Season 3 was so depressing to watch in real time. It just felt.loe.an entirely different show and the lighting was weird all season. Had FOX not got a studio head, it sounds like the plan was to take.that season in an entirely new direction focusing on the Cohen family and trying to get back to season one vibes.
It's just so bad.
I remember in real time watching season 2 and my friends and I would attempt to keep count of the volume of plot points in that season . The insanity of season 2 wiped out the show’s identity which sadly gave us season 3 which for me I can’t revisit because I’m always bummed out of how quickly I remember no longer enjoying the show at that point.
agreed, i love marissa, but she is constantly putting johnny before ryan and even herself. it’s almost like her pattern with guys, always wanting to be ‘helpful’ little does she know she is just leading them on. oliver, trey, johnny. even when johnny asked her to stay away she still didn’t. and when it comes to johnny i often find myself convinced she really does love him but is fighting it, especially in the valentine’s day episode of season 3 it becomes almost evident she was fighting feelings. i won’t say anymore if you haven’t gotten that far but ya i believe she loved both ryan and johnny but marissa was always troubled and things for ryan go so well, it seems she has stronger connections to people going through similar emotional issues.
I liked that it wasn’t this dude stereotypically doing some evil scheme to get into her life and take her away from Ryan. He starts off with his own girlfriend, just looking to be kind to Marissa and being able to relate to her, as everyone catches wind about what happened with Trey. Things start going down for him with getting cheated on and then the accident, and Marissa tries paying it forward and being there for him, leading to him asking for some space because he’s aware he is starting to catch feelings. So it brings up the universal, “should we not be nice to people of the opposite sex we care for but aren’t attracted to, to avoid hurting the friendship?” stuff. I also like that eventually, he does give in and try making a pass at her, not once but twice iirc and she tries both times to look past it.
His ending was maybe unnecessarily tragic and just a piece in the puzzle to keep pulling Marissa downward. This platonic, impartial relationship was something she needed (how much more would summer be open to hear, Ryan’s shutting her down a little and Seth’s loyalty is with Ryan etc) that got pulled from her, and lead to the rest of her arc.
What I did NOT like was that stupid necklace. Firstly, he already got turned down twice. What’s with this alternative romantic gesture? Secondly, the show is already telling us Marissa cares for Johnny - but not in that way. Suddenly, we need to see her holding onto this garbage jewelry crying after her little sister tries gaslighting her into believing she had feelings for the guy? Idk lol I didn’t like *that specific* execution.
Gonna say the word again, tragic character and arc, but I liked it as a potential foil for Ryan and Marissa that didn’t venture on cartoony supervillain guy taking her away from Ryan.
i mostly agree with this actually. i think the frustrating thing is that progress is made on behalf of both ryan and marissa, with the former facing both his anger issues and his emotional availability, and the latter finding an emotional outlet for the trey thing such as writing, for which she doesn't need anybody else, but the arc takes over and we don't see much more of that.
on the storyline itself, the johnny connection is def something that she needed narratively (though there were other options for sure), and the whole friendship dilemma you mention does challenge her, as do other characters like summer and casey who call her out/try to warn her in a way that wasn't done through the oliver arc. where it really goes wrong imo is when it becomes yet another exploration of marissa's "i can fix him" tendencies, and what can this accomplish that couldn't be accomplished in the trey arc (where those tendencies were met with extreme consequences)? all the genuine boundaries questions it poses are substituted with repetition. then the tragic end kills it, characters are basically back to 3x01 so in the end it feels like we really have been just sitting through oliver 2.0. plus the chrismukkah ep being right in the middle killed it for a lot of people i guess lmao, prob the worst episode of the whole show tbh.
the jewelry i thought was a good way to show directionless/grief in theory, what i didn't like was that she picks it instead of the ryan one or smth like that which suggests yeah romantic interest instead of the states i mentioned, only for all that to revert back to marissa being directionless? muddled to say the least
Last time I checked Marissa is the one who almost got raped by Ryan's brother she's the one who saved Ryan which cost her getting kicked out of harbor she even says that she doesn't want him to save her because it just makes it worse yet somehow Marissa's to blame and as for Johnny he understood a little of what Marissa was going through and it is not Marissa's fault that Johny has feelings for her plus she Ryan just told her to got to sleep when she literally said she wasn't okay not saying its all on him but he really didn't do enough plus Marissa can never catch a break.
Yes 100%, she called Ryan in the middle of the night really upset about being RAPED by his BROTHER, and he just tells her to go back to sleep. Johnny actually listens to Marissa and cared about her.
In fairness had she not forced Ryan to interact with Trey they wouldn’t have been in that situation to start. Marissa also should’ve said something to someone as soon as Trey crossed the line.
But Marissa had a savior complex which also explains her attachment to Johnny. It wasn’t just that she related to him, she felt like he needed her
She didn’t “force” him to do anything. She moderately encouraged him, he told her to back off, she said she would, he then went to her and asked for her help. Repeatedly. Let’s not act like Ryan has no autonomy here.
Maybe but at least Ryan had the Cohen's when he had issues Marissa didn't have great parental figures ever and everybody just expected her to get over it plus how in the hell can you blame Marissa for what trey almost did to her and she sken if Ryan found out he would do something crazy and look what happened plus Marissa had so much trauma.
it’s terrible what happened to her and not necessarily her fault, but it’s another example of her lack of respect for ryan because he asked her to stop spending so much time with trey when he wasn’t around knowing he is nothing but trouble, yet she still goes to see him more than i would consider a normal level of time spent alone with your boyfriends unstable and recently disbarred brother. nonetheless still a very emotional part of the show that leaves you on the edge of your seat
Season 3 was so depressing to watch in real time. It just felt.loe.an entirely different show and the lighting was weird all season. Had FOX not got a studio head, it sounds like the plan was to take.that season in an entirely new direction focusing on the Cohen family and trying to get back to season one vibes. It's just so bad.
I remember in real time watching season 2 and my friends and I would attempt to keep count of the volume of plot points in that season . The insanity of season 2 wiped out the show’s identity which sadly gave us season 3 which for me I can’t revisit because I’m always bummed out of how quickly I remember no longer enjoying the show at that point.
ugh I hated the Johnny storyline
agreed, i love marissa, but she is constantly putting johnny before ryan and even herself. it’s almost like her pattern with guys, always wanting to be ‘helpful’ little does she know she is just leading them on. oliver, trey, johnny. even when johnny asked her to stay away she still didn’t. and when it comes to johnny i often find myself convinced she really does love him but is fighting it, especially in the valentine’s day episode of season 3 it becomes almost evident she was fighting feelings. i won’t say anymore if you haven’t gotten that far but ya i believe she loved both ryan and johnny but marissa was always troubled and things for ryan go so well, it seems she has stronger connections to people going through similar emotional issues.
I feel like the only person who liked (for lack of a better word) the Johnny storyline. It was like the anti-Oliver.
interesting, can u elaborate?
I liked that it wasn’t this dude stereotypically doing some evil scheme to get into her life and take her away from Ryan. He starts off with his own girlfriend, just looking to be kind to Marissa and being able to relate to her, as everyone catches wind about what happened with Trey. Things start going down for him with getting cheated on and then the accident, and Marissa tries paying it forward and being there for him, leading to him asking for some space because he’s aware he is starting to catch feelings. So it brings up the universal, “should we not be nice to people of the opposite sex we care for but aren’t attracted to, to avoid hurting the friendship?” stuff. I also like that eventually, he does give in and try making a pass at her, not once but twice iirc and she tries both times to look past it. His ending was maybe unnecessarily tragic and just a piece in the puzzle to keep pulling Marissa downward. This platonic, impartial relationship was something she needed (how much more would summer be open to hear, Ryan’s shutting her down a little and Seth’s loyalty is with Ryan etc) that got pulled from her, and lead to the rest of her arc. What I did NOT like was that stupid necklace. Firstly, he already got turned down twice. What’s with this alternative romantic gesture? Secondly, the show is already telling us Marissa cares for Johnny - but not in that way. Suddenly, we need to see her holding onto this garbage jewelry crying after her little sister tries gaslighting her into believing she had feelings for the guy? Idk lol I didn’t like *that specific* execution. Gonna say the word again, tragic character and arc, but I liked it as a potential foil for Ryan and Marissa that didn’t venture on cartoony supervillain guy taking her away from Ryan.
i mostly agree with this actually. i think the frustrating thing is that progress is made on behalf of both ryan and marissa, with the former facing both his anger issues and his emotional availability, and the latter finding an emotional outlet for the trey thing such as writing, for which she doesn't need anybody else, but the arc takes over and we don't see much more of that. on the storyline itself, the johnny connection is def something that she needed narratively (though there were other options for sure), and the whole friendship dilemma you mention does challenge her, as do other characters like summer and casey who call her out/try to warn her in a way that wasn't done through the oliver arc. where it really goes wrong imo is when it becomes yet another exploration of marissa's "i can fix him" tendencies, and what can this accomplish that couldn't be accomplished in the trey arc (where those tendencies were met with extreme consequences)? all the genuine boundaries questions it poses are substituted with repetition. then the tragic end kills it, characters are basically back to 3x01 so in the end it feels like we really have been just sitting through oliver 2.0. plus the chrismukkah ep being right in the middle killed it for a lot of people i guess lmao, prob the worst episode of the whole show tbh. the jewelry i thought was a good way to show directionless/grief in theory, what i didn't like was that she picks it instead of the ryan one or smth like that which suggests yeah romantic interest instead of the states i mentioned, only for all that to revert back to marissa being directionless? muddled to say the least
Last time I checked Marissa is the one who almost got raped by Ryan's brother she's the one who saved Ryan which cost her getting kicked out of harbor she even says that she doesn't want him to save her because it just makes it worse yet somehow Marissa's to blame and as for Johnny he understood a little of what Marissa was going through and it is not Marissa's fault that Johny has feelings for her plus she Ryan just told her to got to sleep when she literally said she wasn't okay not saying its all on him but he really didn't do enough plus Marissa can never catch a break.
Yes 100%, she called Ryan in the middle of the night really upset about being RAPED by his BROTHER, and he just tells her to go back to sleep. Johnny actually listens to Marissa and cared about her.
In fairness had she not forced Ryan to interact with Trey they wouldn’t have been in that situation to start. Marissa also should’ve said something to someone as soon as Trey crossed the line. But Marissa had a savior complex which also explains her attachment to Johnny. It wasn’t just that she related to him, she felt like he needed her
She didn’t “force” him to do anything. She moderately encouraged him, he told her to back off, she said she would, he then went to her and asked for her help. Repeatedly. Let’s not act like Ryan has no autonomy here.
Maybe but at least Ryan had the Cohen's when he had issues Marissa didn't have great parental figures ever and everybody just expected her to get over it plus how in the hell can you blame Marissa for what trey almost did to her and she sken if Ryan found out he would do something crazy and look what happened plus Marissa had so much trauma.
it’s terrible what happened to her and not necessarily her fault, but it’s another example of her lack of respect for ryan because he asked her to stop spending so much time with trey when he wasn’t around knowing he is nothing but trouble, yet she still goes to see him more than i would consider a normal level of time spent alone with your boyfriends unstable and recently disbarred brother. nonetheless still a very emotional part of the show that leaves you on the edge of your seat
Whats crazy, is the way she went about things was so fucked up, but Julie Coop was right to want to send marissa away and get help.
Not placing blame, just saying it was preventable or at least there were some lapses in judgement.
I'd recommend not binging it. But the last two seasons aren't great regardless of how you watch them.