Beth Woodward

Glitch has an incredibly intriguing premise: seven people come back to life in a small Australian town. This mystery propels the first two seasons: who are these people, why have they returned, and what do they have in common? The series is anchored by James, a police deputy who realizes one of the returned is his wife, Kate, who died of cancer two years before. Unfortunately, he’s remarried with a baby on the way. This leads to a complicated love triangle, as you can imagine, and causes James to behave in sometimes maddening ways. He’s not always a likable protagonist, but he is the show’s moral center, at least in seasons 1 and 2, and serves as the viewer’s “in” to this strange world of people returning from the dead. Unfortunately, the show went off the rails in season 3. Characters became maddeningly inconsistent, new plot lines were introduced that never went anywhere, and the show created mysteries it never resolved. It all culminated in a finale that felt awkward and rushed, which I did a lot of the goodwill the show had earned during the first two seasons—and maintained through most of season 3 despite its choppiness. I loved seasons 1 and 2. But I kind of wish I had stopped watching after the s2 finale, which was dramatic and surprising—even if it wouldn’t have been the most satisfying conclusion.