I Could Always Just Be Bringing My Own Writer Baggage To Stories That Have Totally Different Things Going On - Tumblr Posts

I want to talk about this part and I can't fit it all in a direct reply. I have a defense of 4 Minutes but also some criticism and understanding of where OP is coming from (spoilers for ep 4):

This episode's 4 minute jump back indicated that the real trigger is Great not advancing with Tyme rather than tied to him making shitty and harmful decisions, since he got sent back just for turning down a date invitation. Ngl that's kinda disappointing to me, I was more into this being about his character development.

So, if this is structured as a romance story, then Great advancing with Tyme is, ideally, based on him improving or changing something about himself in some way. it is the interconnection between the External Romance Arc and the Internal Character Arc. I'm saying this tentatively because obviously we don't have the full story yet, so I don't know how closely the story will follow the romance genre conventions. And as always, there may be influences and plot structures I'm not aware of.

But I'm going to assume for now that we're looking at a Romance plot arc. In this kind of arc, each of the characters has some kind of flaw that stems from unmet needs (usually emotional/psychological). It isn't a flaw that is inherently part of whot hey are, but something they have the potential to change. They can only have their happy ending if they overcome this flaw, because otherwise they just aren't compatible or their relationship can't work.

Overcoming their flaw can mean doing things that are difficult or uncomfortable for them. They are going against deeply ingrained behaviors they adapted that served them well in the past. The 4 Minutes concept is really interesting because we get to see Great's maladaptive response first, then what he will do when given the chance to overcome that response.

THere are two overlapping arcs in the romance plot. The Romance Arc, which progresses the relationship, and the Internal Character arc for one or both of the romantic interests. They depend upon one another and feed on one another. You can't separate them.

So when Great's redos advance his relationship with Tyme, it is (or should be) showing that he has emotionally earned that progression. In episode 4 his choice to save Nan did advance his relationship with Tyme. But it is also character development. He has to be willing to accept that his brother might be doing something wrong. He has to be willing to do something about it. Where he intially freezes and fails to save Nan, he has to choose to face his fear and take action instead.

It's an interesting parallel with Title locking his girlfriend in the room and Korn holding Nan for interrogation but idk exactly what to make of that. I don't know if Great of episode 1 would have gone to such an effort to help her?

That said, at this point I have mixed feelings about Great's story. I don't feel like I have a solid understaning of him to be able to feel the emotional impact of his changes. We do have his sad story/Emotional Wound, but it's unclear how that has led him to be a kind of passive person who doesn't have the instinct to do the right thing the first time around. I think any analysis would rely on a lot of assumptions.

And that's what really makes it feel like his redos are solely to get the couple together. I do think there are internal changes happening, that Great is changing when he does his redos, but so far there isn't enough there for me to 100% say the show is doing it well.

That said, we're only halfway through so we'll see how things develop.

Things That Have My Attention in 4 Minutes Episode 3

This was kind of a weird ep that gave me a bit of tonal whiplash, especially around Tyme and Great's little date.

Let's talk timelines. We know there are two main ones: 1) Original where Great is presumably having a cardiac event and where he made all the original choices the power is now letting him change, and 2) Redo where things are different based on his second chance decisions. It appears that everything we are seeing happen is part of the redo timeline, which we know because all the events are connected and influencing each other.

I'm also feeling good about my theory that at 11:04 he will get sent back to the original timeline and our redo comes to an end. We advanced to 11:02 this episode.

This episode's 4 minute jump back indicated that the real trigger is Great not advancing with Tyme rather than tied to him making shitty and harmful decisions, since he got sent back just for turning down a date invitation. Ngl that's kinda disappointing to me, I was more into this being about his character development.

If the purpose of the power is to steer Great to Tyme, and we know that he originally did a hit and run and didn't go to the hospital, that implies he met Tyme differently, and possibly later, in the original timeline. The power seems focused on changing the course of his relationship with Tyme, and the images he's been seeing of himself and Tyme together and Tyme's different messages on the Thai Tea cup may have been his consciousness briefly slipping between one timeline and another. After this ep, where we saw that Tyme was asking forgiveness, I wonder if he didn't fess up about investigating Great's family in the original timeline and the power ensured he would in the redo. Now that he's unmasked himself, is he going to tell Great that he's after his family and why?

The cold opens--Tyme injured, Tonkla murdering someone in the same manner his brother was killed, and now a second body turning up--may be things already happening in the original timeline (which is the future from our current vantage point) or they could be new future things happening as a result of these changes.

I don't think Dome is Tonkla's brother. He is alive and at the hospital in the redo timeline where Tonkla is grieving, which we know because Tyme specifically says that he is checking on him on Great's behalf. That would not make sense if Dome was actually residing in the original timeline, where Great never saved him or met Tyme at the hospital this early.

I need to know more about Nan, her connection to Tyme, and why they are being so reckless in their pursuit of this gambling operation. The way she infiltrated that compound alone with an armed man in an isolated place was wild.

We saw Great give Tyme the white doll at the end of their date, but then when he was brooding later at his apartment, both dolls were sitting on his couch. Continuity error, another consciousness slip moment, or a clue of something else going on?

Tonkla sure started fucking that cop quickly, and in the home Korn pays for. I'm worried about that kid. And the graphic nature of that scene had me clutching my pearls lmao (shoutout to the PrEP mention but boy what is your preoccupation with being fucked raw??). At least the cop seems like a better sex partner than Korn. Get your kicks in while you can, sugar baby.

Besties I really have no idea what's going on but I'm trying my best!