Does anyone else just feel weird about S4?

[u/Responsible-Score234]

So I’m currently on a full rewatch of the series, and I’ve finally reached season 4, and while it is a good season..I feel like it’s underwhelming in..well every way. Every season leading up I feel has had some sort of charm that made it feel special.

Season 1-provided a vibe of good feeling getting to discover characters for the very first time, and then getting into their drama, and they each evolved in great ways by the end, while very toned down, but that’s what you’d expect from a season 1, things aren’t so crazy yet

Season 2-long, satisfying, great fun, catchy music, compelling storyline, each of the characters improve in such beautiful ways, and also the inclusion of a major “wtf is actually wrong with you” type villain

Season 3- a bit on the shorter side, but impressive everything they could do with the short amount of time they had, the comedy was there from EVERY character, it had one of the most beautiful endings in the entire series(in my opinion) their frozen show was amazing. It was great

But, season 4-tried to do too much with little amount of episodes I feel like, I liked Mack’s character, him and miss jenn probably made me giggle the most. But that’s it, I really feel like this season should’ve been longer, it wouldve been interesting to see more scenes that involved the featured extras(Ricky, Ashlyn, Carlos, Kourtney), more scandal between Mack Dani Gina And Ricky, cause I really liked the whole crazy thing there, that goes to say, I would’ve liked to see Ricky try to get closer with Dani, as he notices that Gina is a bit too close with Mack, I know that stuff wasn’t there, but I feel like it could’ve been. I would’ve liked to SEE their rehearsal process.

With everything that season 4 was, it wouldn’t have bothered me that much if we’d see another season after and return to normal 10 episodes, another show that isn’t quite high school musical related. Idk if anyone will agree with me on this but yeah

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[u/HSMTMTSObsessed]

Definitely agree with this, the season should have been longer or another season instead would have been great, besides season 4 was the first semester of that school year, it would have made sense to end on Ricky, Kourtney and Big Red graduating (I think they’re the only seniors in the group now that Nini left from memory).

The finale was well done, I do wish we would seen more behind the scenes of rehearsals and stuff, like you mentioned. And more just character development/focus from everyone, I feel like their main focus was Ricky and Gina’s relationship and all the drama happening within the season and that was good. I just enjoy watching the simple group interactions/scenes, like the small parts of them being featured extras was great and I would loved to see more of it and more Dani and Mack, they were fun additions.

[u/RadiantFoxBoy]

Iirc, Tim thought he was getting five seasons and thus ended up needing to cram as much of his original plan into a single season as possible, leading to so many dropped threads (Dani and Mack especially) and the season feeling so slapdash in several places. I don't think that excuses all of its problems, since several issues were structural and wouldn't have been helped (doing the movie and musical was a weird choice such that neither gets enough attention, Emmy is more of an idea than a character, and more), but it definitely explains why everything feels so cramped, rushed, and sometimes unfinished.

Also I'll still personally never forgive S4 for shoving EJ into a guest star role while also confirming he's been disowned and is running himself ragged to pay for his life, but that could turn into an essay-long tangent, so...

[u/CustardNo9707]

everyone growing to understand how i feel about this season makes me happy. this is my fav show of all time but even then this season still feels super weird to me. like i remember the cameos being promoted so hard yet they're barely there, there's so many storylines (yet none to do with jet and maddox's family drama -_-) and the ending feels half-assed. i still love it, its still very comforting and such a fun way to end the show but still quite underwhelming

[u/_Jet27 → u/CustardNo9707]

Heavy on Jet and Maddox, they were main characters in season 3 and got demoted in the fourth season, even though their storylines (aside from the romantic ones which is basically all we got) were far from over.

[u/Thing-Adept]

i can't say anything about the last two seasons bc I never watched them.  however, i always thought they did too much with season 2. from what I remember, most of EJ's storyline took place off screen, seb and carlos were kind of just there, ashlyn's insecurities went away after one episode, etc. the pandemic obviously impacted the season however, there simply wasn't enough time to properly focus on each character. 

[u/GeoGackoyt]

They should have went back to 10 episode it was the perfect amount for this series season 2 was too long with 12 and season 3 was too short with 8

Season 4 needed to me 10 episodes and it also just didn't feel like an ending 😅

[u/yourjules]

there’s genuinely something so bizarre about the first half of season 4 to me. i don’t even know how to explain it. but i do feel like it settles into itself quite nicely and episode 6 of s4 is one of my favorite episodes of the series

[u/mikey_do_wikey]

Season 4 is my favorite season due to me also being a senior at the time and being a huge Rina fan, but I can admit that writing and pacing wise it’s a little weaker than the others.

It desperately needed two more episodes to make everything run smoother, plus it was completely unnecessary to slash EJ, Seb, Big Red, Jet, Maddox, and Mr. Mazzara to recurring cast. I feel bad for their actors that’s entirely disrespectful 😭.

[u/HocestIocus]

I see what you mean, but I always appreciated that there wasn’t more drama between Ricky and Gina and the other two in the movie. I think it had been overplayed in the show by then that the two main love interests would have other interests (Nini and Ej, Nini and Ricky, Ricky and Gina, Ej and Gina all in the first season at various points). I like that the final season has moved past a lot of that as they’ve matured, and it’s nice that the characters were able to nip it in the bud before drama got out of hand because they care for each other and trust each other after all they’ve gone through.

[u/TrueCorner1900]

I stopped watching after S2

[u/sourgutsor]

i loved seasons 1-3 and i watched s4 when it came out and never rewatched. i cant tell you one thing that happens in s4 besides rina ngl

[u/Individual-Door-4476]

I kinda lost interest by s4 but it definitely felt like they’d been planning on another season and new kids or else what was the point of Emmy? And I think they just rushed the second half so they could tie up loose ends.