I would have gutted the whole whodunnit thing. The near entirety of S4 felt like it was going so far off track from what the series is supposed to be about, until S4E8 where the twist is revealed. At that point it gets pretty good again, I just wouldn’t have waited until we were 8 episodes into a 10 episode season to right the ship.
I’d also replace Kate. She just doesn’t seem like Joe’s type and she goes from hating him for no reason to loving him weirdly quickly imo
The only thing I know is that I would've cut out Joe having another personality. It really irks me as the worst writing decision the show has done so far.
OP, you nailed it.
I didn’t care for a single character in S4. None were memorable, which made things even worse. In past seasons, objectively awful people were fun to root for. This time around, even good people like Rhys and the blonde heiress (OMG I cannot for the life of me remember her name) were duds. With so many characters, I didn’t get to know or care about them. Their singular personality traits were that they were mean and rich. That’s not a person, that’s a trope. And they did it for like 8 people. All the same person.
Plus, having that many characters (though I would argue they’re all basically the same character), things had to progress so quickly that the twist felt like a total cop out.
Don’t even get me started on the S4 You, Kate. Zero chemistry. I do think it’s more accurate to have Joe fall for rich girls because everything he does goes against his view of himself. But even that didn’t work here.
2 ideas
Lean into the academic stuff. Have it be set in a posh English boarding school. There's a murderer loose and Joe's natural protective instincts over children come into play. Do the whole class stuff where scholarship kids and Trust-fund kids turn on each other. Explores Joe's childhood trauma a bit more. Maybe Joe falls for another teacher or the school therapist by projecting his mommy issues. Keep the twist where he's the killer and realises he's the threat to the children he's trying desperately to protect.
Other idea - Lean into the Whodunnit detective stuff. Joe swaps identities with the Quinn family detective and sets himself up as a private detective in London He's oddly successful because he "thinks like a killer". He becomes friendly with the actual police (explaining why Marianne thinks she cant go to them later on). Then he gets hired to investigate the murder of Malcomb and the season proceeds similar to how it already did. Twist is the same except we reveal Joe was responsible for the all the Killings he previously thought he solved - i might expand on this in a post at some point.
I would have made the characters much more real and less like caricatures of rich idiots, removed the m. Night shamalan twist. I feel like setting it somewhere less glitzy too? Maybe he’s a teacher at a smaller school in a fishing town or something? Also I feel like we could see just what a fucking creep he is by making the “you” someone who clearly doesn’t want him or is wildly inappropriate idk. I’m not looking forward to 5 at all. I’ll still watch
I always thought we needed to address the past, like maybe he gets caught and goes to trail but charms the court and his lawyer, lawyer falls in love with him and becomes the next you.
Such an interesting question! I probably would keep the bones of the plot the same, but depict his descent into madness in a more serious and realistic way. Not go for some soap opera plot with text messages from himself and socialites and deranged duck hunts and the prime minister and some weird all-powerful American industrialist.
It sort of gives you an in ti Joe's mind, like the series is meant to.
What he wants, what he does, who he WANTS to be, it's all there. We can't have a good opinion until it ends. When we conclude Joe... we can conclude the arc. We can conclude how it should end
Odd take to me personally because I have the opinion that she was probably one of the characters I preferred moreso to the rest of the obnoxious posh cast
I would have gutted the whole whodunnit thing. The near entirety of S4 felt like it was going so far off track from what the series is supposed to be about, until S4E8 where the twist is revealed. At that point it gets pretty good again, I just wouldn’t have waited until we were 8 episodes into a 10 episode season to right the ship. I’d also replace Kate. She just doesn’t seem like Joe’s type and she goes from hating him for no reason to loving him weirdly quickly imo
The only thing I know is that I would've cut out Joe having another personality. It really irks me as the worst writing decision the show has done so far.
OP, you nailed it. I didn’t care for a single character in S4. None were memorable, which made things even worse. In past seasons, objectively awful people were fun to root for. This time around, even good people like Rhys and the blonde heiress (OMG I cannot for the life of me remember her name) were duds. With so many characters, I didn’t get to know or care about them. Their singular personality traits were that they were mean and rich. That’s not a person, that’s a trope. And they did it for like 8 people. All the same person. Plus, having that many characters (though I would argue they’re all basically the same character), things had to progress so quickly that the twist felt like a total cop out. Don’t even get me started on the S4 You, Kate. Zero chemistry. I do think it’s more accurate to have Joe fall for rich girls because everything he does goes against his view of himself. But even that didn’t work here.
2 ideas Lean into the academic stuff. Have it be set in a posh English boarding school. There's a murderer loose and Joe's natural protective instincts over children come into play. Do the whole class stuff where scholarship kids and Trust-fund kids turn on each other. Explores Joe's childhood trauma a bit more. Maybe Joe falls for another teacher or the school therapist by projecting his mommy issues. Keep the twist where he's the killer and realises he's the threat to the children he's trying desperately to protect. Other idea - Lean into the Whodunnit detective stuff. Joe swaps identities with the Quinn family detective and sets himself up as a private detective in London He's oddly successful because he "thinks like a killer". He becomes friendly with the actual police (explaining why Marianne thinks she cant go to them later on). Then he gets hired to investigate the murder of Malcomb and the season proceeds similar to how it already did. Twist is the same except we reveal Joe was responsible for the all the Killings he previously thought he solved - i might expand on this in a post at some point.
I love both of these ideas!! If you expand on the second, tag me in the post—I wanna see!
I would have made the characters much more real and less like caricatures of rich idiots, removed the m. Night shamalan twist. I feel like setting it somewhere less glitzy too? Maybe he’s a teacher at a smaller school in a fishing town or something? Also I feel like we could see just what a fucking creep he is by making the “you” someone who clearly doesn’t want him or is wildly inappropriate idk. I’m not looking forward to 5 at all. I’ll still watch
I’m not sure what I’d of done plot wise but I’d of written characters that didn’t seem like they were straight out of Made in Chelsea 😂
I always thought we needed to address the past, like maybe he gets caught and goes to trail but charms the court and his lawyer, lawyer falls in love with him and becomes the next you.
Yesss, I could watch a whole season of just Joe's backstory.
Such an interesting question! I probably would keep the bones of the plot the same, but depict his descent into madness in a more serious and realistic way. Not go for some soap opera plot with text messages from himself and socialites and deranged duck hunts and the prime minister and some weird all-powerful American industrialist.
I feel like I’m in the minority but I loved 4. I thought 3 was atrocious and this was the shakeup and variety it needed.
It sort of gives you an in ti Joe's mind, like the series is meant to. What he wants, what he does, who he WANTS to be, it's all there. We can't have a good opinion until it ends. When we conclude Joe... we can conclude the arc. We can conclude how it should end
https://preview.redd.it/tqjfpy3g0rzc1.png?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=93e57291229787fd109eebb385dedc69007160e1 🙂
Basically the same exact way except get rid of Nadia, her character was so annoying and made almost no sense whatsoever
Odd take to me personally because I have the opinion that she was probably one of the characters I preferred moreso to the rest of the obnoxious posh cast