Why can’t we be friends?

 

You’re The Worst used to be one of my favourite shows still on the air. Now it’s fallen down a peg. Okay, maybe a few pegs. And that may be due to the show being daring enough to try something different when all I want is the gang back together.

The first three seasons of You’re The Worst were delightful. Cringeworthy moments, self-deprecating characters, and darkly funny. I enjoyed every character no matter how despicable a human being they were. And it really did what no other sitcom dared, exploring hard topics such as depression and PTSD.

But Season Four breaks up our “Sunday Funday” group and they’re mostly left doing their own thing, which is not as fun as them being all together. Imagine Friends, but you tear them apart and they now hate each other’s guts. Yeah…

Jimmy (Chris Geere) leaves Gretchen at the end of Season Three. We open this season with an episode entirely focussed on Jimmy’s life at a trailer park. No familiar faces in sight. He’s hardly recognisable, now a builder with facial hair (no, not his infamous fake moustache disguise!). His squeaky whingeing is replaced by gruff, rarely spoken words, and he forms a friendship with his crotchety neighbour.

After receiving a copy of his book in the mail, Jimmy steals his neighbour’s muscle car and hightail’s it out of the trailer park. Now that he’s written his book, his career arc of this season is him being a semi-successful erotica writer while also trying to get back with Gretchen.

After living for months in a depressed state not leaving Lindsay’s apartment, Gretchen (Aya Cash) explores a more grown-up relationship with Boone (Colin Ferguson) who has a young daughter. But for some reason, the allure of Jimmy and their reckless lifestyle has her torn between these two relationships. There’s another great stand-alone episode (“Not a Great Bet”) where Gretchen moves back home and tries to make a new life with her old school friend Heidi (Zosia Mamet, Girls).

I know I said I liked the show better when the gang is all together, but maybe we really need more of these episodes where it’s just them on their own, not diluted in a standard episode, and where we can really narrow in on their depraved psyches. We didn’t get a Lindsay or Edgar focussed episode this time around, which was unfortunate. Edgar’s mental illness episode (“Twenty-Two”) last season was incredible.

Lindsay (Kether Donohue) also grows up with a new fashion stylist job and seems to be doing well for herself. But then the old self-destructive, relationship meddling Lindsay comes out to play. Edgar (Desmin Borges) is working for real-life comedian Doug Benson and grows attached to his pencil-moustache-adorned, fedora-wearing writing partner (who is as dull as a sack of bricks).

Season Four started off promising, but as it kept going I began to forget why I liked this show in the first place. Heading into Season Five of You’re The Worst, we may get our gang back together. But a lot has gone down between them and it may never be the same again.

Show You’re The Worst: Season Four

Network FXX

Release Date 6 September 2017 – 15 November 2017

Binge Time 5hrs 30mins