Who's the Boss?

They do like to keep this churning, don't they... two seasons a year, well done Netflix. I've rather enjoyed the previous three, generally my son and I have watched it together and it's been a fun time. With my adult head on, I do think perhaps there's some elements of this season that have gone a bit far, but generally I'm still enjoying it.

Having finally sailed away from Isla Nublar, our heroes are shocked to learn that the Mosasaurus has escapade the island too, as it attacks them. They wash up on a barren arid island, but one that is populated by a Sabre Tooth Tiger, from there they discover a Mantah Corp facility with two very different scientists, Dr Mae Turner (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) who cares deeply for the dinosaurs and explores their communication techniques and Kash Langford (Haley Joel Osment) brash, violent and eager to complete some of Mantah's more despicable science.

I know this perhaps sounds a little churlish, given that the show has been about a group of children that manage to live on a dinosaur infested island for six months - but I do this some of this season is a bit farfetched. Mantah Corp has some extremely advanced technology on their island, including invisible walls, drones that can control where the dinosaurs go and, perhaps most egregious, automated robot animals, capable of independent thought and able to bring down even the biggest T-Rex. If Mantah corp has this level of technology, you do wonder why they want to get into the Dinosaur business at all.

Generally, it's good stuff again though, I liked the burgeoning romance this season and the way it effects the dynamic. I also liked Yaz's PTSD storyline - as it is acknowledging that these kids have been through a lot to get here.

We're not done yet though, as the season closes with another twist that will have ramifications for the next run and I'll certainly be back again.

There is one last season after this, but I found S4 to be a step down from the first three seasons of this series.

I'm nowhere near the target audience of this show, but that wasn't enough to put me off from watching and thoroughly enjoying the first three seasons. For the most part, the mannerism and tone are very much tic for tack the same as the movies. But in S4, there were some strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths.

The Character Growth.

I feel the characters grew to be more serious about themselves this time around. I enjoyed how Brooklynn isn't reminding her friends (and the audience) that's she's a popular social media star and in this season, she's far more focused on keeping everyone alive and safe and is more self aware of her own shortcomings. I also like how the team unanimously agree to make her the de facto leader in Darius' absence, because she has always has the qualities of a good leader, she just needed to break out of her popular girl shell to get there.

I also enjoy how Yaz was the embodiment of all the trauma the group had endured for months.

The Brooklynn/Kenji romance. At first, I didn't like it at all. It came out of nowhere and for the most part, it was basically Kenji's teenage hormones doing all the talking. Not to mention Brooklynn didn't even pay him much attention... until the writers made her like him back. Now, their romance did grow on me, particularly because the two of them matured somewhat this season, so I did enjoy their dynamic later on.

Still, honestly, I wish the writers would have gone down the route of Brooklynn turning down Kenji. I say that because this romance was another classic case of the "the guy gets the girl at the end" trope, a damaging trope that has real world consequences on young adults, particularly young men and boys. You see this trope almost everywhere, especially in content geared toward younger audiences. The YouTube Channel "Popular Culture Detectives" have a very thorough video that deconstructs this trope and how it strongly influences young men and boys in real life when it comes to pursuing girls and women that they like.

Sometimes, the guy doesn't get the girl he was aiming for. Unrequited feelings are confusing and uncomfortable to talk about, because our popular culture doesn't actually present it on screen. I feel like their romance was a major missed opportunity to addresses what to do when your crush just doesn't like you back the same way and how to deal with the fallout of those feelings. THIS would had been a great message for young boys, especially, but also girls as well. Not to mention the overall storyline for S4 would had still panned out the same way

Besides that, the rest of this season felt like it took place all in a box. I've said too much already, but that's all I've got to say.

I'll be checking out S5 whenever I find the time!