These flashbacks to younger Smurf are killing this show. Not that this show is some amazing masterpiece, but it is entertaining. But damn, if I have to watch the origin story of how much of a shit person Smurf was any more I’m going to lose it. Rant over.
The flashbacks are more about Pope than Smurf now, we're seeing everything he went through as a child and the relationship he had with his sister and how he was turned into what he is today because of Smurf.
It ties into the current story with Pope cause he's losing his mind ever since Smurf died, he went to the old trailer park he lived at when he was a kid when he blacked out, everything he's doing ties back into the flashbacks. Also most of the time when a flashback ends it cuts directly to Pope current day.
When we first started getting the flashbacks they was about Smurf cause she was still alive in current day, and it was showing her younger days before she had kids and everything the season finale was leading to with Pope's dad and uncle. Cause Andrew and his sister was born exactly when we see Smurf die current day, then the flashbacks turned more about Pope this season.
Ok, I can kinda understand that angle but the flashbacks are pretty dominated by what kind of shady shenanigans Smurf is up too more than the kids. I get that her behavior is molding what Pope turns into but the writing isn’t really painting the picture. I just don’t think we need flashbacks to show why Pope is messed up. We all have a clear understanding of who Smurf was what damage she called. It just really takes away from what’s actually going on.
Yeah i mean they kinda have to focus on Smurf leading them, cause i don't see how much you could do with the focus being entirely on a little kid every episode in every flashback, its more about the shit Smurf gets into and showing how it effects Pope and is slowly shaping who he is.
They have clearly been built up to show the type of person Smurf was and how she molded the children which is important from when they was very young until adults.
Andrew you could see at an early age had issues but she would use that for her own advantage.
In the final seasons we get to see how the events unfold.
All of this matters and would not work as a separate original series but it could work if done like Banshee with mini episodes which focused on characters backgrounds.