#s5ep8

okay so first of all I watched the movie before the series and my ultimate conclusion on it was that the premise was good and literally everything else sucked about it but especially the pacing and writing. But I gave that kind a pass because I have always assumed the movie is just trying to squeeze in 5 seasons of show into 1h 30min movie. That is not the case, instead the movie is more of a retelling of some parts of season 1 and the general story of season 4 and now I’m even more confused by it than before because now the pacing and writing have even less of a reason to be this bad lol.

So now about the actuall show, season 1&2 are good in a so bad it’s good way/weird 2010 bad writing nostalgia way. It’s cheesy, it’s buddycop, it overuses it’s licensed music library and that’s great. Love the intro for show even if it’s just like, a guy.

side note I specifically looked up some info about the French dub of the show and they changed the intro and compared to the original it’s really funny because they take it all so serious like wtf

Season 3 sucks major ass. If you watch this show, you can skip it, it’s a filler season which probably occurred because they only planned ahead for 2 seasons, got greenlit for another season and scrambled to fuck up the happy ending of season 2 so there is a reason for season 3 to exist. They screw up the dynamics quite a lot and string the characters along a very overused „we don’t know what the plot should be“ trope.

Season 4 fixes a lot of what season 3 fucked up and has a good overall plot, probably the most interesting plot line of the entire show because it actually focuses on the characters and the main draw, shedding light on how Mick actually got into the coma. To me this is probably the best the normal regular show can be and this is probably what the show should have focused on more from the start. Maybe even including more flashbacks to before he got shot at because we sadly get very little of that on the show, basically almost nothing despite the fact that that’s a huge part of Micks character and plot. Like, you gotta really interesting premise going, fucking use it!!!

And then there is season 5 which I honestly kinda want to consider it’s own thing because it’s more like a softreboot of the show than anything. If you watch season 5 first and then go back on the other seasons you will be MAJORLY confused and disappointed. Season 5 works relatively well on its own but not as well in context to everything that came before it. I enjoy the genre change and think it fits the show just as well as the more sitcom vibe it had before. The story, similar to season 3, does mess up a lot of established character dynamics, but I think that at least it does it a bit better than s3 did. Although you could argue that the whole premise of season 5 fucks up the pre-established impression you had of the characters because basically it turned all of them to criminals/antiheroes/morally grey characters. If you watch the show, just pretend season 5 is like kinda a weird alternate universe fanfic. Or maybe it’s the other way around and season 1-4 are the fanfic.

Uh the reveal of the actual antagonist of season 5 was…. Completely expected and not a shock at all. Like okay maybe the actual main guy was a little bit of a twist but everyone else who was involved and was antagonistic was not surprising because theyve never been introduced as particularly trustworthy characters to begin with.

Tanja was not in season 5 which is weird because she was kinda Micks main love interest throughout the entirety of the show and they only acknowledge her existence in s5 through a letter that is not plot relevant and mick only reads at the very end in the last scene of the show (and we don’t get to know the contents of the letter)

If they did the plot of season 4 in the style of season 5 I think that would have been really sick. The plot of season 5 has a good cool mystery element to it and is engaging but loses a bit of momentum towards the end tbh.

For a show that is so proud of their action and fight scenes and their major use of licensed music the „final boss fight“ was…. Really unsatisfying. Like it wasnt at all particularly cool or interesting location, there was absolutely no accompanying music, it was just Mick beating up the main antagonist and yeah, that’s it.

The entire show has a big „can’t write women“ problem which is noticeable throughout all the seasons and every female character, no matter if main character or not. Women in this show are quite literally just props and accessories and very shallow. Tanja and Uschi are the least affected by it but even they got their problems. Although I can’t make out if this is a writing women problem or a general writing problem because the rest of the writing,,, has a lot of issues too. Characterizations don’t tend to stay consistent, one day Mick is an upstanding officer who will do what he perceives to be right even if he goes too far, the other he is morally grey, not shying away from revenge, torture and killing. Like guys does this man have a moral code now, yes or no? This inconsistency makes it very hard to pinpoint who these characters actually are sometimes.

and now to the point that I actually care about. I’m so disappointed that we didn’t get more pre-coma flashbacks, giant missed opportunity there. I wanted to see more of Mick and Martins pre coma dynamic but the best we get a flashback in which Mick has already been in his coma for like around 10 years.

Like Mick and Martin used to be partners! Solving cases and shit together but their dynamic in the show is so weird and distant, show me how they used to be buddies, do weird unwoke 80s shit together, maybe have a drunk make out what do I know. Anything that would have made Martin as a character a bit more interesting and sympathetic despite being a bit of an ass.