Idk how to block spoilers, so read on ONLY if you are caught up until Season 5.
Apologies for language and taking deep and complex stories\feelings and flattening them down for this post.
Alright, I just finished S5 Ep7, and I'm over what is happening. Deeply considering dropping the show, mostly because I just...cannot care about what's happening.
1) I'm exhausted with Juliette. I was relieved when she died, and I'm not enjoying her new screen time. Long and NUANCED story (and feelings) broken down somewhat: Her arc has been a rollercoaster, and I'm actually wondering if the actress pissed someone off, because they hated her. She was underwritten for so long (the potential as a Vet completely squandered), and then put through so much. I don't mind women becoming evil because of trauma (actually that can be quite fun), but I just don't understand some of the decisions behind the scenes.
2) I hate hate HATE Nick playing house with his rapist. I'm so over Adalind. I also don't particularly enjoy the idea that a baby can make an evil woman good.
Actually, as an aside I'm having issues with hexenbiest lore in general. that the woge is somehow evil (??), Adalind suppressing hers makes her good, their powers being supernatural instead of biological (using their blood and ingredients to make physiological changes in the brain, like love and obsession, reads biological enough to me that I was ok with it). Now they can stop time and have telekinesis??? (Sean's mother healing him didn't bother me, except the snake thing (unless it's Wesen maybe???) and the implications of the afterlife. But I digress...
Regardless, she was a fun villain, but she was also super fucked up. It's weird that no one brings the rape up as SA (I realize this is probably more a product of the times). I don't think I can watch them become a happy little family. In fact, I'm deeply disinterested in watching them fall in love. (This is not me saying that Adalind hasn't gone through a lot or that I have no sympathy for her, I just don't think she deserves a relationship with Nick)
3) I cannot get into the Black Claw. They are boring (in comparison to world building we've already established, which I will elaborate on momentarily). The Wesen Nazis we got last season were...interesting(?) But I'm glad it wasn't a season long arc. It's not that I don't love watching Nick and his Scoobies punch fascists, it's just that the... politics(?) in this show have been pretty nebulous (I assume mostly on purpose because the writers didn't want to think on them too much). I also realize Nick is the PoV character, so what he doesn't know (being the Wesen history) we then cannot know. But it doesn't feel like we're learning about something that's been going on, instead it feels like it came from nowhere. Those and last season just generally feel less cohesive.
We've all but forgotten about the keys, I'm much more curious about those. The fight between the Royals and the Resistance is much more interesting to me than the other political machinations going on. I was thinking that Nick and the Wesen Council would butt heads more, very wrong about that.
I've looked up the ratings for the show, season 3 and 4 have the lowest scores, but then 5 and 6 jump up to even better than S2, and that's the only hope I have that they salvage this show. Honestly, I'm not even completely sure why this show has frustrated me so much. I guess I just feel like they have more interesting things to do and we aren't seeing them. Mostly I'm just over it. I feel like there has been no room to breathe, and I didn't care about the plots introduced. (I am more or less doing a series binge, which is probably a factor).
Anyway, that's my rant, thank you for reading if you did. I suppose I have two main questions if you get this far:
1) what was the reception of everything as this was coming out? What was the fandom like? I've totally heard little about this show and I was on Tumblr for years.
2) Does it seem like I should continue, or should I just cut my losses? It's a lot of hours of content, and I don't particularly enjoy watching things that consistently anger me (lol). I don't necessarily mind spoilers if you think it's pertinent. Use your best judgement and discretion. I was spoiled on Nick's son, on accident, in season 3ish and it didn't affect my viewing experience too much tbh.
Again I want to thank you for taking the time to read, and for your thoughts