Fuck this show. Fuck this show for making me get my hopes up that Bill Hader could pull off a crime drama/dark comedy well enough to earn my approval. What a colossal waste of potential. This show could’ve been like a West Coast version of Fargo or Dexter, but that opportunity was forsaken so that Bill could make a mediocre comedy and a horrible crime drama. Where do I even start with the mistakes that this show makes?

1. The unacceptable and lazy way that Bill made the gunfights in the show. People in the gunfight stand around for 3 seconds, pointing their guns at someone, but they either never pull the trigger, or they do some other nonsensical thing that isn’t firing their gun, until they eventually get killed. What? Who the Hell stands around and does nothing for 3 seconds during a fucking gunfight?! If anything, a realistic gunfight would have people shooting their guns much more frequently than just only shooting their guns when the plot calls for them to shoot them. This screams “I’m too lazy to edit and block a gunfight scene to look well done” so Bill just depends on his audience having no desire to see realistic and adequately directed gunfights in a TV show. If I had a dollar for every time someone in this show did something during a gunfight that only a 2-year-old monkey that’s in a gunfight would do, I’d have enough money to buy myself a steak dinner at Applebee’s.

2. The extreme over dependence on deus ex machinas to move the plot forward. I understand that comedies often use this trope, but this show is not meant to be a pure comedy show, and it’s meant to exist in reality. When SO MANY PLOT IMPORTANT SITUATIONS THAT I CAN’T EVEN COUNT occur because of random bullcrap that would only occur within the video game Fallout: New Vegas if you had the Wild Wasteland perk equipped (and then modded to operate at 300% efficiency), your writing does not come across as creative or good, it just comes across as contemptibly lazy. If Bill’s goal was to make me laugh by doing this, then he failed. All it did was make me see him as a writer who isn’t willing to put in the work to write plot threads that have at least a reasonable chance of playing out in real life.

3. The comedy and drama in this show was NOT balanced. I don’t care what anyone else says: this show was clearly 2/3 a comedy show and 1/3 a crime drama show, yet had the audacity to call itself a half comedy, half crime drama show. Also, some of the comedy was just juvenile and cringeworthy. Some scenes felt like I was watching The Office, but not in a “That’s hilarious!” way, but a “If someone said or did something like that in front of me, I’d stare at them for 3 seconds in a state of confusion and contempt before walking away and never speaking to them again” way.

4. Too many side characters got 0 meaningful conclusions or follow ups; they just popped up, filled a role, and then went “poof” with no explanation as to why we aren’t seeing them again when we know how important they can be to the main characters’ lives and arcs. Characters like Albert, Lily, Sam, and Katie were interesting to watch, but to have Bill just make them suddenly disappear out of thin air and get no realistic or satisfying conclusion to their part in the story was irritating and a bad writing mistake. Where the Hell did Albert go after Barry got arrested at Jim’s house? Did he seriously not get AT ALL involved in the investigation that occurred after Barry got arrested, or try to meet/talk with Barry after he got imprisoned? It would’ve been nice to see more of him.

5. Barry didn’t get enough action in this show. I know that Bill’s intent wasn’t to glamorize murderers, and I support that, but at least show us and remind us semi-frequently that Barry is a skilled and deadly killer. Having him almost only kill people with IQs of 14, or people who are distracted/unable to properly fight, or having him get ready for a big fight just to have the potential fight scene be stopped by something, only serves to make us not fear Barry, and leaves any desires to see a good and well written/directed action scene unsatisfied. We know that Barry’s dangerous, but we don’t see him as this very powerful force that we should see him as. A series like this should make you fear Barry, but I found myself only slightly unnerved by him. Just hire good quality stunt coordinators and stunt doubles if you’re unable to do fight scenes. You have the money for it, Bill.

6. Hank and Fuches had no real backstory, and Barry’s backstory felt insufficient and shallow. No in depth look at his childhood? Not really telling us his reason for joining the Marines? Come on, one vague flashback in Season Four wasn’t enough!

For anyone wondering why I stuck with the show for so long, despite disliking it, it’s because I had hope; very large amounts of hope. I had hope that Bill could redeem his writing and directing skills in my eyes by creating an amazing final season and/or episode, but the finale proved my fears that my hopes were being raised for something that would ultimately disappoint me.

That’s all I have to say. Yes, the show did have good messages, cinematography, acting, and symbolisms, but these (at least for me) didn’t make up for the overall poor quality that the show had. I’d rate this show a 4/10. Please do better in the future, Bill.

TL;DR I didn’t like this show because Bill Hader wrote it very lazily and focused too much on trying to make the show funny