Rectify S4 Review

More people have helped me than harmed me. The harm seems to leave the deeper mark

Rectify has ended.  The little-seen, but much-praised series came to an end last Wednesday after just four seasons and 30 episodes.  If only more shows knew how to make the mark that Rectify made on me in so little time.  The fourth season wasn't its best, but it was still Rectify, one of the best shows on television.

When we last left Daniel, he was leaving Paulie, Georgia as an excommunicated man.  He legally could not enter the state of Georgia or he would go back to prison.  Rectify and Paulie have been so interconnected throughout the series that it was natural to wonder if him leaving would affect the series' tone or quality.  It did, in both good ways and bad.  The season felt fractured, intentionally so I would guess.  The separation of the main characters was felt through this dynamic.  But at the same time, it still led to some episodes that didn't really connect its storylines.  The individual scenes were on par with what I recognize as Rectify, but the episode itself tended to be less than the sum of its parts.

At the New Canaan Project, Daniel gets a much-needed support group to help him succeed on "his own."  Technically with this project, he's not really on his own, but there's little question that when he begins this series, he is for all intents and purposes, on his own.  He refuses to open up to the other members, a natural consequence of distrusting strangers after 20 years in prison.

While I don't necessarily think she was an outright negative, Chloe was a bit of a misstep.  Caitlin Fitzgerald does her best.  I really wanted to embrace her as a character, but she seems like too much a cypher.  Her character seems pretty stereotypical to me - a flaky artist - who I'm still not sure why she gravitated towards Daniel.  Their relationship - such as it is - progresses way too fast for narrative purposes.  Fitzgerald is not to blame.  I've seen her in this and Masters of Sex and both times, she's vastly better than her material.

This season also further separates Ted and Tawney, which has been a long time coming.  Ted realizes that he's going to need to be the one to make the first step towards divorce or their life would remain in stasis.  Clayne Crawford's acting in that scene is incredible.  In season one, I would never have guessed I would be extremely invested in Ted, with my heart consistently breaking for him.  It's too late, but he seems to have genuinely changed.  As part of the relatively by Rectify's standards fast-paced timeline, he went from drinking away his breakup to entering AA to stop drinking over the span of one episode.

Really, if you've made it into the fourth season of Rectify then this next part should go without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway because it deserves to be mentioned: the acting is some of the best on television, whether it's Aden Young's sympathetic, yet slightly off-putting performance as Daniel, Adelaide Clemens as soft-spoken and kind-hearted Tawney, or the "good ole' boy" Ted Jr by Crawford.  That doesn't even mention the very underrated J. Smith-Cameron as Janet.  I don't mean she's just underrated normally, but she's underrated by the show's own standards because some of the other performances are more easily noticeable.

One of those noticeable performances had a lot less to do in season four.  Abigail Spencer as Amantha, Daniel's sister, has always been the standout performer from episode one.  But as she is no longer fighting for Daniel's cause, there's not really much for her to do.  I don't think her budding romance with her former classmate was a chore to watch or anything and it worked, but I just sort of missed the Amantha and Daniel interactions from seasons' past.  Her trademark wit was also less significant from the story.

Basically, an unavoidable "weakness" of this season by its very premise was the lack of interaction between Daniel and everyone in Paulie.  I think Amantha and Daniel had one phone conversation, Tawney talked to him for the first time since I think season two in the finale, and Ted Jr only had one phone conversation (it was very touching).  At least the two parents got to visit him for one episode (perhaps not coincidentally, maybe the best in this season?)

The New Canaan Project was a genuine success as a story.  When Pickle gets a job and they go out to dinner to celebrate, it's amazing how much meaning Rectify is able to put into a story like that.  Describe the impactful moments of this series and some of them will sound impactful, but some of them will just elicit "that's it?"  That's why I think this series is kind of a hard sell.  The most mundane things - things we maybe take for granted - can become beautiful in this series.  (He'd been searching for a job for seven episodes though and it's well-known how hard it is to get a good job once you get released from prison so I doubt this is a hard sell).

It's been a week since I watched the finale and it took me about this long to write that review because I didn't know what to say.  That's probably why this review is more negative than what my actual feelings are - it appears I remember more clearly things I wasn't necessarily sold on - rather than all the jubilant and emotional moments.

Rectify has three seasons on Netflix and I'm guessing the fourth season is going to get posted within the next year.  Convince everyone you know to watch it.  Somehow.  I have frequently failed.  But it's only 30 episodes!!  That's a piece of cake.  It is by far the most I've ever been affected by a show emotionally.  I once tweeted "Ready to be emotionally devastated by Rectify" and it comes through just about every episode of the series.  This season was no exception, minor complaints and all.  Expect to see it on my top ten dramas next week.

Grade: A-