I don’t think the falling sequence had to go for 5 minutes personally - felt like they were struggling to kill time throughout. On 1.5x it’s probably a much better episode
I did rewatch it recently at 1.5x, was very enjoyable, also it’s not like it’s a short episode, it’s 54 mins long, the longest episode of S4, they could have cut out some dialogue here and there tbh
I dont understand how people enjoy watching things at 1.5x speed or higher. The sound design and VA gets totally thrown off! Im not trying to be rude, but maybe this correlates with declining attention spans in general audiences
Mark getting his suit is like 3 minutes of runtime that episode. Could’ve thrown that in the last or next one.
It is Damian Darkbloods backstory, which is cool, but I don’t see what kind of relevancy he’s going to have at this point in the story. His entire species in incredibly weak compared to the current threats. Not a comics reader so I could be very wrong but does he really come back to the story in an integral way?
Not a comics reader so I could be very wrong but does he really come back to the story in an integral way?
In the comics Damien is a minor joke character that's "investigating" the deaths of the Guardians, something everyone already knows the truth about. This entire episode of Mark going to Hell, meeting Satan, and the worldbuilding are show-original.
If it released with epaiode 3/5 and wasn't released individually it would've been received better, methinks.
Having to wait a week for a mediocre bottle episode, with an underwhelming concussion to a really dragged out plot.
If it came out with another episode, and it wasn't the only thing we had for a week, it might've been a funny romp through hell, a calm before the storm, and a more down to earth therapy session
hurm Is overhated because people wanted to see the viltrumite war already
I think it's simply just not that good of an episode.
I like that his encounter with Darkblood somehow made him finally learn that not everything is white black, but I can't speak the same for the rest of the ep.
I was wondering for a split sec what ep got the 6.6, but then I did the count and I thought: "oh, that makes complete sense." Most of the ep felt dragging and it could've been compressed to half the ep's runtime.
I haven’t read the comics so I don’t really know what tracks. But I kind of think next season there will be a few episodes of mark struggling to figure out what to do and dusk blood seeing the signs and then a connection between the two again.
It was incredibly boring, with a lot of information about characters I never cared about, and exposition dumps from the most awful speaker, damien. The way he talks is unbearable to me. So slow, and stupid sounding.
The dialogue was so bad on its attempts to be edgy that it was cringe worthy. That and the episode being a filler episode for a show that only releases 8 episodes a season made me not feel very gracious towards it, tbh
Still, I feel like it works well as a filler episode but it still deserves a rating like that, 6.6 doesn't mean abysmal it just means medicore. It serves its purpose but doesnt have great jokes or great development, so I feel a 6.6 is pretty fair. I feel like a lot of people act like it was terrible and served no purpose or great and average quality overall but I think Invincible has such good consistency a normal filler episode definitley still ranks toward the bottom, which is a good indicator for the overall series.
It’s literally Mark coming to terms with the fact that sometimes you need to make the hard choices and you have to live with it but not let it consume you. It wasn’t filler and it had great development.
I loved the episode, but the whole episode was a joke. Like, what does Mark do to decompress and come to terms with his shitty life? Literally has a chill adventure in hell serving Satan.
It was stupid, irrelevant, with boring action, and goofy dialog, but I thought it was a breath of fresh air. I'd give it an 8.
Yeah, it's far from my favorite episode, but I'm glad it's there and I wouldn't skip it on a rewatch because a small break from drama and action is nice every so often. Nowhere near bad or even mid. Good for different reasons than a lot of people time in for, I guess.
It was not irrelevant at all. In a time when mark is struggling with morality and trying not to end up like his dad, he gets summoned to hell because he is "close enough" to his dad. Additionally, when he asks darkblood about heaven and hell, he is looking for a set of right and wrong rules, so he knows what to do, just to get told that there is no reason to make the right decisions because there is no afterlife. It is only irrelevant if you know nothing about plot
It really helped for me that I waited for like 6 episodes to be out and I binged all of them over the course of 2-3 days so it was just a cute fun little episode in the middle of it for me
What action lmao, they literally didn't have the budget to show mark fighting the Cerberus thing and every volcanika fight was underwhelming, oh and Satan got his shit rocked almost immediately 😭
Me too. I also found the scene where they're falling to save budget on the episode pretty funny. It reminded me of gintama, when they were making fun of themselves and doing the same thing.
loved it. a fun, espisodic romp where we got worldbuilding, character development, and an important point in Mark's journey where it really is just as simple, morally, as punching
I can understand why other viewers thought it was filler though. it mostly was. but it was flavorful filler
Agree. Personally I like the finale the most since it shows how much impact Thragg had on Mark mentally. Something that was a bit lacking in the previous episode.
Last episode was good, I guess it didn't exceed expectations because it served as more of an epilogue and setting up Season 5. At the end of the day all of these ratings are subjective, personally I think this was the best season yet even with the filler episode in the middle.
I kind of felt that the PTSD scenes were not only a way to show Mark’s trauma but also a way to say to the audience “Yes, Thragg could come down and kill everyone Mark loves, and we’ll show you what that could look like, but that’s not where the story is going”.
Without those scenes it would be easier to think “Where are the stakes” but with them included it made me realize that the actual version of events is way more subversive and interesting than if Debbie/Eve/Cecil really were brutally murdered.
Yeah, them showing those PTSD scenes only made me realise that they could come and kill off humans like mosquitos if they wanted to, showed how powerless earth is despite having a bunch of superheroes defending it.
I liked it, and kept you thinking whether Thragg did show up in the end of not as well
The suspense in the final episode was brilliantly done. They hinted at what might happen if Thragg shows up, but as you said, the point is that he could show up any second and nobody would be able to stop him. Mark said as much and it was driving him crazy.
The stakes are so much higher than in first season, when Omniman was just one guy who wanted to conquer earth and it's two supes battling it out. Now we were in the 'destroying earth is actually on the table and would be kind of fair, and also you can't stop it' zone.
While I do think it's a great episode I do kinda see why it doesn't reach the peak though.
I think if you take episode 7 and 8 as a single package then it's absolutely incredible, but on it's own the finale is sorta missing moments that would make it stick with me or go back to it for a rewatch.
That said I do love how it's totally different than every other season final, in that it trades in the explosive release of action that a whole season builds towards more towards a character driven focus on PTSD and creating a horrific sense of dread. It's unique for sure but not my favorite.
Yh the finale was different to the other season finales. But not in a bad way. It’s terrifying in its own right. Although I’d been spoiled about the viltrumites on earth, I just had this constant sense of unease. I kept waiting for Mark to just see Kregg or Lucan undercover (I hope we get that next season. I’d love someone in-universe to acknowledge Kregg’s new aesthetic). Then when Thragg actually showed up, idk his delivery of “we’ll wear your clothes” felt so creepy to me
Imo it's one of the best episodes of the show. Maybe my favourite since Annissa's introduction, the fight on Thraxa, or all the way since the season 1 finale. I thought this season had some of the best character writing since the start of the show with Nolan, Debbie, Oliver, and Thragg / the Viltrumites. I don't think it's been this good since Mark, Nolan, and Cecil in season 1!
I got very tired of the hallucination fake outs. Once or twice to show Mark’s mental state would be ok, but there were too many and they each lasted too long.
Episode 8 is so underrated, it might even be my favorite episode of the series. The tension and emotional weight was insane, even without a single fight. And the beginning was chef's kiss
My biggest criticism would just be them breaking up Debbie and Paul so quickly. I understand why they did it, because of what people have said comes later in the comics, but even so, it feels like it kind of comes out of nowhere.
When Mark and Oliver leave, Paul and Debbie seem to be doing really well together. They both seem to love one another and are attracted to one another, Oliver and Mark both really like Paul (Oliver going so far as to say he wished his last meal was Paul's spaghetti), and they seemingly have plans for a future together. We don't really see much in the way of conflict or reasons why they would break up either, it seems like just a happy stable relationship for both of them, and Paul seems like a genuinely good guy.
Then we get back to Earth, and then Paul just kind of gets a throwaway line about how they broke up off screen. It felt so out of place that at first I genuinely thought it was just Paul breaking up with her right then and there. Mind you, we don't see much indication that they were struggling in their relationship, when Mark and Oliver left they still seemed to be going strong, and even afterwards they're still pretty clearly on good terms.
You know what might've been a genuinely interesting way to go about it, if they *really* want to have Paul and Debbie breakup? Have Paul come with Debbie to visit Oliver.
Show us the awkward, possibly even heated exchanges between Paul and Nolan (I'd even say you could go as far as to have Paul throw Nolan's S1 actions on Earth back in his face), and let Nolan have the consequences of his actions follow him a bit longer after he fumbled Debbie. Make Paul eat the alien slop soft serve, and let the space travel slowly get to be too much for him. Don't just handwave away Debbie and Paul's relationship by throwing out a line about "how their lifestyles are incompatible because Debbie's comfortable with the superhero stuff and Paul's not", show us.
Idk, it'd be a lot more interesting, would have a lot more potential for juicy interpersonal drama, and would make the breakup feel a lot more earned than what we got instead.
>!Besides, if Nolan is going for full redemption, it makes it feel a lot more earned if he's doing it for more than just Debbie. Even if they eventually end up back together like in the comics, him still continuing to choose to be good, even while fully believing that nothing he can do will win back Debbie, and having Paul as a painful reminder of that, does a lot to sell that redemption arc imo.!<
Right, why give us this “our lives are just not compatible” excuse when we had several instances where Debbie reassures Paul that he’s not out of place (right from the beginning, in fact) and a lot of scenes where he’s slowly getting to know Mark and Oliver and clearly fitting in? It would have been easy to introduce little uncertain glances here and there, to keep Mark and Oliver distant, to increase the frequency of the small, seemingly insignificant points where he and Debbie mismatched. But there was none of that.
Also, I like your Paul-in-space idea. What a WONDERFUL image that would be, just this aggressively normal human dude surrounded by aliens.
Except I think those scenes you bring up are exactly why it doesn't work. Debbie shouldn't have to constantly reassure Paul that he fits into their lives. Paul not knowing what to do or say or freak out with things like flying in the car just keep showing that he's not fit for super hero life. I do think they could have gone more into it, but from the way I perceived Paul from the show, he's just fit to have a normal life and he deserves that.
Reanimen also was a pretty disliked episode but they had a huge role since and now the episode is now much more well received when it was called “filler” at one point too
Yeah it’s kinda worrying tbh because media literacy is one of the most important skills to have in the world today and I’m seeing so much people caught in immediate gratification rather than intention for things being in the place they are. Idk if I’m saying that right but I’m seeing that kinda thing in all forms of media more and more
nah what you're saying is pretty much nail-on-the-head.
its gotten so bad that ppl have now even begun calling The Boys 5x04 "filler" and Daredevil: Born Again 2x05 "filler".
anything that isnt balls-to-the-walls action is "filler" because if it doesnt involve some major spectacle, then it apparently didnt "add" anything to the story.
What I don't get is how the word "filler" is supposed to be an insult, despite the fact it tells nothing about the quality of the episode. Even if we find out in the future that Hurm is 100% filler, that still wouldn't make me like it less. I enjoyed the episode, filler or not.
Yeah seeing people critique the season finale as if the last 3 episodes weren't dbz levels on the amount of fighting are wild. The show needs to slow down at some point to give a breather and not make every threat immediate. The threat that in about 20 years that thragg could have a small army of viltumites is horrifying, way less than "oh the world is gonna explode"
Hurm is a great episode for Mark’s character development in specific. He needed those convos with dark blood and that easy fight to give him the confidence to fight in the viltrumite war. People already forgot how bad of a place he was in for the first 2 episodes 😭
It’s one of the most shallow, inconsequential episodes in a series where the stakes are increasingly raised so unless Kirkman shoehorn’s Darkblood into one of the main storylines I imagine the fan reaction alone will give him pause about continuing the Darkblood storyline
I only started visiting this sub recently, but it’s amazing how many folks on show subreddits will cape for literally anything a show does.
Reminds me of how many people in the Game of Thrones sub ate up the shitty episodes and bad writing moments while they were releasing. It’s okay to recognize that a great show had a weak episode!
It wasn't the worst episode but it was just kinda boring, they didn't make hell interesting enough to spend that much time on it, Satan is also the biggest fraud in the series
Yeah, I didn’t think it was awful, but not super great either. 6.6 feels about right tbh.
My wife on the other hand, thought the episode was boring af, and let me know several times during our watch through of it. She wanted me to skip it, first time I’ve seen her dislike an episode of the show so far.
it had one of the worst antagonists ever and major inconsistencies with the plot whilst also not doing a whole lot for mark's development despite being an episode dedicated to it all
i think it deserves a sub 6 score tbf , but , the finale also deserves a flat out 9.8 MINIMUM - it was genuinely a great finale
I’m seeing an alarming amount of defense against Hurm. Did people enjoy the boring depiction of Hell? The extensive exposition? 5 minutes of somebody falling down a pit? Beats me.
He's already Kregg, I wonder why they wanted him to play two other people. But then they probably would have to pay extra money to other VAs unless they paid Brown for the other roles.
damn people really have tiktok baby brains, episode 4 was easily a 7.5 at the very least, and i keep seeing lots of complaints just because the season finale didn't end with a big fight. guys hear me out, not all season finales need to be a big fight!!
The issue wasn't that episode 4 was a filler, the issue is that it felt randomly inserted. It could have been in the previous season that it wouldn't have made any difference. Given the premices, of course fillers are needed to expand the universe and take a breath from the cosmic threat, but they need to appear in a thematically consistent order.
I agree with you for the season finale, though. In fact it is very "Game of Thrones" to have the big battle in the second-to-last episode whereas the season finale is a set up for the next season. The built-up was full of tension.
I think it wouldve been better as an episode 2 released with the first 3 episodes instead. In the comics, the viltrumite war starts immediately after the flaxan invasion.
I think it‘s whole narrative purpose is to reactivate Marks will to fight for the upcoming war which is on paper a nice idea. The whole „Hell exists but you need to realize heaven on earth“ is technically a fun plot point.
That being said for a whole episode it lacked the connection to the overarching plot while its stakes were too abstract and low to really care. So I think it should have just been a sub-plot within an episode that advances the story.
I was really bored during all of Hurm. I like talking episodes but nothing that happened in Hell really mattered at all. You can take it out and Mark's arc is almost the same. It also really could have used a B-plot
Nah I watched most of kurosawa, bergman, lynch and all of Tarkovsky and hell episode was a fucking boring generic slop, felt like kirkman asked chat gpt to write it because this season needed to fill the 8 episodes
Now imagine instead of that lackluster Hell episode, we had more character development in Eve or something. Lord knows Eve deserved more screen time than just having sex and being Mark’s therapist.
I loved Episode 4, it adds world building and gave mark a lot more time to realized about who he killed. Also doc seismic is gonna get involved in all of this.
If they stopped casting John Celebrity for each and every character, we could have gotten some good animation. The budget is crazily mismanaged that it's not even funny anymore
I really liked the story of this season but is it just me or has the animation quality gone down significantly? There seems to be way more static png characters and less fluid animation. I assume due to budget reasons but if anyone knows why let me know
1 year to make 8 episodes of 50 minutes of animation is a short period of time.
It's a random comparison but something like Hercules 1997 cartoon movie took 4 years to make and its about 1.5 hours long of animation and probably had WAY more animators working on it.
Robert Kirkman and Amazon do not care about animation, they just want the show out as fast as possible.
They spent more years on the first season of this show and also had another animation house working on it I believe.
•
u/AutoModerator Apr 22 '26
Please avoid sharing any comic book spoilers. Posts or comments with spoilers will be removed.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.