Just finished the series and needed to write down my thoughts

First of all, I thoroughly enjoyed the show. It had an interesting premise, complex characters, and I was invested in the plot from start to finish. It's easier to complain than glaze, so apologies if this post comes off as negative, I really did like it.

As a Boston resident, I loved all of the nods to Boston culture.

One of the premises of the show is that sitcom husbands / shenanigans are a lot worse when treated seriously. I wish we saw more consequences to that. Like, I thought they were going that direction a couple of times, e.g. the feud with the neighbors felt like it had racist undertones, and I thought those would become more explicit. Or waiting for the shoe to drop with the insurance fraud.

On a similar note, I wish we saw more of Kevin's abusive nature. A lot of it happens before the show and is being told to us instead of shown to us. Like, when Allison talked about how Kevin criticized her driving, that felt like it could have been shown. We still got a good amount though, thought what he did to the reporter to be very sitcom but very fucked up.

This show is weird about adultery. Nothing too explicit, but it felt like adultery is okay if you're cheating on a bad person. Jenn's parents trying to take over the diner, that they heavily financially backed, from their cheating son-in-law, very easily could have been put in a light positive for them. I think that was the worst example.

There was no chemistry between Patty and Tammy, which is a shame b/c some plot points rely on them loving each other. Pam and Jim they are not.

I found Neil to be the most interesting character. Apparently this is a hot take, but he did nothing wrong in the S1 finale. An attempted murderer was trying to prevent him from informing the attempted murder victim, he's allowed to use force there. I like what they did with him in S2. He's a lowlife deadbeat that needs to drink less and get a job, but it's clear that he also needed non-abusive friends. Patty reaching out to him, and him rejecting her friendship b/c of what she did to him was interestingly tragic.

I really like how much this show is about friendship / support networks. Allison started the show with no one, and wouldn't have achieved anything w/o Patty, Sam, and Diane. I found Allison catching Patty off-guard by simply asking how her day was to be delightful. Diane's relevance in S2 was also pretty neat in this regard. And nothing is ever hunky-dory, there's always some realistic friendship bickering.

Despite some things never paying off, I really liked the setups and payoffs. Especially Kevin having the gun being setup from the bit of him using the metal detector.

I'm conflicted about Kevin's death. There's a lot of proper set up for it, which is nice. Kevin's heavy drinking, him lighting stuff on fire indoors, his lack of support network b/c he pushed everyone away, the fire detectors not having batteries (lol) and I'm sure I missed something. Felt like death by misadventure over suicide, but there's some doubt given his state. I didn't like how it put a bow on everything. How Kevin responds to Allison divorcing him was a scary reality from the beginning, so him dying as that got set up was disappointing.

I'm a sucker for epilog endings, and it'd be really nice to see what happens next. Did Allison get with Sam? What were the consequences for Allison faking her death? Did Neil grow as a person for Diane?