The Bad

I fucking hate this show: a musical. Aka if I ever put myself through the hell of rewatching I'll be putting more coherent criticisms here, from plot issues to some problematique vibes.

• I AM SO TIRED OF WALTER!!! He takes away from Misty's own capability that she was set up to have. It's interesting there finally seems to be some hint he isn't all he seems, but come on. This should've been settled the season he was introduced in.
• Hate the pit girl recontextualization with my whole fucking heart. I've also seen takes that it was good because it forces the viewer to question why they wanted to watch women suffer in the first place which is the most insulting fucking take. A show hooking people in on the promise of cannibalism and then, according to this reading, going "wow you fucking idiots! How dumb and cruel can you be to have actually wanted that?" is just stupid. Also I was promised declining morality and viciousness, not... this. It's just stupid, sorry. I also kind of would believe the writers would take that approach unfortunately since they did make fun of Redditer fans with Misty's forum :/ And of course there is something to be said about the writers basing this on the Andean disaster so exploiting IRL trauma is fine but enjoying fictional trauma isn't? Can these people get a grip.
• Bad handling of mental illness. Either embrace the premise of integrating stigmatized mental illnesses into a horror show and accept the consequences, or don't bother at all. Don't half-ass it and deny specific diagnoses just because you don't want to do the research to keep it consistent and realistic in a show that is based around whether something is legit or supernatural.
• Some decisions, while likely unintentional, feel racist. So many survivors are white. Simone and Sammy are sidelined for white girl Van. The visual of a white Christian girl baptizing a Maori girl is giving colonizer. Etc. I doubt it was intentional, again, but seeing how someone like Simone Kessell seems to have been treated behind the scenes, I wouldn't put some bias past the writers. Also the fandom reaction to her snarkiness about the show versus white actresses felt bad.
• Memory loss due to trauma is very helpful for explaining inconsistencies between timelines as the show develops, but this sort of show necessitates so much more planning than that and I don't think it got that. "We forgot the horrors because we were having fun" oh my god that's so stupid. Especially for Shauna, she doesn't need that considering the sheer volume of trauma she went through with Jackie and her son.
• We should've seen the discussion around the cards for the hunt. It was filmed, so I don't think those of us unhappy about it are... wrong to be, lol. They just cut it. And it felt abrupt.
• I think part of my issue with Season 2 is how misleading the trailer was in addition to the mismatch in tone to the finale. Adult Lottie wasn't the unhinged cult leader we were led to believe she was, which felt like a decision they retracted due to not wanting to stigmatize mental health further. Then, most of the interesting scenes in the season 2 trailer were hallucinations and season 3 kinda followed suit. As we're starting to see with season 3, they just aren't getting to the action in the teen timeline as quickly as they should've. Being so confined to the cabin setting probably didn't help matters, which is why I would've loved to see the aftermath of it burning. Anyway, the fandom sucks because the whole "IT'S NOT A BAD SHOW YOU JUST GOT TOO ATTACHED TO YOUR THEORIES!!1!1!!" attitude but I think when the show markets and sets up certain things and does not deliver, that's grounds for disappointment and narrative inconsistency.