Launched with a shortened season and little fanfare on a Monday on the finish of summer time, Add‘s ultimate season feels extra like an afterthought.
Our particular, quirky little sequence about expertise, capitalism, and society doesn’t finish with a bang; it simply… ends.
It additionally has a comparatively bleak end result. Not even midway by way of the finale, I noticed I used to be already mourning what the present was, whilst I used to be nonetheless watching it.
Add Season 4 is a serviceable sendoff, as in it does its job, however I ponder what it might’ve been if we had extra time, an extended season, and a full plot.
Largely, the sequence feels just like the tragedy of Nathan Brown (Authentic).
It takes watching him dying for the umpteenth time within the sequence to course of that it was at all times his future, and in addition, that Add recycles the identical plots time and again.
They carry Nathan to the brink of dying (or truly kill him) after which take it again. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.
Even the ending was supposed to go away us with this lingering sense of hope after we watched him fade away in a candy simulation of merely occurring a stroll with Nora and sitting on a park bench.
After which we quick ahead months later, they usually dangle this little bit of hope in entrance of us — Nora can obtain a model of her Nathan once more.
I get that, as a result of after the miserable flip this season has taken, and the way their relationship has hit a low level, it felt like that they had some regrets and didn’t wish to damage viewers an excessive amount of.
Besides, the place it leaves me isn’t feeling hopeful — simply drained and nonetheless a bit upset.
I can’t resolve which was worse, the fixed recreation of lifeless Nathan fakeouts or him not dishonest dying and truly being lifeless for good.
They’ve executed the previous so many occasions that it has misplaced all which means and left me emotionally fried. And the latter makes me mirror on how miserable the story as an entire is in the long run.
Neither is wholly satisfying, nevertheless it’s onerous to say what a optimistic different would have been, so there are not any options right here, simply me sitting right here feeling a bit hole with out understanding repair it.
As a result of we didn’t have a full season, there wasn’t a lot of a option to let its two or three major plots unfold.
After Nora’s soul-crushing despair montage that would have rivaled Bella Swan in Twilight: New Moon, we discovered that OG Nathan wasn’t actually lifeless, as everybody presumed.
That they had him at some offsite location the place they have been performing experiments on him and attempting to remake some model of Lakeview. And by the grace of his reference to a sympathetic Dennis, he was capable of escape that and not using a full erasure of his reminiscences.
However after all, for no matter causes, he was capable of present up in moments with Nora, and whereas she initially thought he was a ghost glitch, she finally discovered that he was a projection.
And therein is the place OG Nathan began feeling as if Add was, in actual fact, erasing him from his personal story.
For one, Nora’s grief was upsetting for a lot of causes. The plain is that she misplaced the love of her life, and it seems like Nora is at all times feeling and experiencing some type of ache (in all probability as a result of Nathan’s life is at all times hanging within the stability).
However the different situation was that it felt like nobody else was grieving OG Nathan. Ingrid was glad that HER Nathan was nonetheless alive and was fortunately planning her marriage ceremony like nothing else had occurred.
It appeared that neither she nor anybody else thought of that Nora won’t wish to attend a marriage the place the person she cherished was marrying another person.
Nathan’s mom didn’t appear to have any actual response to him being lifeless both. Outdoors of Aleesha attempting to help Nora in transferring previous her grief, it didn’t really feel like she was experiencing any both.
And Luke simply transferred all of the love he had for Nathan onto Backup Nathan. There have been many moments all through the ultimate episodes the place I began to surprise if Luke was, in actual fact, greatest buddies with OG Nathan or simply his copy?
Naturally, Nora needed to spend a substantial period of time convincing folks that she wasn’t shedding her thoughts and that Nathan was nonetheless alive. And, after all, they teased the “Evil Clone” arc when it appeared like Copy Nathan knew extra about OG Nathan’s destiny and wasn’t sharing it.
As a substitute, we discovered that OG Nathan, by way of, has real progress over the seasons, sacrificed himself in order that Backup Nathan can stay.
However for probably the most half, it felt like Nora was primarily going at it alone in her quest to save lots of OG Nathan. Wrangling the others’ assist appeared extra like a chore for them than a real want to save lots of their pal.
Your entire time, it simply felt like Nora was the one one who even cared about OG Nathan, and what solidifies this most is the truth that he finally died, calling himself Nathan Anthony as a result of his backup was the one who legally had his identification now.
Partly, there may be an unsettling realism about all of that. I’ve been on each side of the equation relating to coping with loss. I do know what it’s like once you’re nonetheless grieving and everybody has moved on with their lives, enterprise as typical.
However I additionally know what it’s like being that one that will get sucked again into my very own life whereas somebody I care about is hurting, grieving, and in ache each second of every single day.
Their life is totally shattered, and also you don’t know what to do with their grief.
Nonetheless, on Add, it feels surprisingly off that the principle character fades away inside his personal sequence. And the central romance seems like a aspect plot.
All Nathan and Nora have recognized this complete sequence is wrestle, adversity, and obstacles. It’s so unhappy to see that of their ultimate season, it’s extra of the identical. I like their love, nevertheless it additionally depresses me.
Even the potential of them having a fortunately ever after entails Nora preventing solo to carry him again into her life, and them presumably attempting to stay their life collectively with out the love and help of their family and friends.
As a result of Copy Nathan has that, it’s a aid that Ingrid primarily earns her glad ending in spite of everything, and she or he will get the whole lot she desires. She emerges as a personality who has undergone a implausible, wealthy arc of character progress and evolution.
And I’ve cherished what Allegra Edwards has delivered to the position. Ingrid is a personality who has grown on me, and I can admire the place she lands.
Luke’s destiny can be miserable. He remained obsessed and a bit in love with the Nathans, nevertheless it was like there was no approach for him to exist outdoors of them, so the following smartest thing was for him to die a heroic dying.
I hate the concept there was simply nothing “extra” for him ever. As if the second Nathan discovered happiness and a life outdoors of him, he not had an identification.
And apparently, permitting him and Aleesha to be collectively was out of the query, regardless of each of them acknowledging their emotions for one another not directly.
I do know it was not intentional, however watching two of the central romances in addition to two girls of coloration get shortchanged out of their love tales is dispiriting. Is it something new? No, however that repeated narrative, no matter its intentions, is simply so tiresome.
The Aleesha OMI spy factor felt like one thing for her to do, and so we might get cool moments by which she obtained to be badass like a member of the Dora Milanje.
However I nonetheless had no actual grasp of the extent of what she was speculated to be doing.
And the AI facet conveyed two conflicting messages about it.
The season closely featured the AI Guys, which was a double-edged sword, because it felt like we had an excessive amount of deal with some aspect characters on the expense of the principle occasion.
We confronted the evils of AI within the type of the black-haired model, which was rising sentient and on the cusp of taking on the whole lot.
He didn’t hearken to anybody. Aleesha’s boss completely represented that of tech billionaires and the like, who’re solely all in favour of how a lot cash they’ll make and bills they’ll minimize, and nothing else, regardless of the hurt they’re inflicting.
Quite a few references highlighted how each single use of AI for one thing trivial might have detrimental results on the surroundings, society, and humanity.
Pure disasters, destabilizing infrastructure, ravenous out individuals, and so forth.
Right here, primarily, the AI eats itself, rising extra highly effective as a result of simply once you assume one thing is nice, the efforts to create one thing larger and higher solely create a bigger downside.
However the sequence additionally conveys the message that it’s inescapable and unavoidable. It’s right here to remain, and there’s nothing we will do about it, however there’s an avenue by which we embrace the very best of what it has to supply, method with warning, and go from there.
Ultimately, the great AI beats out the unhealthy. Beloved characters die as heroes. Others get second possibilities, and love transcends the whole lot.
And Add simply type of fades away and indicators off quietly. It’s not a robust finish, nevertheless it’s one the place we’re left, I suppose, being grateful that we obtained one in any respect.
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