Sadly, I have to agree with other reviewers that this show has really gone downhill. Obviously, the first season had the best writing overall, with a great deal of attention given to growing the characters and bringing them together as a team. The second season got stuck trying to be all about copycats again. I actually preferred when the third season had 3 unrelated cases. You could tell yourself that Joe's commissioner friend was throwing all the really oddball cases to the team, like they agreed on at the end of the second season (even though the writers actually just dropped that storyline).
I really am not a fan of the sudden conceit in this season that the supernatural is real. It's too much of a tone change to be enjoyable. I do usually love supernatural shows; they just can't change a realism based show so drastically this far along. I know we're supposed to believe something dark has come over the team, pulling them apart, and making them act poorly. But they seem to have instead really stagnated and gotten boring this season. Agree again that Joe's disorder and neurosis has gotten too far out of hand. He really only got the job through family contacts. He did grow in experience and confidence in the first series but was about it. Not only should he not be running unarmed, alone, into dark abandoned buildings, but he can't even seem to ask building maintenance to look into his office's plumbing issues. How does he deserve to be in charge? I also don't get why it's just this one small team working nights in a huge police station with no lights. I've worked nights - we do keep lights on.
Quick mention also to how the rest of the team has become so much less sympathetic as well, especially with Mansell's "prank" on Buchan. Kent's personality change seems too contrived. The writers seem to have been grasping at straws with Buchan. Is he really that shocked an old basement has mold? That's not exactly something dark or spooky. Riley's storyline has never moved past being the token female. Adding in the work of some spy, really was a step too far. I really don't know if they can pull this all together by the end of the last set of episodes.
I really am not a fan of the sudden conceit in this season that the supernatural is real. It's too much of a tone change to be enjoyable. I do usually love supernatural shows; they just can't change a realism based show so drastically this far along. I know we're supposed to believe something dark has come over the team, pulling them apart, and making them act poorly. But they seem to have instead really stagnated and gotten boring this season. Agree again that Joe's disorder and neurosis has gotten too far out of hand. He really only got the job through family contacts. He did grow in experience and confidence in the first series but was about it. Not only should he not be running unarmed, alone, into dark abandoned buildings, but he can't even seem to ask building maintenance to look into his office's plumbing issues. How does he deserve to be in charge? I also don't get why it's just this one small team working nights in a huge police station with no lights. I've worked nights - we do keep lights on.
Quick mention also to how the rest of the team has become so much less sympathetic as well, especially with Mansell's "prank" on Buchan. Kent's personality change seems too contrived. The writers seem to have been grasping at straws with Buchan. Is he really that shocked an old basement has mold? That's not exactly something dark or spooky. Riley's storyline has never moved past being the token female. Adding in the work of some spy, really was a step too far. I really don't know if they can pull this all together by the end of the last set of episodes.