I'm happy that Sidney has found "real love", after sleeping with a girl after a couple of chats. People fall in love at first sight all the time, right? But something just felt rushed and unsatisfying with this sudden romance with ... what was her name again? ... oh yes, Violet.
The reason? That after 3 seasons and a Christmas Special of following the tragic, forbidden love story of Sidney and Amanda, there is absolutely no satisfying conclusion to their relationship. After binge watching the first three seasons of this marvellous show, I got to Season 4, Episode 1, and was going "WTF? Where's Amanda?"
Of course, we all now know Amanda had gone on to the be the mother of an autistic child, while simultaneously becoming a Detective Sergeant in a seaside community, but at the time I just thought our morally upstanding alcoholic parson was just demonstrating more than a bit of unfaithfulness by suddenly hopping in the sack with the beautiful, if only just met, Violet. It felt like I spent that entire first episode playing catch-up.
Otherwise, I found this a very good episode. The tragic crime scene drew me in, the interplay of characters was engrossing, and the ending was unexpected. But if would have been so, so much better, if prior to this episode, the writers had taken the time to resolve Sidney's relationship with Amanda, and had slowly developed the new relationship between Sidney and Violet. Since so much of this series has been focused on the importance of relationships, it is ironic that the series failed so badly in this regard.
The reason? That after 3 seasons and a Christmas Special of following the tragic, forbidden love story of Sidney and Amanda, there is absolutely no satisfying conclusion to their relationship. After binge watching the first three seasons of this marvellous show, I got to Season 4, Episode 1, and was going "WTF? Where's Amanda?"
Of course, we all now know Amanda had gone on to the be the mother of an autistic child, while simultaneously becoming a Detective Sergeant in a seaside community, but at the time I just thought our morally upstanding alcoholic parson was just demonstrating more than a bit of unfaithfulness by suddenly hopping in the sack with the beautiful, if only just met, Violet. It felt like I spent that entire first episode playing catch-up.
Otherwise, I found this a very good episode. The tragic crime scene drew me in, the interplay of characters was engrossing, and the ending was unexpected. But if would have been so, so much better, if prior to this episode, the writers had taken the time to resolve Sidney's relationship with Amanda, and had slowly developed the new relationship between Sidney and Violet. Since so much of this series has been focused on the importance of relationships, it is ironic that the series failed so badly in this regard.