MovieChat Forums > Ripper Street (2013) Discussion > Season 4

Season 4

posted 9 years ago by skay_baltimore
24 replies | jump to latest

Let me start by saying that the season 3 finale was about the best season finale I've ever seen. Additionally, the characters throughout the first 3 seasons had a rare magical quality of being likeable despite being tragically flawed. That balance has shifted significantly in season 4. Drake, rather than being the sympathetic thug used constantly by Reid as his personal battering ram is now more of an aloof boor, particularly with regard to his relationship with Reid. Long Susan is now off the rails despicable. Jackson has come off as rather wimpy and p-whipped. Rose, who has always been an up and down character, is now almost constantly down/loathsome. And Mathilda is neither here nor there.

I personally think that this show would have been better if it had simply ended with season 3. It would have gone out on a very high note, rather than descending as it has in season 4.

"Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in." -- Will Rogers

[–] zootie 9 years ago

I see it as build-up for season 5. After tied nearly everything off in S3, this season was about unraveling their relationships, putting them to the test.

Drake seems to be gone, but now they're decidedly underdogs. All those flaws that made them unlikeable this season, will have to bring them together next season if they are to persevere.

[–] skay_baltimore 9 years ago

Even if you're right, to spend/waste an entire season destroying the empathy created for the main characters over the course of 3 years is a suicidal way to approach a formerly exceptional show.

"Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in." -- Will Rogers

[–] white_space 9 years ago

You can always choose to ignore Series 4 (and 5) and just let it be end at Series 3.

4 really shredded all the happiness at the end of series 3 and shoves it down our throats. It was cruel and beautiful just the same. It was not "Oh look Reid is back, let's solve some crimes!". I could comprehend every characters motive even Rose, Susan and the Dove guy.

All those flaws and character traits, you refer to, build up together so nicely to that climax we get in the end.

[–] skay_baltimore 9 years ago

Cruel, yes. Understandable, at some level, probably. Beautiful? I don't think so. It's like an entirely different show, and that's what's unacceptable. You simply don't take a masterpiece and draw a mustache on it simply because you can.

Footnote to Season 4: I've concluded that the only person who has a shred of integrity among the main characters is Rose. Additionally, Deborah Goren, Rachel Castello, and Thatcher and Drummond appear to have integrity among the supporting cast.

"Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in." -- Will Rogers

[–] Top_Shelf 9 years ago

Rose, integrity? In a near-sighted sense, possibly yes. But everything she did, though seemingly for justice, was done out of spite, because of past scars, and for personal fulfillment -- to be right, to feel better about herself because the one time her husband didn't drop everything for her she felt slighted. Because she couldn't be the woman she wanted to be, she was taking everyone who cared for her down. However she did it mainly to please her new old friend -- the young handsome man who was in charge and acted like he believed her.

I won't forgive her for turning Reid in.

And she mistreats that little boy. He should not have been with her at the cemetery listening to her talk about his mother. He should not have been present while she went off on her husband and others. Yanking the child and dragging him around. No foresight. No compassion. All self-serving.

Your other points, I semi-agree with. It's hard a sell for me to watch Reid on the run with Susan or him protecting her. So she stopped the wolf from killing him that time. The next time, he'd have to rely on his gun. She's pointless except to wreck everyone's world.

[–] skay_baltimore 9 years ago

So you think it's okay for Reid to have gotten away with murdering that shop owner but it's not okay for Susan to have told the truth? Got it.

"Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in." -- Will Rogers

[–] white_space 9 years ago

No it's not okay for Reid to have murdered that shop owner. And it's not okay for all of them to lock up a man in a cellar and leave him to die. None of the characters are white knights in shining armours. They all did things out of hate or spite or greed. And Reid is with Susan the worst of all. If he hadn't chosen the path of a police officer he probably would have made a brilliant evil mastermind.

[–] white_space 9 years ago

Could you elaborate a bit more as to why do you think it is an entirely different show? All the circumstances of S4 have been established in S3.

[–] skay_baltimore 9 years ago

I think my first post did a good job of explaining how season 4 was totally different than season 3 in terms of the change in the characters. Furthermore, the story arcs of season 4 (with Bloom, the two brothers, the courting of Mathilda, the loss of sergeant Artherton, etc.) were much less compelling than the story arcs of seasons 1-3.

"Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in." -- Will Rogers

[–] white_space 9 years ago

Ok, you don't like the darker path and the changed dynamics of the characters. But everything the characters do in S4 is completly comprehensible for me. True S4 focuses more around the character interactions and relationships and less about the crimes. But like S3 there was a path laid out in the first episode that the following episodes followed.

[–] skay_baltimore 9 years ago

You missed my point. I don't like the story arcs -- any of them. They are nowhere near as compelling as the story arcs in the first 3 seasons. Seasons 1-3 were PLENTY dark, particularly Mathilda's character. Her character, particularly in season 4, just fell totally flat. It started out pretty racy in episode one, then just vanished into thin air. Just like all of the relationships with women that Reid has. Nothing ever becomes of them, and he comes across as someone incapable of forming any sort of permanent relationship with adult women. And after all the years he spent tormented trying to find Mathilda, once he found her he merely reverted back to his old obsessed self. That got increasingly old.

AND I don't like the characters' roles as they're cast, personality-wise, in season 4.

"Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in." -- Will Rogers

[–] benelli86 9 years ago

You must be joking? Rose doesn't have any integrity whatsoever. Drake did everything for her. He has saved her life multiple times. He would have died for her. She betrayed him like he was nothing. She is the reason he is dead. She is to blame for everything. Betraying him for that manipulative Dove idiot. She was stupid enough to fall for it. She thought he actually cared for her. He was playing her like a fiddle the whole time. Plus, she is a horrible mother. Dragging that boy all over the place and fighting with Drake in front of him.

[–] white_space 9 years ago

100% Agree!

But I think that Rose isn't the smartest flower in the garden. So her betrayal was more due to her stupidity/naivity then anything else.