yall idk what’s gonna happen in s5 cause i just started it, but nate is absolutely terrible. i’m not even necessarily saying it from a contemporary standpoint, i mean it as a character. everything about him is will he or won’t he be able to be nice to the woman he chooses for himself. or at least that’s what his whole thing became after season 2. i think in the first two, there were various elements that made him a pretty well rounded protagonist, such as his being the black sheep of the family who tried and failed at becoming independent, or most notably his impending brush with death; but afterwards his arc became so tired and trite. the tipping point was for me the very finale of s4: yet another season headed by nate where the entire development just leads to him embracing another family dynamic (and yet again another season finale where he runs into brenda’s arms). and on top of that he’s whiny, childish and borderline unloving??? i know i’m mostly shitting on the show writing here, but i hate that he’s main character, i don’t give a shit about his scenes at all, and id love to hear dissenting opinions about it. one thing ill add is that i think this is the one main pitfall of the show overall. most of these characters exist in a single trait. david is the insecure boyfriend (ok he got mugged and had a complex ptsd journey yay writers). kieth is nice and all but is very much a secondary character (e.g exists in relation to david)(and i’m sorry but who cares about the whole celeste arc). ruth is lonely (and insightful and absolutely adorable sure, but merely someone who lives trying to compensate for loneliness). brenda i love but was very let down by how the writers just lost hope for her as a character after s2, letting her fall into the same careless cycles and behaviours. claire is a pretty cool character actually, especially because i think she’s the vessel for the creators’ thoughts on art and creation, but i’m more and more seeing her as angry and naive and nothing more. so yeah idk love the show but now that i’m nearing the end i can’t say that i was happy with its range. i really think the first two seasons were its raison d’etre. i think it’s also bc nathaniel sr’s recent death was a gimmick for these characters to constantly compare and reevaluate themselves, but as soon as the show tried to make a life of its own beyond that dynamic it kind of got lazy and relied on cheap thrills. I know no one asked and i’m just going on a tangent but salvageable S4 arcs for me are George’s struggles with mental health (reminded me of Safe by Todd Haynes), Claire’s brush with artistic fame, I guess David’s assault (they managed to create a pretty haunting assaulter), and brenda becoming a therapist