From: Season 3 (Full season)

September 26, 2024 6:05 PM - Season 3 (Full Season)

As the weather grows colder, the residents grow more desperate.
posted by porpoise (25 comments total)

Well, I'm going to torture myself again and watch it episode by episode.

The first one's ending is actually pretty brutal (in a way that bodes... better? [Also, it's the weakest cliffhanger I've ever seen.]).
posted by porpoise at 7:37 PM on September 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

So mrjohnmuller, were you asked back for season 3?
posted by porpoise at 9:20 PM on September 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

Oh gosh, I don't know if I can do it. Season 1 was so so great. And all that great stuff got put on the back burner for season 2. It felt like, "Hey, maybe we can keep this thing going for ten seasons! Shit, then we need a season of filler for season 2." All that momentum was ruined.
posted by jabah at 9:34 PM on September 26, 2024 [2 favorites]

I need to never use "actually pretty" ever again. Sorry, world.
posted by porpoise at 9:45 PM on September 26, 2024

So mrjohnmuller, were you asked back for season 3?

Yep! Sharp eyed mefites might notice me lurking in the background from time to time!
posted by mrjohnmuller at 3:24 AM on September 27, 2024 [5 favorites]

I'm just going follow the comments here before I sink anymore time into this. Season 2 was giving me Lost energy and I am not making that mistake again.
posted by miss-lapin at 3:35 AM on September 27, 2024 [1 favorite]

Just finished the first ep of season 3. Fuck this, I'm out.
posted by Mogur at 7:41 AM on September 30, 2024 [1 favorite]

I hope this is going to be more than a bunch of people saying they aren't going to watch Season 3, because that is boring.

I like the way Fatima is hungering for the rotten food, that's a good turn. I'm really disappointed they killed of Tian-Chen. I don't like seeing the monster faces of the weird smiley people, that makes them less creepy. I really like the actress who plays Julie Matthews, she's doing a great job. The whole tale Victor's dad told in the basement about his wife's acid trip felt a little to magical and explain-the-situation-y. I'm also not sure why the picture of the kid in white surrounded by trees made Tabitha's eyes go wide. I found the interaction between Donna and Boyd where Donna yelled at him for going after the cattle to be emotionally complex and realistic. And it is interesting how Julie is seeing the writing on the wall re: her turning into Sara.

All that said, I'm not sure what the big arc is going to be for this season, and it feels like a mixed bag. The ending of Evil was so brutally disappointing that I don't have high hopes, but I'll stick through the whole season, if only because having a show whose name is just a barely Googlable preposition last 3 seasons is a feat worthy of respect.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:28 PM on September 30, 2024 [1 favorite]

Brutal(ly good special effects). But yeah, the monster faces make for much less unease. Getting further away from the uncanny valley.

Sooo much emotional labour given and received.

I am interested in Tabitha's arc on the outside. Also, seconding Hannah Cheramy (Julie).

Great casting choice for Victor's dad.

Ethan Mathews "Is that the cow that died from last night?* I've never seen what things look like on the inside before. Is that what Tian-Chen looked like after what they did to her?"

*incidentally, Donna taking the tenderloins out first was another bit of verisimilitude. That and the bonding over Tian-Chen's body.

I actually teared up a bit during the bit between Boyd and Kenny.

re: Tabitha's ohmygod, I think she realizes that Victor's mom has already seen Victor's predicament?

I wonder if in season 1, "Thomas" was already pre-conceived or if they wrote in the dead son later on.
posted by porpoise at 1:30 PM on September 30, 2024 [2 favorites]

Sorry if I got triggered in a way that bores people. Next time I'll try to be more entertaining.
posted by Mogur at 2:00 PM on September 30, 2024 [1 favorite]

It wasn't a dig at you specifically, Mogur. It was just dispiriting to see the first batch of comments be down on the show in general.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:09 PM on September 30, 2024

I'm sorry for overreacting - I was genuinely triggered by Tien's torture and am only now coming out of it. I've flagged my comment and hopefully it will be deleted soon.
posted by Mogur at 2:43 PM on September 30, 2024 [1 favorite]

In season 2 I recall the first episode being the worst in terms of gore and grue, and then a long stretch of not very much. This season, I thought it was quite effective they way they mostly focussed on Boyd's face at the end of ep1, rather than continuing on showing Tian-Chen. Then in Ep 2, they went back to that well and showed the worst of it it in memory flashes, so you may well have made the best decision for you, Mogur.

Agree with the diminishing returns on frightface. It works so much better just before a cut, or as a flash in the darkness, rather than hanging around with the normal darkwalker faces. The water woman with the moving features still creeps me the heck out though.

It took me a while to remember what had happened last season at the start. Out of context and in grungey clothes, Tabitha looked young enough and similar enought to be the daughter.
posted by Sparx at 3:34 PM on September 30, 2024 [1 favorite]

Regarding showing Tian-Chen's mutilated body, I think that had to be done because that's a core part of their experience - sitting with and dealing with the reality of this horror. If it were all offscreen, it would start to feel like a soap opera in purgatory. The whole bit Kristi tells Kenny that of course she'll make his mom look presentable and is then faced with the reality of the task is very effective. And I like how it ends up being a team effort, because of course it would. And they all look traumatized.

I think the actual graphic scenes of mutilation in episode 2 were maybe a bridge too far, though. We already knew what happened - it was gratuitous, and that time could have been spent fleshing out another plot point.
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:47 AM on October 1, 2024

So, the boy in white is supposed to be the one who pushed her off of the lighthouse.

The garbage baby arc is... disconcerting and handled sweetly. 'Well then, lets find out." But who line dries laundry outside in sub zero temperature?

This season is straight up telling us that the goalposts have been moved.

Harold Perrineau is showing a bunch of tics similar to his autistic character's in Claws, whenever Boyd is agitated.

A couple of really good jump scares.

And another not-a-cliffhanger. I'm digging Tabitha's arc.
posted by porpoise at 1:18 PM on October 6, 2024

I felt like the first two episodes were spinning their wheels a bit, but episode 3 was pretty intriguing. I'm kind of a sucker for "is this real or not" hijinks, if they're done well, and Tabitha's discovery of the bracelet and subsequent reaction was nicely uncanny. I think my favorite bit was the tarot-interrupting crow, though, and my favorite bit of that bit was that the sleeping knitter that the crow awakened was wearing a t-shirt with a crow on it.
posted by whir at 8:46 AM on October 7, 2024 [1 favorite]

I was thinking about the bracelet. I wonder how much that it's circular is intended?
posted by porpoise at 3:01 PM on October 13, 2024

The 'trying to get to Boyd' game leveled up. "Boyd you piece of shit!"

However they just introduced kimono ghost. Another wtf. I hope it's just a mini-arc and wraps up quickly.

Donna: "Why is this happening? Why is it just one thing after another after another? Why can't they stop?"

It just occurred to me that no-one ever actually tries to sleep through the night. Everyone's staying up and getting weird from chronic sleep deprivation.
posted by porpoise at 3:16 PM on October 13, 2024

One thing I continue to be impressed by in this series is that the gore SFX are easily better and more gruesome than about 90% of its contemporaneous horror feature films.

I continue to not enjoy how much time people spend wallowing in their misery, though. Like, I'm sure it's realistic, but it's just not that fun to watch, and it eats up a lot of screen time that I'd rather spend on encounters with the creepy monsters or advancing one of the many mystery-box plotlines. It also smacks of telling rather than showing to me.
posted by whir at 11:48 PM on October 14, 2024 [1 favorite]

Julie: "I don't think it means anything. I think this whole place exists... I think it's just here to make us suffer."

Victor and Victor's dad reunion was touching.

Halfway through the season and not much in terms of resolution in sight. Though kimono ghost doesn't show up, good. Whatever happened to Boyd's plan on capturing one of those things?
posted by porpoise at 5:44 PM on October 21, 2024 [1 favorite]

I think that there's a plot hole of Victor's mom (who went Lost (sigh) with him and subsequently died, right? Why is dad not asking about mom?).
posted by porpoise at 10:45 PM on October 21, 2024

Good special effect on Randall but the real deal would be a whole lot more inflamed.
posted by porpoise at 12:50 PM on October 27, 2024

Penultimate (Season) episode.

Ugh Elgin! No! At least that ties together a few threads including garbage baby and kimono ghost. But it feels like the genesis of a Major Arc that won't be resolved anytime soon. Kristi's surprising involvement doesn't help.

Wha? Tabitha has (a) power(s) now?

Randall's an asshole, but the whatsits aren't playing "fair" (according to the rules established thus far - of course, the rules could just have been arbitrary and escalation was always on the table).

Fuck Jim. Randall's heel-face turn works for me.

Boyd's worms* gets a mention, he's too calm about it at first, but then he loses it with the aid of a helpful whatsit who just happens to be outside. lol But then everything goes on as normal?

Victor started losing it last episode and he's leaning into it here. I like this - precipitated by his dad having recently shown up and having a dozen years of dreadful trauma stunting his maturation, then suddenly growing up (too fast).

Boyd is a shit leader - telling everyone to do a grid search, but to just tell everyone to buddy up and spread out? lol

Oooph -- obl va juvgr hfrq gb or n fghpx crefba - naq unf unq n eryngvbafuvc jvgu Ivpgbe orsber.

No Julie No! Don't get sucked into your mom Tabitha's "Children" bullshit!


Looking forward to the finale.

*oh. it turns out that it's not worm-involved.
posted by porpoise at 9:29 PM on November 18, 2024

Well, some half-answers such as why the Smilers and the children. Kinda.

The season had a lot of high quality effects, and there were some high quality jump scares as well.

The season ends with An Event.

On dint of being freshly unemployed, I'm tempted to binge from the beginning again just to see if the show has been consistent all along or not.
posted by porpoise at 6:57 PM on November 25, 2024

I just finished S3 last night and I don't think I'll be going back for another season. So much of the show is interesting, but it's held together by the same "let's take a break from the story to talk about our feelings" scenes that killed shows like TWD. If they'd trimmed it down to four episodes, I'd be on here talking about how great it was. The handful of actual discoveries of the mystery of the town were interesting; Fatima's baby was a shock (I'd expected a shock but not that particular one); and the very last moment was completely unexpected. Somewhere inside the series is a much briefer show that is propulsive and scary and fun.

But oh my god, the filler. There's just so much of it. "Why won't you tell me whether you're okay?" "Hey, remember that thing I said two seasons ago, I think we ought to talk about how you reacted to it then." Also by the end of it I was shouting "Goddamn it Boyd, finish a sentence!"
posted by mittens at 8:53 AM on January 13 [2 favorites]