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So you've reduced the show to a meaningless stencil "Hey guys! Sam's dead, Fionna needs a liver transplant, Mom's being tortured right now... right across the street... but Michael has a client!" (none of this happened but you get the impression it easily could). You've added another character to further dilute what's fast become a very weak premise.

How do you make this at least marginally enjoyable? Having a stronger client (if you're going to insist on having clients at all) helps. ALL of Michael's clients are far too naive, but at least the Doctor in this episode isn't quite as stupid as the rest of them. I guess Matt Nix's idea is that if the characters were smart and less naive they wouldn't need Michael's help, but street smart/highly educated, and tough people get themselves into trouble all the time.

So this smart character's excuse for being so naive is that he's stubborn. This isn't a bad idea the first time around, but this is about the 12th time Michael has had to deal with a stubborn client.

And therein lies the problem with sticking to a formula over the course of many seasons: you're doomed to repeat yourself until your show is irrelevant.

I'm sure Matt Nix sticks to the formula because it just makes writing the show very easy to pull off... which is why Matt Nix doesn't necessarily need to be writing the show. This show was written by Michael Horowitz, and it's easy to tell when Nix isn't holding the pen because the situations and dialogue are suddenly more sophisticated. (Though you can still hear Matt Nix whispering in the writer's ear "YES. There HAS to be a client. Absolutely.") At least the writer thought in a sort of throw-away manner about putting the unnecessary new character back in character (even if only for about four seconds), but I'm pretty sure we won't see any further development on that front until the season finale because there's simply no room for it.

You've got a main mission that's confusing and ambiguous enough to begin with, and then completely forgotten as each and every episode produces a new distraction from it.

This episode features Michael and crew going after somebody for some reason that wasn't clear in the beginning and is confusing as hell now, and they have to stop in the middle of that to help Michael's Mom's doctor friend's husband out of a jam.

Maybe I need to write Matt Nix a letter...

It's become blatantly obvious that the shows RUGGED INSISTENCE on "sticking to the formula" will be its downfall. Either writer/director Matt Nix isn't bright enough to break from the "Michael has a client despite that being a detriment the the current story" cliché, or he isn't brave enough. But until he either hires a writer/has a guest director who is... every episode is going to suffer.

And THIS episode is destined to go down as the worst of the entire run.

I personally felt the finale of Season 3 was the most important and dramatic move the series ever made, finally opening up some real and important growth and development for all of the characters.

All that was IMMEDIATELY squandered not five minutes into the beginning of the first episode of Season 4. Where, despite quite literally the world being at stake, it was back to the formula and dry ice on any character or plot development.

The addition of a few new faces this season is *not* breaking from the formula and only serves to underline that you could have dozens of new characters who you would barely notice were there if you stuck to the tired script that Matt Nix is sticking to.

Here's hoping that Season 5 finds the show in the hands of a writer with more of a vision leaving Matt Nix to do what he does best (namely blow things up.)