This series has officially gone into full poop-stain territory. This season is like the dirty water that splashes back up your butt when you flush the toilet. The signs were there from season two onward that the series has a huge problem with simply presenting and layering problem after problem and issue after issue, with hardly any satisfactory solutions. I ranted my ass off after watching season three, in which I thought it couldn’t—like, seriously couldn’t—get any worse, and yet after season four, I just feel numb. While I didn’t exactly have high hopes for the season, for fear of being let down, I at least thought season three was the absolute bottom. Oh, silly me.

How is it possible that the first episode hadn’t even shown the ending credits yet, and I was already angry and not liking how it was going? It was an ominous sign to me right from the very beginning that season four was going to be either another horrible season in which the cast just stumbles around trying to figure things out while giving us more character drama, or a filler season at worst. It turns out that we got both. Thank goodness season five will be the final season, because this series has run out of steam, and it seems like not even the producers know what they are doing, but are just improvising and throwing shit at the wall to distract us.

Everything that was wrong with the series in previous seasons is magnified in season four. Did you like the drama and dialogue between the different members? If you did, you’re going to get the exact same dose here. Everything—and I absolutely mean everything—has not changed. The cast, the dynamics between them, and the way they go off and do their own thing without telling anyone are literally what they have been doing this whole time, and nothing changes here. Julie discovering she can story-walk does absolutely nothing. She just gives up after a try or two, and somehow both she and Randall don’t believe it’s necessary to tell anyone about it. Boyd continues to be the same ol’ Sheriff Boyd we all know. Jade continues with his mushroom trip and discovers a secret door to the tunnels. But hey, who cares? After all that, it’s locked, so they move on. It’s likely the crew in the tunnel will use this door to escape in the first episode of season five. Fatima creates a freaking mud golem. Henry goes on a weird in-and-out trip between what he believes is reality and a dream. Victor continues to be Victor. Tabitha continues to be Tabitha. Kristi continues to be Kristi. Kenny continues to be Kenny. Sara continues to be Sara. Ellis is just a waste of space. See where this is going?

To be terribly honest, I think the 50-or-so-minute runtime of each episode is what makes this season that much harder to watch. There are maybe at most 5–10 minutes of actually relevant information per episode, and I may be generous here. The rest is just fluff and filler—the same old tired stuff that we’re used to by now from all the cast members. At this point, many will likely say that this show is just not for viewers such as myself. However, I disagree, because this show is exactly for viewers like me. It’s psychological horror! But where is the horror? In fact, throughout this entire season, the show has rarely gotten an emotional response out of me. After watching Widow’s Bay, they at least had me laughing my ass off with some witty dark humor. We don’t even get an ounce of dark, dry, or any other type of humor here. There are rarely any happy moments because the characters rarely get any damn victory against the ghouls. There are rarely any sad moments either, except maybe one. There is some suspense, but hey, you have to wait until literally the final episode to get it. At this point, I don’t give one ounce of care about the man in the yellow jacket. It’s obvious they will do some sort of battle with him in the last season because, obviously, they have to. Things could have been more interesting, but no, they chose not to. Instead, they decided to morph him into Sophia and have her sabotage everything without anyone being the wiser.

I can’t wait for season five only because it finally will end. This series is one where each new season gets literally worse than the previous one before it. Season five must break that spell. How can it not with literally everything coming to a headlong collision? But……..I’m not holding my breath.