It only took three years.

The recut just dropped a couple of days ago and so far it's much better than the original version.  It feels like a mix between the original release and the re-edit that came out on Reddit like, a day later.  The issue is still that the episodes don't feel like complete stories, which can be a bit off-putting, but I'm hoping that season five rectifies that.

So I watched the new season, or half season, or whatever you want to call it, and... I enjoyed it.  The big issue is still that it feels like just one really long episode rather than actual satisfying chunks (especially given the first half of episode one was one long recap), which is a big issue I have with streaming shows.  But on the plus side, the show feels much closer to the original show, there's still some really egregious green screening, they revisit or rebuild a ton of old locales (like the visitation room from prison or the banana stand)... but it still feels too far removed, you know?  I can't imagine myself wanting to revisit this season as background like I do with the original run.

They do benefit from not having to do as many call-backs like season four did, where they brought back every stray thread to satisfy fans.  The quintuplets, Annyong, everything got screen time.  .

Lindsey was an issue that I was curious how they would tackle, I think they found a good out for her.  But her loss, combined with the cast still having few group scenes together, plus the lack of episodes with endings, makes the show feel more sparse than it probably really is.

I feel like there MIGHT have been some pressure from Netflix to make it more binge-able, but honestly I don't know.  It's a thing that happens quite a bit with streaming services, possibly the confidence in knowing that the audience can watch another episode right off the bat.  But it leads to less fulfilling individual episodes.  It's sort of like how British shows without commercial breaks (or HBO type shows) don't build in cliffhangers to make you stick around during the commercials, they don't need to, and this one level above that.

The show itself they can film out of sequence, based on the actor's schedules and location availability which makes production a bit easier, they can film the whole thing like one big movie.  Which I suppose leads to thinking of the thing as one big movie that can be broken down into chunks.  And I suppose that making those chunks more complex by making them complete is far more work than we suspect.  I dunno.

I am curious how often people re-watch/re-bunge shows of this nature, as opposed to more episodic series.  What brings me back to shows like AD, Star Trek, etc is wanting to see "the episode where so-and-so happens" and then falling into the trap.  Thinking about a show as a 13-episode movie is more daunting, less casual.  It's a commitment, even if it's a light show.