Love/Hate Best Season

BuilderPlumber

What was the best season of Love/Hate so far:

1. Season 1: Some of the highlights:- Darren's brother killed by Hughie. Darren places the gun on the psychic's table to get him to give his sister happy news about their brother. Stumpy beats Rosie. Darren beats Stumpy. Hughie kills traveller in paranoid rage. Hughie shoots himself. Stumpy shoots Darren. Nidge's wedding.

2. Season 2: Some of the highlights:- Fran uses his dogs to threaten Luke to pay up and Darren kills one of the dogs. John Boy double crosses Fran and Fran attempts hit on John Boy. Nidge pipe bombs Fran's house, injuring Fran's girlfriend Linda. Linda commits suicide. Tommy's failed attempt to clip Fran at the bookies. Luke's obsession with Mary. John Boy clears Debbie out of his house for heroin use. Nidge, Fran and Darren all have plans to kill John Boy and Darren does the job. King Nidge emerges. His first duty is to get rid of pervert Luke who he shoots.

3. Season 3: Some of the highlights:- IRA kneecapping of Ado. Darren pipebombs the IRA's car in revenge. IRA man Git rapes Siobhan, Tommy kicks him and Darren kills him with a beer keg. Nidge meets IRA man Dano (Git's son) and gets himself hit by Dano but Dano believes Nidge for now. Nidge beating Tommy. Ray's overdose. Fran helps Nidge/Darren/Tommy get rid of Git's body twice. Shootout between Darren/IRA and Nidge saved. Nidge meeting with and doing the deal with Tony. Darren's execution. The phrase: 'Coola Boola' from Fran.

4. Season 4: Some of the highlights:- The shooting of the cat. The tiger kidnapping. A dentist gets drunk and in trouble with Nidge after hitting Janet and Nidge hits him and tells him to work for him. Fran's fight in the toilet with Noelie. Noelie's attempted hit on Fran. Fran's intention to clip Tommy and Nidge's and Siobhan's convincing Fran not to. Cops beating 'Luke mark 2' prowler. Wayne, Dano and Lizzie's attempts to kill Nidge. Nidge's capture and interrogation of Wayne. Nidge and Tony's meeting and subsequent IRA siding with Nidge to kill Dano. Debbie's overdose. Traveller who sold pipebomb to Nidge when he threw it at Linda's place re-emerges and threatens to break up the Nidge/Fran team. Nidge and Wayne attempt to shoot the traveller but he gets away after a violent fight. Wayne gets shot with a glock by Glen/Guinea. The dentist is hit and suffocated by Fran. The cops capture the gang but no evidence and Tommy collapses. Nidge p1sses on the cops milk and ends the series in a cell.

JP Liz V1

For me it is close between 1 and 3 but with shock shooting in Season 3 finale clinching it as winner for me

Flippyfloppy

Season 3!! Every episode had something interesting !

brian_t

There is something wrong with the poll.

At the moment after 15 voters it says that

27.27% prefer season 1
45.45% prefer season 2
45.45% prefer season 3
and 18.18% prefer season 4

This is of course a total of 136.35%. Should be 100%

Mr E

The OP made it a checkbox poll (so you can pick more than one answer).

IanOBo

Season two was sensational especially thanks to Aidan Gillen. One was too short, four was grand, three was good but its probably just my inner hipster becoming pissed off with all the latecomers proclaiming themselves as fans

AnonoBoy

Season three I think was the best so far for me.

OguchiOneywu

Season 1 wasn't great at all : bad acting, unrealistic situations and overall a bit amateurish (in comparison to later seasons).
Season 2 was a massive improvement, paranoid JohnBoy and the rise of Nidge, the overall series was much mores atmospheric.
Season 3 was the best in my opinion, excitement from episode to episode and probably the 6 best hours of television I've ver seen.
Season 4 was quite good, but the story line just wasn't exciting enough or have a good enough conclusion to math the previous two seasons.

BuilderPlumber

Season 3 is so far the clear winner with most people. In terms of sheer excitement and extreme violence, I think this season is unbeaten. Season 4 was probably the second most violent of the series but season 3's gruesome rape and murder scene in the first episode pales all other acts of violence including bloodsoaked fights in toilets, sock and balling a traveller to death, the two brutal head beatings doled out by Nidge and Lizzie, and even the two kneecapping incidents Dano was involved in as both the giver and receiver!

Season 3 had such incidents of the Ado kneecapping, Darren's pipebombing of the IRA car, Git's rape of Siobhan and his brutal murder, Dano hitting Nidge, Darren killing Elmo's cousin and girlfriend, and the finale of Nidge doing the deal with Tony and Darren's subsequent death.

Season 1 I thought was good. True, it was too short at just four episodes but back then, no one was aware of how successful it was going to be. Robbie's shooting, Hughie's self inflicted death, the attempt on Darren's life and the brutal killing of Martin the traveller by Hughie and the introduction of all the characters such as favourite Nidge set things up nicely.

Season 2 swiftly dealt with the unfinished business of series 1 (Stumpy's death, Rosie and Darren back together) and introduces another firm favourite in Fran. The Fran v John Boy rivalry with Nidge caught up in it had repercussions in series 4 and will have also in series 5. Probably overall the least violent of the series, season 2 nevertheless is full of shootings and betrayals especially with the shooting of John Boy at the end.

Season 4 is very underrated in my opinion and reminds me of season 2 (albeit a lot more violent) in a lot of ways. Fans complain that the finale was not as dramatic as season 1 or 3 but they forget that the season 4 finale is actually much better than the season 2 one! Season 2s finale was just the funeral of John Boy, setting up Nidge as the new boss and the wrapping up of the Luke subplot. Season 4 perhaps more than any other season reached back to previous seasons and pointed the way to the fifth season. Hence, we are set up with all the main characters - apart from Dano - that survived seasons 1-3 still alive. I think that when season 5 comes out, season 4 will be put into context much more. To me, it was a great season.

Overall, season 3 was the best in my view too. So much so, that it pales its successor and predecessors even though they are also excellent. However, all seasons cannot be season 3 and the relatively quieter finales of seasons 2 and 4 are necessary for the greater story. Sure, Stuart Carolan could have written an 'everyone out trying to kill Nidge' type episode for the finale of season 4 but this would have become too repetitive (as it was done for the climatic season 3 finale and also was the theme of season 4's climatic episode 4). He could also have someone shoot Nidge and we left wondering was he dead and who did it (but this has been done several times with JR Ewing's character in Dallas). With regard to season 2, the same decision arose: kill John Boy in episode 5 and then use episode 6 to set up Nidge as the leader rather than wasting time doing this in season 3. Season 3 started things off heading in a different direction (no more John Boy; Darren's focus is no longer getting even) and season 4 decided to end some of the stories like the Dano v Nidge feud relatively early in order to set things up for next season. I think season 5 could well be the best of all and just like the much less eventful finale of season 2 allowed season 3 to fully blossom, I feel that the season 4 finale (which is a lot more tense, violent and eventful than season 2's) will do the same.

IvaBigWun

Ok I think a rewatch of most of the seasons is in order this and next week. Im definitely skipping the first season, it was the weakest I feel.

Now the question is, should I skip season two as well?

Aidan Gillen as "John Boy" Power and Ruth Negga as Rosie Moynihan both did my head in. Terrible acting from both.

So straight to season two or three? Thoughts?

IvaBigWun

Rewatch finished and I decided to take in season 1 after all.

Thoughts:

John Boy's character gets worse on every re-watch.

The girl who played Rosie isnt as annoying as I remember. She actually very good. It was the soppyness of Darren and Rosie that doesnt sit well.

Season 3 is the best season so far.