Cast your mind back a year to the end of Series 3 of Misfits and
- amid the ghosts and Simony-timey-wimeyness – you'll remember that
there was a feeling that an era was coming to an end: that with plots
sutured and so many of the main cast gone, the show could have feasibly
finished after three solid series of community service superpowers. But
while Series 3 seemed prepared for oblivion, Series 4's last episode
gives a middle-finger to closure.
In places it feels like Episode 8 is too preoccupied with gestating
tantalising new plot threads for (the just commissioned) Series 5, than
actually providing a satisfying conclusion to a bumpy run. The mystery
of Abbey's personality, Finn and Jess's relationship, the heartbreak
behind the Probation Worker's unexploded bomb of a face...All three are
difficult to engage with this late on when we're annoyed at the thought
of having to wait a year to find out how they'll develop.
Most egregious of all is the idea that Geordie boreman Alex might
return with a power that's more interesting than talking about his cock,
thanks to a handy transplantable lung lying around like an abandoned
bagpipe. We hope it's merely a joke, but from the prominence he was
given on the operating table we suspect not. Maybe he'll come back like
Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen: big and blue and with his prized dick gently swaying in the chilly estate breeze like a broken wind-chime.
When not worrying about its own future this is actually a solid, but
not spectacular, finale filled with more blasphemy than a Frankie Boyle
gig at The Vatican. That's because it's smart enough to focus on its
best asset, Joe Gilgun, and gives him opportunity to rise magnificently
to the challenge of creating some depth to Rudy. It's a performance that
infuses his carefree cheek with real pathos and heartbreak and Nadine's
death would feel cheap were it not for the emotional side that the
writers and Gilgun have carved from Rudy's seemingly unalterable
vulgarity.
It's a shame Nadine has to die. If there's one thing the show could
have teased more it's the idea of a deviant dating a former nun who can
summon terror incarnate. Nadine's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are
typically reflective of the show's urban aesthetic, re-imagined as a
gang of bike-riding, samurai sword swinging hoodies, but their brevity
on screen and their one-dimensional purpose are disappointing. These are
meant to be demons of vengeance, but they come across more like four
youths holding up an off-licence, and vanish just as quickly.
So ends a series that has, on reflection, been a mixed bag. A
collection of good story ideas undermined by a change in cast that the
show always seemed uneasy about. Yet we have hope for the fifth series,
because the finale does manage to capture the peppy group dynamics of
the show's early days. You wouldn't call Series 4 a triumph for the
show, but based on the gang we're left with it might be that Misfits' fifth year will be something more special. We're already praying hard for it.
I liked it :)
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