ ending.)

The beginning montage of S2.1 seemed pointless – like, I get that you introduce elements every season in preparation for the next, I’m not media illiterate; but I feel like it’s not too much to ask that when you present something in the very first episode of 10 that you refer back to why it was included. 

Why did everyone have an expert handling on their powers here, and work together, and why was it more satisfying than the actual finale? 

Why did only Diego and Vanya realise their own power potential at the end of the tenth episode, apropros of nothing? 

Is it on purpose that Allison is always contrivedly damselled since she could actually have some impact on the plot?

Why not include Lila mirroring Klaus’ power, what with her being a killer with presumably a few ghosts around her? 

Lack of addiction – Why was Klaus clean? We see him ready to revert to old habits in stressful moments close to the end of S1, and yet here he seems to have overcome his addiction as portrayed by…a half-second shot of him refusing a joint, and yet more exposition from poor Ben. (We can assume it’s easier for him to quit since he’s not avoiding constantly ghostly visitations, but since we also have no reason for that presented in-show, we’re sort of going in circles.)

Is he sober for Dave? We don’t really delve into his realisation that Dave’s death can be avoided, and he doesn’t show any indications of having considered the issue at all over the three years of being in the sixties. (I’ve seen the headcanon that he’s staying sober in case his siblings are dead, and I think it’s lovely, but also that it’s giving way too much credit to the writing this season. Remember we see the very concept that the whole family have died presented as comical in the first episode – ‘They’re all gone! Poof! Like a fart in the wind!’ complete with humourous whimpering expression.)

Neither does he maintain his sobriety even temporarily in order to communicate with Dave prior to realising/believing his actions have come to nothing. 

All totally believable, the guy’s an addict (although I do feel the comedic approach does weaken the believability of this link to Dave somewhat – I feel like Klaus, like his brothers this season, is portrayed here as going beyond their previous incarnations as thoughtless/spacy/self-involved etc. into actively stupid, and stuff like him only thinking to approach Dave twice – with years to prepare! – and not even remembering Dave’s uncle’s name correctly qualifies more as the latter than the former.) but it does then just create more questions as to how easily he quit offscreen, and suggests a plot written backwards from what they wanted the end result to be, rather than what that arose organically.

(I also think that there’s very little difference in the writing for him from sobriety to addiction, in terms of set pieces, dialogue, acting etc and I’d be interested to hear about the direction of the scenes prior to that; because I’m never quite convinced with UA that they have much to say on addiction or substance abuse beyond ‘Spacy hippy = amusing.’)

-> Overarching issue: Events having a lack of impact on the story – What was the point of the cult plotline? We learn very little about Klaus (to the point where 90% of the whole thing is just regurgitated pop culture references) – apparently he’s narcissistic (we know this because like everything in this season, we’re told it, repeatedly, just like: ‘Luther is sensitive.’ ‘Diego has a hero complex and daddy issues.’) but then, include scenes of him enjoying the adulation! 

Here they’re basically using the same template for Allison in S1, where she’s manufactured a life of celebrity for herself but grown tired of it before we even meet her. 

Ben gets to deliver yet more unconvincing exposition about how they left Real Lives, it’s very much not backed up by the writing -  we get no sense of the cult members as real people (beyond Life of Brian jokes about how sheeplike they are) or that we’re intended to see their interactions with the group as anything but comedy relief. This post touches on how if you take the plot in any way seriously, it doesn’t work. 

Likewise, none of the siblings actions really made much of an impact on the story. Luther working for Jack Ruby went nowhere; Vanya and Allison’s families conveniently stayed behind in the sixties; the JFK obsession was a bust; the Swedes are pointless. Like, if you’re going to give each person an individual subplot rather than have characters interact and actually establish links between them that enable an audience to emotionally engage; then have it serve either individual development or the overarching story. 

* Dave – Who is Dave? We’ve gone from informed attributes from Klaus and, what, 2 minutes of screentime in which he had maybe three lines to…he likes hamburgers! I get that he’s a character who will probably return, but I’m still not sure why we’re supposed to invest in him when the show has done almost no groundwork over two seasons in establishing who he is. Compare this to Sissy or Raymond, who were far more fleshed out in less time. (I’ll also throw S2 a bone and say Patch in S1 also fell victim to undercharacterisation that was then supposed to make a big impact on a lead.)

The younger version seemed contrived in order to string out storyline for longer without resolution, as it made no sense with previous casting, but I’d guess, gives Klaus a reason to do nothing until there’s like, a week before Dave signing up for ‘Nam (as presumably if Dave was the grown adult we saw a mere five years on, there’d be no barriers to them just…dating in the sixties. We need manufactured conflict!) although I still think, idk, get this! – you could link your plots here. (Got a cult spanning continents and with pull with local government, and not only does this not link into Allison’s subplot beyond Ben busting out Ray; but you’d think maybe the cult might, I don’t know…protest the war that’s going on? The one that’s going to kill Dave?)

-> Overarching issue: More importantly, who is Ben?

Instead of brothers bickering endlessly (and flatly – Justin Min is funny! So’s Robert Sheehan! Could they have some dialogue that doesn’t sound like irritating eleven year olds: ‘Idiot.’ ‘Really?’ ‘Have you showered?’ ‘I hate your face.’), wouldn’t it be awesome if we found out more about who Ben is, and his situation?

We know he can disappear– is that some kind of freedom for him from Klaus, or does he just go…nowhere? (Steve Blackman iirc said Ben is always with Klaus, but then stuff like him not knowing about Klaus sleeping with Jill, or Klaus saying he’s shy about Ben seeing him fully nude doesn’t mesh with that. We know they can separate to a certain extent, as we see him on the lower level of the cult’s bus while Klaus rides up top.) It seems probable he can interact with other ghosts, although we don’t really see much of this.

Is this is his first experience time travelling - we still don’t know if he was in Vietnam, and his S1 POV of Dave seemed like he’d personally met him, but in S2, he’s describing the whole thing far less emotively as a ‘fling’.)?

Is this an insight into how Ben, like his siblings, was damaged by his upbringing by Reginald into viewing emotions as something to personally exploit (aka when he wants Klaus to sober up, he’ll use Dave as a reason to, but when he believes Dave risks his brother’s peace of mind, he’ll dismiss the relationship?) Or is Ben the sole Good One?

Could we see a reaction from him at the concept of all his siblings being considered dead? Or some interaction with them? (Or some reaction to his death, because basically, Reginald coopts his funeral to rag on the siblings, who then tear each other apart; but what do we learn about Ben himself? Uh...died on a mission?) Wouldn’t having him vocalise this actually deepen him and his character and create sympathy as opposed to vomit gags and sex swings? Could the other siblings show some kind of normal curiosity for once, developing them also; considering Klaus literally says ‘I’m Ben’ and ‘(I’m) possessed’; and Five sees Ben in the alternate 1963?

I didn’t get the vibe Ben ever became a character independent of Klaus.

Steve Blackman seems to have a view of him that’s kind of flatly generic, where upon he’s the innately best one, with a moral wisdom the others lack; which irritates me not only because it’s not really consistent with what we see onscreen – like, in Vanya’s hallucination, we see Ben as the only one to speak up for her, but in S1 we see that Ben is as quick to exclude Vanya as any one else – but it also undercuts Reginald’s abuse by making Ben immune to his abuse in a way the others aren’t. Ben deserves to be complicated and flawed too, and while I think we see his flaws onscreen, they’re not acknowledged like the others are, so it’s hard to say if the writers were going for ‘Ben was treated like an object all his life so he treats others the same’ or ‘lulz, bodily autonomy and consent aren’t a thing.’

I feel like we already knew from S1 that Klaus felt guilt over Ben’s death but was also happy to use Ben as a mouthpiece while ignoring his actual opinions; and that Ben cared about Klaus but was bitter and envious Klaus was alive while he wasn’t.

The ‘light’ thing I think was introduced too late for something that retroactively alters their entire relationship. (Not to mention Klaus’ power) and makes them both far more manipulative and mutually abusive than I think the show intended.

My first thought as a comparison was ‘What Happened to Baby Jane?’, tbh, like if you analyse it on any kind of literal level, Klaus basically prevents Ben from going to heaven in order to be his constant companion, and despite the tacked on ‘Oh, I always thought that was my fault!’ acts as if the opposite were true throughout the rest of the show’s run. And Ben, equally, allows his brother to take on the burden of believing that while knowing for 17 years that it was his own decision not to go on.

* Interactions with Family - I missed Diego and Klaus interacting (I felt like they leaned way into the less interesting side of Diego – wannabe Batman with daddy issues; and further away from his more nurturing/feminine side that appeared most with Klaus and Grace. I don’t buy S1!Diego would be like ‘ah well, overdose on the floor, then’ or that the writers understand that lines like that reflect on his characterisation as much as the sibling in question’s.) Luther and he didn’t really have an individual exchange like in S1, and kind of wavered between nice moments like Luther using his size to protect Allison and Klaus; and ‘lololol, Luther’s dragging him by the foot.’ Five and Klaus interacted far less (I literally sat trying to think of any S2 moments. ‘Pukebag?’) It was good to see Vanya and Klaus exchange more words than S1, so there’s an upgrade. And about one of the sole things I did enjoy in S2 was the Klaus and Allison interactions.

-> Overarching issue: There was way less interaction between characters generally. Halfway through the season is ridiculously late to reunite your main cast. The cast talked about how the Diego/Allison interaction was adlibbed by Emmy, and while she’s a queen, your cast should absolutely not have to be adlibbing stuff like ‘two siblings acknowledge each other’s existence’. 

(I noticed this seemed to be a trend, also, like all the actors talked about the consideration they’d put into their roles – Tom Hopper talking about how Luther was seeking an alternate father figure in Jack Ruby and working for the first time in his life; Emmy talking about how Allison’s privilege within the Umbrella Academy and then as a celebrity blinded her to racial prejudice; David Castaneda talking about how Patch’s death affected Diego in S2 – when it seemed like they’d made far more effort than the writers themselves.) 

Characters barely looked for each other, and had little reaction to the mutual assumption they’d all died. No one told each other anything, even stuff that might be helpful (’Guys, there’s these Swedish assassins trying to murder me!’) All stuff that was in S1, it’s just weird to see comments saying ‘Aw, everyone bonded much more in this season!’ when if anything, it felt even more contrived. I didn’t get the impression anyone cared about anyone more than the writers cared about joke potential – one episode, Allison is grimacing maternally and covering her brother with a blanket; next her reaction to what she herself assumes is ‘a seizure’ is not to move from her chair. A bunch of the Five vs Five plotline other than gas is whether or not one of them can talk Luther into killing the other first. If one person reaches out to another, it’s almost verboten that other characters could do similiarly, so if Vanya’s reaching out to ask Diego if he’s okay; we know no one else will give a shit, etc. 

I feel like the desire to present all the siblings as more entertaining-awful than actually damaged takes some of the complexity away. The removal of flashbacks of them as children compounded this, like it just seemed like the show was much more focused on mocking the characters for their issues/establishing Official Character Flaws that are generally softened in some way or else skipping over them entirely (could we put in the work into reestablishing Vanya into the fold when she and her siblings have damaged each other and spent years estranged, and she ended the season emotionally broken? Why, when we can introduce a hackneyed amnesia plot which completely erases any emotional impact?) and the predestination stuff with Reginald skated around almost excusing his abuse – what on earth was that scene in which Five apologises to him for how he behaved in childhood?!

Everyone fit more into boxes. Season 1 had conflicting attributes where sometimes Luther say is gentle, other times bullying and cruel. Klaus could be selfish and empathetic. Here it’s just throwing out scraps for stuff that seems memeable: lololol, Diego and Luther are himbo energy!1 Representation! Winks to the audience about incest! ‘I’m sexy trash!’ (It’s also bizarre when we see Klaus in S1 is suffering a far more immediate PTSD than three years on, and yet is swifter to intervene when his siblings are in need.) ‘It’s an awesome reference!’ (awful lines, ugh.)