Margarita nights with Maddie, Dana Sue, and Helen are so back. The three Magnolias, as they like to call themselves, and three main characters in the Netflix romantic drama series Sweet Magnolias have returned for yet another season. Season 4 of Sweet Magnolias was released on the streaming platform on February 6, and even though the show is set in a small town called Serenity, there is always some sort of drama involved, of course.

From broken hearts to unexpected love, Sweet Magnolias has a lot of sad but also feel-good moments in store. Above all is the small-knit community, always connected and always relying on each other to keep everything positive and going, but even Serenity isn’t safe from tragedy, and death finds its way into the town. Unfortunately, a confusing character death arguably ruined Sweet Magnolias, maybe even beyond repair.

Sweet Magnolias

Release Date  May 19, 2020

Genres  Romance

Network  Netflix

Cast  JoAnna Garcia Swisher

‘Sweet Magnolias’ Bill Is a Villain Even in Death

Just two episodes into the new season of Sweet Magnolias, and here comes Mama T and shocks everyone with devastating (at least to some) news. Bill Townsend, Maddie’s ex-husband and the town’s scapegoat for whatever went wrong in their lives, suddenly passed away. This isn’t one of those incredibly shocking character deaths, since Bill somewhat skipped town long before and pretty much left all of his children (from multiple mothers) back in Serenity. However, Bill’s death is a major part of the show’s overall storyline for the rest of the series.

The delivery of the tragic news, the planning of his funeral, the exploration of his legacy, and the processing of his death by the people in Serenity take up a good chunk of the show, but arguably not in a good way. Instead of touching on all these themes in a heartfelt way, Sweet Magnolias basically highlights how bad of a person he was. His behavior was indeed problematic at times, but everything about it is being blown out of proportion. Maddie, Dana Sue, and Helen joke about planning his funeral, while others point out that his death means nothing to them. Even his children’s reaction to the news is shallow and questionable, and their grief journey was over before it even began.

Bill isn’t just one of those TV show characters that was just randomly written off. There was an intention behind it, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was executed poorly. A dinner was prepared at Sullivan’s & Friends, where people who were somehow connected to Bill gathered for a meal. Instead of shedding light on mourning someone, the scene is again used to show that Bill treated a lot of people unjustly, and that no one, except his parents and girlfriend, actually deeply cared about him.

Bill’s mother, who was similarly depicted as a terrible person to be around, attended the dinner as well, and accidentally shared the secret that Isaac, a dear friend of many people in Serenity, was also Bill’s son. This revelation of yet another child wasn’t taken kindly by many, and, in general, it was used once again to fault Bill. Ultimately, all that was concluded was that Bill created chaos and left everyone with the aftermath. Considering that he really tried to fix things with everyone, this conclusion completely ruins the show, as the people in Serenity, particularly the main characters, simply appear as mean.

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Will There Be a Season 5 of ‘Sweet Magnolias’?

The final episode of Season 4 certainly sets up a future storyline which would be interesting to explore, and it would definitely bring some serious bumps along. While the newest seasons concluded with Dana Sue possibly being very busy in the future supporting her husband’s dreams and Helen unexpectedly engaged to Erik, Maddie is getting ready to move to New York and tackle her new marketing job at a publisher. What that means for the three Magnolias and Maddie’s family is something that could potentially be explored in more detail in a future season of Sweet Magnolias. Simultaneously, Annie and Ty’s teen romance could offer more excitement as well, since she was accepted into her dream school in California and his band was invited to join a tour through Europe as an opener.

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The foundation for continuing the show is clearly there, even though the excitement about it might have been lost. Apart from this, Netflix hasn’t shared any updates on the cancelation or continuation of Sweet Magnolias yet, but since Season 4 was only announced a few months after Season 3 was released, anything could happen still. At least, let’s hope that if Sweet Magnolias returns for another season, they won’t use Bill as the scapegoat, yet again.