Well, here we are. Covert Affairs has finished its 4th season, and we can now look back with 20/20 hindsight and figure out what worked ... and what did not. The final two eps were filmed in Hong Kong, and were *visually* awesome, as this show always is with all its foreign shoots. The finale was a fairly solid ep in and of itself, as all the fall season eps mostly were, IF I could have subtracted the Helesa storyline out of them. The climactic scene (of not just the ep but the entire season) was very satisfying ... another one of those lovely scenes that manage to rise above the clutter and frustrations of the season, at least in those fleeting moments. I want to put a screenshot of it here but I don't want this post to be too spoilery, so I'll refrain.
But the ep ended on a weirdly upbeat note that caused it to not carry the proper weight that I thought it should. I found out later though, that this scene was not supposed to be the final scene in the episode. The final scene was a twist to kick off season 5 that was actually cut, seemingly at the last minute. No clue why they cut it, but it would have changed both the tone and the story hugely from what we actually saw in the ep. Odd. My guess is that they wanted to keep their options a bit more open for season 5, so they decided to wait and tackle it then. (From what I saw, I wouldn't have been super thrilled with this alternate ending either, but it at least explains the strangely muted and upbeat ending that we got instead.)
Anywho. My GeekFurious review is here: http://geekfurious.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-plopper-reviews-covert-affairs-416.html
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| This is Annie Walker thinking: "Snaps. I think I'm finally f*cked for real this time." |
I'll just say this about season 4 here - I feel fairly certain that the Helen Hanson/Helesa storyline was directly and indirectly responsible for at least 85% of the problems of the season. I'm pretty sure I'll never be convinced that this character and storyline did anything at all for Covert Affairs other than to suck the life out of both the show and the main characters like a parasite. This was 100% downside, zero upside. And worst of all, it caused me to lose some respect for both Auggie and Annie by the time it was all over. And that is extremely unfortunate, because the thing that makes me truly fall in love with (and keep watching) any TV show is the characters, more than anything else.
Case in point: My cousin is still so pissed at Auggie that she has now taken to calling him "Uggie Blanderson." And I find it hilarious, when I never would have before. "Uggie" resulted from a typo in a text message and she took it from there. Dear Covert writers: THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING. We are supposed to LIKE Auggie and we are supposed to think that he's a trustworthy partner for Annie, regardless of whether they are together now or not. Auggie was supposed to be the relationship end game for Annie, but now I'm not so sure. Auggie was a solid trustworthy rock for Annie, but UGGIE on the other hand, is a fickle flake who only takes 3 months before he peaces out on her and bangs a ho, despite knowing full well that Annie is very alive and right there in town with him working with him on a mission. Despite their situation being NOT AT ALL DIRE. Uggie is a weird mutation of Auggie, and now we can never go back. We're stuck with Uggie now forever. And that is a huge bummer.
Anyway, the Uggie thing is just one example of the issues I'm talking about, but you can read my GeekFurious review for the rest.
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