Misfits S04E04

Season 1 Curtis would never have taken that gun, but this isn’t season 1 anymore.

I’ve thought more about how Curtis, the upstanding gent (well, more or less, especially considering the company he kept) from season 1 could have turned into the lady-crazy cake-stealing Curtis of season 4.  I was saving those thoughts for this week, because the episode was Curtis-centric.  Now it all seems irrelevant, because Curtis is gone.

Although I’m not as excited for the show as I used to be, I’m feeling more contemplative about it this week.  I really do apologize for being a downer before; it took me a while to adjust to the show’s new tone, though I still think that it also took the new season a week or two to really find its footing.  But now it’s going strong.

This really is the end of another era on Misfits.  The last vestiges of the show we knew have been put away (i.e., have turned into zombies and shot themselves in the head.  No matter how it changes, some things on Misfits will stay the same).  I can’t keep expecting the Misfits from seasons 1 and 2.  Those characters are gone.  Some of them have been gone for a while now.

Approaching series 4 as its own entity, instead of always viewing it in the shadow of former seasons, really allows it to shine.  The new Misfits is a dark and twisty show with a taste for finding humor in the morbid and the absurd.  That’s actually not so different from before, except that the emphasis has been shifted from the humor to the dark.  That doesn’t mean Misfits has entirely changed, though.

The B-plot saw roomies Finn and Rudy continue to bond, but that was overshadowed by more interesting developments.

This week got the biggest laugh out of me the show’s done all season; I adored the scene of Curtis in the locker room.  It was all fantastic, from Curtis’ exchange with the guinea pig: “You think I like this?  F–k you, it’s not my fault!” to his deflection with the probation worker: “You’re so butch and angry, I like that,” … “Some things were just not meant to be.  It is a cruel and bitter world.”  I’m loving the new probation worker’s angry-in-your-face attitude juxtaposed with his grizzled weariness at the world.  More, please.

Also, thank you for giving Curtis such a sweet send-off (well, “sweet” as defined through the Misfits filter).  The funniest moment of the season so far was delivered by our last original character in his swan song.  Farewell, Curtis.  You went out a hero (not just anyone, particularly in the Misfits world, would sacrifice themselves for the sake of others).  Our relationship was bumpy at times, and you were often overshadowed by Nathan’s hilarity and Simon’s shirtlessness, but you were awesome, and I really will miss you.

Jess in the background, as an object of the male gaze.  Put her in the forefront, and let it have nothing to do with boys, please.

The only thing I still really wish for the show is that it would do better on the feminism front.  What “Lola” was like in real life, before the storm, is irrelevant.  Her role on Misfits was that of the femme fatale, but without even the cooler aspects of the trope.  She seduced men, pitted them against each other, and moved onto the next, leaving a trail of bodies behind her.  She’s the epitome of the wicked woman, even if it was all due to the storm, and I’m just sick and tired of such problematic issues with women.

I like Jess a lot, but I don’t like what the show is doing with her.  She seems to exist more for the men than for herself: an object for Rudy 3 to obsess over, a pair of knickers for Finn to try to get into, a question mark for Alex’s lack of interest.  Jess would do awesomely with her own story line, one that has nothing to do with her relationships with men.  Hopefully she gets a story like that soon.

Because I really do like some of the things the new Misfits explored this week.  The world of the show is developing in really interesting ways.  Curtis references the storm to a person he’s never met before, as if the storm should be the explanation, rather than requiring one.  We’ve gotten to the point in the series where so many people have been affected by the storm, that our main characters have gone from hiding their powers and the events that led to them, to expecting strangers to be in the know.

RIP, Curtis.

It’s almost unbelievable that no one other than Brian the lactokinesis guy has gone public with their powers, except for the fact that most people’s “powers” are crap.  It’s like the entire town is in on the secret, but they’re continuing to hide it.  They’re attempting to maintain the status quo, except that it’s not the status quo anymore.  The misfits have encountered more people who’ve been affected than who haven’t.  Yet the storm and what it did is still treated like a secret handshake.  It’s human nature: we’re all striving to maintain a sense of normality, when really the normal that we’re obsessed with is a fiction.

First honors for quote of the week go to Curtis, as mentioned above.  Second go to Jess: “It’s either that, or we spend the rest of our short lives living in a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infected nightmare world.  And it’s shit enough ‘round here as it is.”  Truer words, Jess, truer words.

How do you feel about Curtis’ departure?  About the new direction of the show?  Do you have a new favorite character?  Let us know in the comments.