User Reviews

I was beside myself when I heard a new season was coming out. 1 and 2 were stellar seasons. There was always so much going on, each character had their own rich storylines and it was chaos but there was a method to the fun madness. Season 3 started strongly. I enjoyed episode 1 and the rest of the first half was middling to good. But the last half of this season was subpar. It lacked direction, intensity and poor development for the characters. It was not good to kill off the Sparrow Academy so early on and have the rest of the season in 1 setting, the hotel where they wasted time, had a wedding and scowled at each other. I despised Alison this season. Her hateful and angry character was flimsy writing and I did not sympathise with her. The Harlan storyline was weak, they could have tried something different. Klaus seemed to have the best story and I hoped for so much more from Number 5. I am quite disappointed with the writing. I know Netflix needs to fight for its survival during the streaming wars but I wished they took the time to hone the script. I would have happily waited another year for better writing and plot points.

This season wasn't incredible and had it's ups and downs. Some of the storylines dragged on way longer than they needed to. For example, a conflict between the Sparrows in the Umbrellas took way too long to resolve, especially when you knew they had to come together in the end. Left you wondering why there was the amount of conflict and hostility to begin with. Harlan had an interesting story arc but in the end, he was murdered and it was disappointingly unresolved. Then you realize he was only there to build conflict between Allison and Victor. The decline of Allison and Victor's relationship happened way too suddenly. Allison in 8 episodes, she talks about how much she loves, accepts, and trusts her brother. All of a sudden, it was, "you keep ruining my life!" and completely turns on him to the point of putting her entire family in danger. Then you have Reg, who apparently had a plan the entire time, but instead of telling all his children what's happening and how to fix things, he tries to manipulate them all to the point where they don't trust him at all. There's no explanation for why there is a mirror hotel that's protected by guardians who are there to prevent the reset of the universe. And why? And in the end, everyone wonders where Sloane is but no one wondered where Allison ended up. The audience knows, but the characters would not.

But there is a lot of fun as well. The interpersonal relationships between Luther and Sloane, Diego and Lila, Diego and Stan, Klaus and pretty much everyone else, etc. These were a lot of fun stuff to watch. Five is always fun to watch as well, although it's no longer as original as it once was, to see a young actor play a grumpy, irritable, sassy, old man. Maybe it's that Aidan Gallagher does such a great job that you no longer really see him as a kid. Not to mention the fact that he looks older than when the show started.

In the end, I still enjoyed the season. There are a lot of problems but the performances usually made up for the weaknesses in the storytelling.

Weirdly, S3's finale blatantly plagiarises Toby Whithouse's 2011 Doctor Who episode "The God Complex" (directed by "The Umbrella Academy" cinematographer Neville Kidd's frequent collaborator, Nick Hurran) - not only copying the premise (spaceship disguised as retro, labyrinthine hotel with shifting corridors & towering monsters haunting guests) but shamelessly lifting the design for the alien interior too - once the facade fades & the true interior is revealed... Yet ironically, even with (probably) 10x the budget, Jeff King & Craig Wrobleski's filmmaking is nowhere near as quirky or inventive as those whom they seemingly stole from... And thus, it does feel like a very derivative, unimaginative copy which pales in comparison.

However, despite my grievances with the lack of originality regarding the general concept (& its bland execution), I am still undoubtedly invested in these characters & intrigued by the ending - setting up an interesting S4 - that's bound to take the family in a new, exciting direction... So it hasn't lost my attention. I'm simply disheartened by the way this season draws to a fairly muted close, but hopeful for the future, nonetheless.

I may be wrong, but it seemed to me that this billionaire donated a park in 1989, and a group of friends or random people rented some building that is in the park in order to experience one of the simulations that the billionaire had written. Each person got to choose a character and once the simulation begins, the person's real life memories are blocked and they get to experience the entire life of the character they chose. The simulation ends and they walk out into the park while their reality begins coming back to them. I think that Luther's wife could have just been one of the simulated characters as well as the others who did not show up at the end. The billionaire Mr. Hargreeves seemed to also be a simulated character. It seemed like a good ending to me, if they had ended the show this way. Allison probably worked at the park and it was her job on that particular evening anyway to press the button to end the simulation. She then leaves for home while it takes several minutes for the others to wake up and walk out into the park. Her real daughter Clair and her real life husband are happy to see her as they are every time she comes home from work. I thought it to be a cool ending. Some of the people that rented the simulation may have enjoyed it while others thought Hargreeves to be an ass hole for putting them through something that they assumed would be an entertaining experience.

Would have been a 10 but..... The ending needed explained more, who was the chick on the moon with Luther and in the tower at the end? All this to get Reggie his wife back? Come on....

Episode 10: And the season finishes with its last episode written for 10 y.o. Kids.

Aside the dedication and acting of the cast and the marvelous score, we just see blatant faults and mishmash kindergarten plots aimed at a much younger audience.

Nearly 2 whole years to create and film that mess of a season is unforgivable. All involved executives belong to that oblivion world alongside the samurai roaches.

Season 4 better be produced without you, if at all.

But still entertaining...you know , so long as you don't think about why they are doing what they are doing..

How is it that you can grow up calling a woman Vanya and one day she asks you to call her Victor and you never not once slip up and call her Vanya...this is so unrealistic and cartoony.

I killed your son btw...Oh you killed my son?..you monster. But okay can we work together now? Things like this..and it kept happening. Stop killing my family...Oh ok i guess ill push the button anyways...whatever.

Ohh look there is a magical doorway to another universe that god created on earth for some reason...even though Aliens exist...its on earth! And We are going to reveal it suddenly right before it comes into play. And Hargreeves can naturally work the machinery able to change the universe. And it just naturally has 4 samurai Mortal kombat characters...Because Mortal Kombat exists in this universe...ug ok..

...But again if you dont try to think about anything...Its actually a really good season..just with no depth.

The whole season has a terribly pace in every episode, you keep waiting for something to haleppen , you reach the 9th episode and they waste a whole hour for a wedding only to kill Luther and then bring him back without any explanation, what was the point?

They spent an unnecessary amount of screen time to the romance of Diego x Layla and Luther x Slooun ,that contributed nothing at all to the plot , just to fill the minutes of the episode.

Father trained Klaus and didn't even use his power.

So many pointless scenes, so little super power upgrades and no answers at all.

This season was the complete opposite of the first two.

The only thing that keept the series going was the acting of Klaus, Victor and 5.