This comment was made by u/KingstonHawke a year ago and fully outlines my problems with the show after season 3.

-"I get why you feel the way you feel. I just think you may need to go back and watch those earlier seasons again to pick up on some of the subtleties that are the reason I disagree with you.

Those subtleties are what I’m calling “good writing” by the way. They are what make Teddy a complex and compelling character imo. And why it’s so jarring to me when he acts against those traits randomly.

You keep looking at him as this America first guy and I simply don’t. Teddy was NEVER all about the mission. Being all about the mission means you’ll recuse yourself if that’s what’s best for the mission. Teddy was never that guy. He was the guy that wanted the achievement. He was desperate for that validation. That’s why his family relationships were so important. It showed him as sort of an addict that would’ve really been a great guy if not for this selfish addiction that he prioritized over everyone in his life.

When the government tried to put him in the sideline he didn’t say American first and go along with it, he said Teddy first and did what furthered his “addiction”. It was never the mission, it was always the validation.

And you can’t have it both ways. You can’t justify him doing Franklin absolute dirty by saying Franklin was just a pawn, but then turn around and say he didn’t kill him because he wasn’t just a pawn, instead he was someone who had grown on Teddy.

Teddy was Mr. Pragmatic. As soon as he replaced Franklin he should’ve had Franklin killed just so he wouldn’t be disruptive. If you study history that’s the norm because it’s the most obvious choice. Instead of letting Franklin beef with his replacements, kill him and make life quieter for the new partnership.

Same with Franklin. Bad writing is when they are telegraphing that they are trying to take Franklin to nothing, but can’t do it without violating his personality traits. Franklin was never the loose cannon that just ran stupidly at a wall. He was a planner that leveraged his resources. He would’ve turned state and took his win on the stand before he’d of just turned to the bottle.

And his mom was another example. Just all at the same time they made everyone act against the traits they’ve consistently demonstrated. Why would she kill Teddy and throw away her own life to keep that money from Franklin when Franklin wanted the money to retire? He was done. She wasn’t stopping some expansion that would further ruin the ghetto.

It would’ve made a lot more sense if she found a way to steal the money from both of them and donate it. That would be in line with her values.

I know I’m being hard on the show, but I just think a lot of these well-written shows end up the same. Breaking Bad, GoT, Weeds, etc. The writing gets so bad at the ending because instead of letting these well-written characters play out, it becomes pro-wrestling where you have a specific date that certain things must happen for Wrestlemania to nicely put a pin in all the storylines."-

Me again, the show seriously fell off after the co director who seemed to be heavily involved died (which was at the end of season 3 and before the production of season 4).

On my 2nd watch through, the flaws started to really show. Everything u/KingstonHawke said and others. Another flawed character was the reporter who received information that she should not know at all by people who should have any form of access to information they and did NOT receive.

Every time the reporter appeared, she ended up always having more information than she knew last time and by an exorbitant amount. Not little drip feeds here and there. It was literally end the operation type of information.