Warning - Spoilers for all seasons and movie throughout comment - FYI
Season 4 - UO:
I did not like Veronica's character arc at all - was RT making her deliberately unlikeable?
Reason being - in the movie it notes she has a psych degree. She even analyzes herself during her interview w/ the law firm. Yet in season 4 she openly mocks on more than one occasion Logan being in therapy and asks if he's on medication because he's acting like a "pod person." Not only that, but she indulges in recreational drug use when Logan had a history with addiction issues. That recreational drug use put her in a potentially compromising position with someone with whom she had a romantic history. She continues to display a resistance to open communication, and has developed zero self-awareness (this is noticeable when Logan mentions that her turn-ons include violence). She also treats her longtime friend dismissively and trivializes his life.
I am/was a LOVE shipper. However, I would have been fine with Logan stepping away from / ending his relationship with Veronica and not having a story arc that continued their on again off again dynamic (he gracefully could have been written off the show without devastating a loyal fanbase). I also would have been fine with them navigating the relationship challenges inherent to both of their lines of work and future issues like whether to have kids or not. But those could have taken a back seat to the main storyline of her career. Logan didn't need to be written out entirely to advance/change the direction of the show. You can have a show that gives a measure of happiness to it's characters without it being a "happy ever after" or spelling the demise of a show.
On a seperate note - season 4 left Dick flapping in the breeze! His brother is revealed to be a rapist and murderer in Season 2 and commits suicide. The show never delves too deeply into what the ramifications of those events meant on a personal level to Dick - but one could imagine there was some significant blowback to him from peers and tabloids etc. Season 4 sees his father murdered and the cherry on that cake is that his one and only confidante and for all intents and purposes brother is killed (referring to Logan). And then someone who could have provided a modicum of support to him (though their relationship was tenuous at best) leaves town (Veronica). Dick deserved better (regardless of how you feel his character acted in previous seasons).
Ultimately I feel like RT and possibly KB grew resentful of possibly feeling like they had to pander to the VM fanbase. Which isn't invalid. However I think there could have been a better way to advance the plot and tone of the show without alienating a significant portion of the fanbase while still engaging a new audience. It came across as lazy. And outside of that, I thought the "mystery" itself was a bit bland and the Mexican Cartel angle was redundant.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. 😉
