#gabe mitchell

My 1st favorite is Colandrea Conners, in all her glory

I am literally writing this immediately after watching this season so this gonna be a long post. I apologize in advance.

I’m going to preface this post by saying I love this show. S2 was amazing and my favorite. I actually was more excited for this new season than Stranger Things 3.  

But (and I hate to admit this) I was worried going into this new season that it wouldn’t be as good as S2 (spoiler alert…it wasn’t).

Why?:

S2′s finale didn’t feel as earned as S1′s. 

What I mean by this is S1 had a concise plot and series of events to progress that plot (Blackface party…Reggie’s harassment by the campus “security”..town hall…protest/Troy getting arrested) which ultimately lead to their climax and resolution in the finale. 

S2′s finale felt like an obligatory episode. Not the resolution to all the plot points that were so well set up throughout the season.

S2 ended with clear set ups for S3 storylines. (It’s’ never a good sign when writers put effort in setting up future storylines at the expense of the current ones (*cough* DCEU problem [I say this as a DC fangirl])

I had four things I actually really wanted to see further explored after S2:

Gabe & Sam as a couple (without the BS love triangles)

Reggie & Joelle as a couple

Troy finding out about KoCo (Kurt & Coco. [Yes, I’m co-signing Kurt’s ship name]) and his reaction to them (would he be worried about CoCo getting hurt by Kurt, would he be angry with Kurt for breaking bro-code, how angry?)

Seeing CoCo eventually begin to actually develop feelings for Kurt.

Okay so that was my mindset going into Vol. 3. Now with that out the way, here’s how I feel about it:

The Good

Sam & Gabe (they were the healthy, stable ship on the show this season. They were so married and I was so here for it.)

Sam (she wasn’t selfish and indecisive. I also loved her storyline about her movie this season)

I love that the show didn’t gloss over Sam’s grief for her father

When she was watching the video of her with her dad on her laptop, my heart broke for her and I almost teared up

Gabe (he finally got more storylines!)

CoCo (because she’s my fav)

CoCo & Sam’s frienship

Kurt & CoCo (I’m a sucker for a good swirly ship between a Black Woman + White Man)

I love KoCo. They were cute. I love that Kurt was obviously smitten with CoCo in S2 when we first saw them together.

Troy (I actually liked Troy and his storyline this season. I was rooting for him)

Kelsey (she’s one of those characters you want more of but no too much. This season found the perfect balance for her.)

Clifton (like Kelsey, I love him in small batches, and that’s exactly what we got)

Abigail

The self-aware jokes

Subverting expectations about following the vague riddles to join the possible secret society, but still giving us the answers

Less gratuitous sex scenes (THANK GOD)

What didn’t work for me:

The new storytelling style

One of the best aspects of S1 & 2 was how it told the story, i.e.: interweaving the perspectives of the characters with an event and spending an episode showing us how a character got to that particular point during an event

I also hate that we didn’t get episodes that just explored one character

Next to the different storytelling style, my biggest gripe with this season is it not creating a central racial incident to act as a starting off point for the racial dialogue throughout the season

S1: blackface party

S2: aftermath of the townhall meeting protest

S3:???

It made the show feel like it was kind of just existing and buying time until the writers figure out what they wanted to do, which they finally did DURING THE FINALE

Lionel (I relate to his personality the most because I’m also an introvert with social anxiety)

If they broke up him and Wesley (who were adorable) because Wesley isn’t monogamous, why would Lionel start sleeping around after? If he is going to do that, why break them up? Or keep them broken up?

Rasheed’s absence

First of all, Rasheed’s in love with Joelle?! Okay. Sure. But besides that feeling left field, why does SPOILER her rejecting him after his love profession mean we don’t see him throughout the season?

As a first-generation American child of Afro-Caribbean parents, I like Rasheed because he reminded me of my parents, particularly my dad. I loved seeing his culture shock at certain American and/or Black American things and their response to his shock. I missed that this season.

Reggie (I have a love/hate relationship with this character)

Why couldn’t he get out of bed early this season? Depression? Unmotivated? PTSD? 

Reggie & Joelle’s angst

I was rooting for these two crazy kids to get together during S2 (S1 after a series rewatch) and once they’re finally together, they’re one of those couples that have issues because they don’t communicate?! That’s literally the opposite of their friendship.

CoCo’s ghost daughter

Next to love triangles, one of my most hated storytelling tropes is the ghost or hallucination of regrets/mistakes past talking to the character throughout the show or movie to communicate with the audience what the character is feeling rather than the character telling someone these things. Ugh. *eyeroll*

Abigail (I love her, but we could’ve done with less of her this season)

Oh and D’Unte (I know that seemed tacted on, but so was he)

Don’t get me wrong, he’s fabulous, but why is he here? Why is he getting so much screentime? To get with Lionel? If so, why did he get his own storyline about the TA salary? Why was he always around? Couldn’t another character get that screentime? CoCo, Joelle, Gabe, or you know, any other OG character.

This season let me down in many ways, but it made me fangirl in others. Overall...meh. I hope we get a S4 (I’m sure we will). If so, I have a list

More CoCo

I want her to tell someone about her lost daughter

Please let her wear her hair natural again. I’ll take just one episode at this point.

More KoCo (I want CoCo to admit to herself and Kurt that she has feelings, and for them to come out as a couple)

More Sam & Gabe cuteness

Happy, healthy Joelle & Reggie

Troy to find out about KoCo (I don’t want him to get jealous or anything; but worried Kurt will hurt CoCo? Mad that Kurt broke bro-code? How mad is he about this violation?)

Troy to find out about his and CoCo’s lost baby. (That would have been a better way to continue that storyline than ghost-daughter)

More of Troy’s new magazine

Please. No more ghost-daughter

Less D’Unte

Kelsey and Sorbet to finally be reunited

If you made it through this semi-coherent rant/fangirling post. Thanks!

I have a terrible memory, so of course I don’t remember much about the first two seasons of Dear White People. I just I know I enjoyed them enough to be excited about Season 3. But as I watched the first few episodes, my excitement quickly turned into confusion, and eventually boredom. By the end of the season, I felt like I wasted my time. I was actually glad when it ended. I did think it was cute in the beginning though how the characters were sort of self-aware. They said things like “if people didn’t change, life would be tedious and predictable like the third season of a Netflix show.” I laughed, assuming the writers purposely added such lines because they knew Season 3 of Dear White People would be different. And it definitely is different from its prior seasons, but it just wasn’t interesting in my opinion. 

One of the main differences was the absence of Sam’s radio show, which the Netflix series is named after! It’s like when Jane the Virgin lost her virginity; I questioned why the show continued to exist. Sam decided she was done with Dear White People because she didn’t want to become a sellout, like Candance Owens or Kanye West. Sure Sam’s best friend Joelle took over the show, but she only hosted it for like two episodes. Joelle came to the realization that show was a shoe that didn’t fit for her. So instead, we spent this season watching Sam try to discover the point of her junior thesis film project, and honestly, I was as lost as she was. 

We’re also missing the narrator this season since he revealed himself to be Dr. Edward Ruskins, a former professor at Winchester, and a member of a secret black society known as the Order of X. Sam and Lionel immediately abandon Dr. Ruskins after he tried to provide them with more riddles regarding the Order. They already jumped through enough hoops to find him in Season 2. So I get it, avoid the redundancy of a typical season 3 Netflix show by eliminating elements like the radio show, the narrator, and even the Order of X. But I liked the way Sam would angrily say “Dear White People” on her radio show, and the way she called the whites out on their shit. The season felt disorganized without a narrator to guide us through each episode. And most importantly, I was looking forward to learning more about the significance of the Order of X. I eventually got the last of the three things I wanted, but I was a bit annoyed that I had to wait all the way until the last episode. 

In this season’s finale, we discover that a division of the Order of X has the power to cover up its members’ unethical behavior, sort of like Olivia Pope & Associates in Scandal. For instance, Professor Moses Brown has sexually assaulted a student named Muffy, but Muffy refuses to talk. A black man managed to silence a white girl who’s the daughter of a state senator?! You know something fishy’s going on. And apparently, this isn’t the first time one of Moses’ sexual assault cases was covered up. With the help of Troy, Sam and Lionel plan to take down the Order. At least that’s what I read. I fell asleep on the ending twice and after the third time when I actually paid attention, I was still confused. So I’ll just take others’ word for it. Dr. Ruskins told Sam and Lionel that the Order is dead though and he needed them to revive it, which is also confusing. Maybe Ruskins meant revive as in get the Order back to what it used to be? Idk, but since this seemed to be the main plot point of the season, I felt like everything else was unnecessary.