Four reasons why season four of Big Love was a Big Failure for me

1. Only 9 episodes - now, British tv shows make a habit of airing short, tight seasons, but the shows are planned and written accordingly. Big Love tried to cram a whole season's worth of stories into what was essentially half a season and for that reason...

2. Stories were rushed and dropped left and right - Roman was murdered, the end. Nicki's love for Ray was rebuffed and he left, the end. Nicki has a new daughter? The end. I could go on and on. You can't tell half a story and then not deal with the consequences or fallout. That's just lazy writing. And speaking of lazy writing...

3. Storylines were introduced (and dropped) just for the sake of creating another storyline. That's fine if it happens organically, but not if story A is simply a catalyst for story B. For example, Ben and Margene kissed. There's been a sexual tension and attraction there for years, but it seemed to have been dealt with and been finished last season, only to surface again this year so that Bill could kick Ben out and have to deal with his own issues of being kicked out by his own father for being a young male in competiton with the old men for women on the compound. That in itself could've been an extremely interesting plot except that, back to reason #2, it was completely dropped.

4. Then, we had storylines out of left field, or I guess more accurately, straight out of a soap opera. Sarah and Barb hit an Indian girl with their car. Sissy Spacek's entire character and storyline. Nicki's ex-husband is explicitly harvesting and implanting eggs and implicitly committing incest. Margene no longer loves Bill. Nicki now loves Bill. Ana is pregnant with Bill's baby but her fiance Goran is going to be departed so Margene enters into a green card marriage with him and now she loves Goran. Just terrible, terrible stories.

The worst part is, there was so much potential. If the writers had just taken a second to be like, "Hey, we only have nine episodes here but enough material for 16, maybe we should pace ourselves." Bill's campaign for senator had potential. Barb's struggles at the casino and blooming friendship with Tommy had potential. Bill kicking Ben out and facing those demons from his past could've been an amazing story. Nicki and Ray needed to be played out longer. And the one storyline that really, really worked for me, new prophet Alby's gay affair with his "enemy" Dale, the shame they both felt because of the way their religions view homosexuality, the true love they found in each other despite that, and both Dale's inability to overcome the shame and Alby's breakdown and dealing with things in the aftermath of Dale's suicide...that was a story that was actually well written, worked organically, moved other storylines but had merit itself, and didn't make characters act out of character like so many of the other players this season, but again, even this story felt rushed and deserved to be treated better.

Highly disappointed, Big Love. And HBO. Don't even know who to blame but I do know my disappointment was enough that I'm wary to come back for the fifth season...