Basically everything you say, I agreed with upon my initial viewing (especially the later S2/3 “development” of Syd) but after rewatching the whole show I’ve come to largely think differently. I now regard it as probably the best show I’ve ever seen.

With regards to Syd, I think the issues you point out are addressed in Season 3’s “Syd episode”, Chapter 25. It was never her mother’s boyfriends “fault”, just like it wasn’t the “fault” of the girls who she beats when she takes over the young lad’s body. Her whole “I don’t need no man” shtick is a direct result of her upbringing by her “artist” single mother. Syd entirely lacked “coping mechanisms” for her alienation / unapproachability leading her to become the character we see over the show. I think the massive “shift” in her character we see after Chapter 25 drives this home. She goes from seeing David as an ebil r*pist to the hurt child he really was. Without her experience of a real, loving, and understanding family in the astral plane, the whole shitshow was bound to repeat itself with the same tragedies every step of the way. But thanks to her change, David has a chance himself. Perhaps even a school for people like them will be built this time.

Edit: I think the point of the show is second chances. Everyone needs one, even those variably seen as “villains” (peasants).

Basically everything you say, I agreed with upon my initial viewing (especially the later S2/3 “development” of Syd) but after rewatching the whole show I’ve come to largely think differently. I now regard it as probably the best show I’ve ever seen.

With regards to Syd, I think the issues you point out are addressed in Season 3’s “Syd episode”, Chapter 25. It was never her mother’s boyfriends “fault”, just like it wasn’t the “fault” of the girls who she beats when she takes over the young lad’s body. Her whole “I don’t need no man” shtick is a direct result of her upbringing by her “artist” single mother. Syd entirely lacked “coping mechanisms” for her alienation / unapproachability leading her to become the character we see over the show. I think the massive “shift” in her character we see after Chapter 25 drives this home. She goes from seeing David as an ebil r*pist to the hurt child he really was. Without her experience of a real, loving, and understanding family in the astral plane, the whole shitshow was bound to repeat itself with the same tragedies every step of the way. But thanks to her change, David has a chance himself. Perhaps even a school for people like them will be built this time.