Season 3 is the New Season 2

Why so many of TV's Season 3's have been the new Season 2

What does that mean?

It means I'm going to be a bit of a Debbie Downer today. As is well known, the first offering from people, bands, TV shows etc sets a standard for what is to come from them, a standard which is seldom met in their sophomore offering. With TV shows, that means season 2 is never as good as season 1. But I'm going to list a few exceptions to the rule, where in actual fact it was the third season that recognised a ridiculous drop in quality rather than the second.

NOTE: Opinions in this roundup will be presented like fact.

Elementary

I'm often unjustly critical about Elementary but with season 3 I think I'm justified, and we'll start here since I know this won't be popular and some of the examples to come offer a lot more to talk about than Elementary does.

Season 3 returned with Sherlock returning to New York from a six-month stint in London working with MI6, only he brings along with him one of the worst and most boring characters since Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes himself (and I can say that: I read all the Conan Doyle's and while they were clever, it was a chore to get through them). Kitty Winters is just abominable. She serves little purpose but to provide Sherlock with a muse while Joan Watson has her existential crisis and gets a boyfriend, Andrew's his name I think. So while Kitty bores me in the brownstone with Sherlock, Joan potters about with Andrew - Zaf from the British show Spooks - until he's randomly and pointlessly killed off in a plane crash, I believe. OK, so his death isn't pointless as such since it serves as a catalyst for Joan's eventual return to the brownstone, it's just handled very badly.

L-R: Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller), Kitty Winters
(Ophelia Lovibond), and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu)

Now, I understand why Kitty's abuse storyline is beneficial to viewers who have been through the same thing, and I wouldn't dare suggest anything negative about its message - but the writing of the conclusion of Kitty's storyline was simply awful. Her abuser just happens to be the owner of the one company that silly, rebellious Joan has begun to work for? Leave off.

Kitty eventually bids farewell halfway through in episode 12 in a way her fans must have felt was pretty satisfying, but the second half of the season doesn't really pick up from there and in the end the series just kind of peters out. It's a far cry from the long-running sobriety arc of season 1, and the fantastic plots involving Mycroft and Detective Bell's arm injury (caused by Holmes's arrogance) in season 2, and the succeeding season 4, with Morland Holmes and Sherlock's new love Fiona in season 4.

Not a good enough show to warrant me buying the DVDs, but if I did, season 3 wouldn't grace my shelves here.

Black Sails

You like watching pirates? You like politics that are actually interesting? You like prostitutes who actually have storylines? (Watch this page, Game of Thrones.) Then you'll like Black Sails, although probably not season 3. When it starts in season 1, Eleanor Guthrie is governor of Nassau, and in a particularly casual sexual relationship with prostitute Max. Her advisor, Mr. Scott, is a slave; Flint has long hair; John Silver has two legitimate feet; Charles Vane is unlikeable and the well-spoken businessman "Calico Jack" Rackham is a hilarious joy for the eyes. The main plot of the first two seasons follows Flint and Vane's rivalry in trying to capture the recently stranded Spanish treasure from the Urca de Lima, while the pirate outpost the island of Nassau undergoes some serious changes in its leadership and day-to-day running. Max and Eleanor begin to slowly hate each other while Max takes charge of the brothel; Eleanor's father dies leaving Eleanor to free Mr. Scott and in season 2's final scene Rackham eventually collects that Spanish treasure for himself.

But in season 3, the plots begin to unravel in a particularly disinteresting way. Eleanor is now in the clutches of Woodes Rogers, a boring Englishman intent on destroying piracy in Nassau for good. So not only is Eleanor away from the back and forth power struggle in Nassau, and her on-off love-hate relationship with Max (who has somehow now become governor of Nassau, one of the few redeeming plots this season), but Eleanor is also with a man to whom she grows frustratingly attached and now suddenly she wants to help him destroy piracy. Bite me, Guthrie. But not only does she get her silly little love interest with Woodes, but she grows this sudden hatred for Charles Vane (he did kill her dad I suppose) that leads her pursuing him for execution.

Which is the next problem. Vane started off a boring villain, but quickly became the most complex and interesting character in the show. And then, to kickstart a rebellion against Woodes' arsehole invasion, he sacrifices himself and is hanged. Bastard.

Black Sails characters - season 3

Meanwhile, Jack Rackham seems everywhere and nowhere: one minute he's protecting the Urca gold, the next he's running, the next he's back trying to get a pardon from the English that leads to his arrest - so he flees only to return to try and stop Woodes. Yawn. Rackham was at his best as a conniving businessman and all-round irritant, especially in season 2 when he and Max jointly ran the brothel. Him having collected the Urca gold could have been handled so much better in season 3; instead, he was a bit-part throughout and didn't fit into any plot, not even his own. It was painful to watch.

Elsewhere, Flint's crew ends up on an island of ex-slaves, the leader of whom happens to be Mr. Scott's wife. Only Scott got shot protecting them or something and dies a drawn-out death as Flint leads a number of parleys with the dull ex-slaves, to try and convince them they need to let his crew go and help him fight the English.

And Edward Teach, who we know as Blackbeard, never really had space to be a good antagonist because of Kim Jong-Woodes.

I have to admit that these avenues of plot do seem like the natural progression of a pirate story, but it's just that they have all been handled wrong by the writers. Teach ended up as a big disappointment; Eleanor, Mr. Scott, Flint's entire ship (which includes a third of the cast) and Rackham were all misplaced; and Vane died. But worse, Woodes remains hanging around like a cancer as we go into season 4 next year. So, to summarise, Black Sails' third season wasn't bad but it was just dull, and that was because it seriously misused its core characters, and failed to introduce any interesting replacements. I'm not annoyed at how this season unfolded, I'm simply apathetic.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Characters L-R: Gina Peralta, Charles Boyle, Norm Scully,
Ray Holt, Jake Peralta, Terry Jeffords, Amy Santiago,
Rosa Diaz and Michael Hitchcock

I don't watch many sitcoms - three, in fact, including B99. That's a small figure given how many shows I actually do watch. But B99 tops them all. It's clever, it's funny, it's well-written and the cast are good and all have amazing chemistry. But season 3 is just a bit bleurgh.

Detective Jake Peralta chewed out by Captain Holt

There was little in terms of gags that focused on the characters' differing personalities, and as such the comedic quality was down. They tried too hard to find gags within the plots and it just didn't work. But that wasn't the only problem with season 3. Even the quality of the plots themselves were down, across standalone episodes and wider arcs.

Starting with standalone episodes, we all know that, on occasion, shows produce some naff episodes. It's unavoidable that sometimes an episode here or there just won't be that great. However, sometimes we get episodes like Person of Interest's "Terra Incognita" (that's another roundup) and B99's 3x09 "The Swedes" was every bit its equal. Perhaps I'm slightly biased: I expected great things when I heard Riki Lindhome (one half of the Garfunkel and Oates comedy duo I am so enamoured with) was to guest star. Then I watched the episode and twenty minutes later I ... well I can't even say anything really. It was just disgraceful and that's that.

But the wider plot arcs in season 3 weren't up to scratch either. After Captain Holt was reassigned by evil whatever-her-rank-is arch-nemesis Wuntch to the PR department, we get four episodes offering a revolving door of Captains while Holt and Gina toil in a not-funny arc independent of the main setting. But after they foil Wuntch's ploy to ruin Holt's career, Wuntch disappears. Perhaps Kyra Sedgwick couldn't be involved any further, which is fine except there's no adequate replacement for the quality her character brought. The relationship of Jake and Amy peters off towards the second half of the season and is completely forgotten, while new recurring character, undercover cop Adrian Pimento, offers only a little glimpse of hope before he goes into hiding and the 99th Precinct decide to help bring down the men hunting him - something they don't achieve and which will definitely have a direct bearing upon the quality of season 4.

Comparatively, we had epic arcs in the first two seasons such as the Boyle/Gina secret sexual relationship, the new designer drug Gigglepig epidemic, Terry's fear of going into the field and the emotionless Rosa's hilarious relationship with Holt's nephew, Marcus - among others.

In conclusion, B99's shift from its brilliant characters' personalities to less interesting plot arcs meant that season 3 suffered a drop in its quality - one that it needs to redeem quickly in season 4. That means either wrapping up the Pimento storyline in the first few episodes, or bringing him back as a full-time character and exploring his integration with our current cast a little more deeply. But I think, sadly, it will struggle to get back to where it was.

The 100

Most of the problems The 100 suffered in season 3 were caused by unintelligent writing, but more than that the entire season was shrouded in controversy over its treatment of two main characters. But before I talk about them, let's focus on the writing aspects which just sucked.

More survivors of the Ark appear on the ground (where they even came from I'm not clear) and integrate with our main cast: the most prominent two being Pike, the leader and an ex-teacher; and Monty's mum. Well Pike manages to upset the apple cart immediately, by manipulating the majority of the Arkadia settlement to believe the Grounders (currently their allies) are bad, culminating in him leading a slaughter of 300 Grounders who were protecting Arkadia and exiling numerous other Skaikru (Sky-crew; Ark people) from the settlement. Monty's mum goes along with it, but she's just boring. Inside Arkadia, Jasper is drinking himself away most of the season after his girlfriend's death at the end of season 2, something few fans had the patience for.

Meanwhile, Jaha's City of Light storyline evolves into the series' main focus: an evil AI, personified by the engineer Becca, known as A.L.I.E., runs rampant throughout the world trying to take control of everyone's minds and find the technology to stop herself from ever being destroyed. So where is that technology? In the Flame, the ascension device which swaps from Grounder Commander to Grounder Commander after their deaths. But to bring it into play means killing Lexa. Which was an undeniably horrific move.

A fan favourite, Lexa's death would have been greeted with malcontent on its own, but that doesn't account for the promises made by the creator. For a season, Lexa and Clarke had been building up to a lesbian relationship that was promised to come to fruition by the show's producer - and then abruptly destroyed by Lexa's surprise death. Now, Lexa had to die to advance and merge the Grounder/AI storylines. That isn't up for debate. Without her dying, the storyline remains stuck.

However, the promises made by the producer of a lesbian relationship, and the careless manner of Lexa's death (hit by a stray bullet), meant that the advancement of plot was irrelevant. The LGBT community whipped into a frenzy about the number of deaths of LGBT characters on TV, a problem which had already been simmering for a long time. Lexa's death was the catalyst to bring the issue to the surface, and now every LGBT character who is killed on TV becomes a martyr for the cause - regardless of plot. And that's wrong. Each character dies on their own merits and can't instantly be attributed to one TV trope simply because they've been written as an LGBT character. But it has to be noted by those in charge of these TV shows that this IS a problem, and people ARE going to speak up no matter the validness of this death here or there, because the LGBT community are not being represented properly. If TV shows don't want the thumbnails screwed in further every time they think of killing off an LGBT character, they need to appeal to those in charge to understand that this is a real, human issue. TV reflects life, and The 100 made a terrible, potentially fatal, mistake in forgetting that.

Lincoln (Ricky Whittle) and Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey)
on The 100

But not only did The 100 manage to shit on its fine work in the first two seasons by killing Lexa in a pathetic fashion, they then killed off another fan favourite, Lincoln. Now his death didn't serve any plot of any kind, and wouldn't have been on the cards if it wasn't for the producer's dislike of Ricky Whittle, the actor who plays him. He was disliked as a person and as such his character was unnecessarily killed off.

I'm telling you, Jason Rothenberg brought a world of shit down upon his show by outright lying to fans and not handling those two character deaths correctly, and it's more by luck than anything else that The 100 is returning for a season 4. (Its renewal was announced just before Lexa and Lincoln's deaths were aired.)

I'd be very surprised if it made a season 5, I really would. Better to wrap this show up quickly and move on, because the longer it's around the more it's going to put the spotlight on the CW network - and do the CW really want that kind of attention? I think not.

One That's Excluded For Other Reasons

I can't lump Orange is the New Black in with these other shows because their season 3 wasn't just as bad as season 2 (it was worse), but I wanted to have just a quick word about it anyway.

In season 2, OITNB fell into that age-old, dull trope of, when all the characters are "settled", throwing an inmate into the prison who wants to be queen bee to shake things up. In this case, it was Queen Vee. She forged relationships, broke others and put everyone in positions only beneficial to her - and had no loyalty to them when things went wrong. Basically, she was a terrible character who destroyed everything we'd liked in the first season. Fortunately, she was bumped off at the end of the season - but season 3 didn't atone for the mistake of introducing her at all.

It sent a fan favourite Nicky Nichols to max security early on, as well as having Officer John Bennett, the one-legged prison guard who impregnated one of the inmates, disappear without explanation. Boring Stella Carlin (apparently I'm the only one who disliked her), a new inmate, was inexplicably added and served as a romantic interest for Piper, a pointless act since Piper - the main character of the show and in all honesty the most interesting of them all - lost most of her screen time so the should could become more of an ensemble. Sophia and Gloria's fights over their kids were frankly laughable; Alex's growing paranoia wasn't entertaining to watch; Pornstache, after his incarceration in season 2, appeared in only one scene (he's been missed since season 1); and Black Cindy's interest in Judaism took an odd and sudden turn from joke to serious, and left me unsure as to whether that was actually planned or not by the writers.

Better luck in season 4, guys!

Final thoughts

I realise that by laying bare what I felt were serious flaws in these shows' third seasons I am vastly underselling their good points. Of which, I should make clear, there are many. None of these shows should be discredited by my rants, and you shouldn't believe me when I tell you all their season 3's sucked. This is all just my opinion, and I know some of you have and will disagree with me.

So I'll end with a reminder: all of these shows are good quality television, and I will continue to watch their upcoming season 4's (and Elementary's upcoming season 5). I enjoy them immensely. I just feel that these shows dug themselves into large holes in their season 3's and, while Elementary dug itself out again with a hugely addictive fourth season, I have a nasty feeling one or two of the others might not be able to follow suit.

Thanks for reading everyone; I'll see you all in my next roundup!

Sam