MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. Please click away if you haven’t yet caught up on Misfits Series 3. And if you’re not watching Misfits, I’m telling you, this is your holiday addiction. DO IT. Seasons 1 and 2 are available on iTunes.

I’ll give you another chance to skip this article to avoid spoilers…

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He’s a ballsy motherf-cker, isn’t he, Howard Overman?

Many of you have written to express your outrage and despair that Alisha and Simon are no more. Some of you have even sworn that you’re done with the show.

But…

Why?

It was brilliant and it was brave. Television is not often brave. Television is too often afraid to follow through with a story, to service the story to its highest artform. When weak story decisions are made on television, it eventually creeps up on you, the discerning viewer. You would have been disappointed later on if Alisha and Simon stuck around.

Think about it…

What did Alisha actually do in Series 3? Her most significant storyline was the dude who made real life happen with his comics, and that was directly attached to Simon anyway. There was nowhere to go for Alisha. And, by extension, Simon too. That particular episode with the comic boy only serviced to fill in the gaps with the time travel issue. And with the time travel issue looming over both their characters, it was either address it now, or keep putting it off with more episodes about Nazis and zombie cheerleaders.

They’d already fallen in love.

He’d already initiated the journey towards becoming Superhoodie.

Dragging that sh-t out would have been a Twilight move. A total dick suck to the fangirls and relationshippers. So Overman made a choice - do you let Alisha and Simon stick around to please the people who want to see them kiss now and again while sacrificing creative integrity or do you send them off in the most tragic, romantic, and awesomely dramatic way EVER?

Think of their legend now! They ARE Legend now!

What Overman did with Alisha and Simon has made them, for me anyway, one of the most memorable television couples I’ve ever seen. Isn’t THAT how you honour your characters, your story, your show? By not letting them get boring? By not becoming complacent?

Overman committed to the Superhoodie future story last year. You saw it. It’s right there. When you commit to a character’s journey, you can’t go back. If you go back, and somehow save them with a contrived and convenient plot twist about tweaking history, it’s only giving the viewers what they want…and not what they need.

Antonia Thomas and Iwan Rheon who play Alisha and Simon have confirmed they are not coming back for the new season. Yes, there is to be a new season. A fresh one. One with a lot potential. I guess I’d be more worried if Overman hadn’t proved to be so successful in transitioning Rudy into the group. But he did it, and he’ll do it again. And at the exit of one epic love, he’s given us another:

Kelly and Seth are wonderful together. And they can go anywhere. Because they aren’t predetermined into a future past that allows for only one possible and fair ending. Same goes for Curtis. (How great was his delivery of the line when he tells Simon he could bring Alisha back if he wants him to? Broke your heart, didn’t it?) There’s a lot more to say about Curtis, about who he is and what he wants. That makes him interesting, still. And, well, Rudy…there’s a lot of unravelling left for Rudy too.

If anything, the end of series 3 left me in greater admiration for the show, with even stronger confirmation about why I love it. Aren’t you proud of a show that doesn’t talk down to you? That isn’t afraid to tell the most captivating story while remaining authentic to its spirit?

Misfits hasn’t become Glee or Heroes or Grey’s Anatomy or all the other shows content to live in mediocrity for the sake of, I dunno, fangirl loyalty….

Isn’t that AMAZING?

Superhoodie in grief was brilliant character realisation. To watch Simon forced by loss to become Superhoodie; to see him transformed by Alisha’s death - his gait, his hair, the square of his jaw, all of it coming together, the evolution of a character, Oh My God, don’t be mad or sad, be thrilled we’ve been able to enjoy this kind of writing. It doesn’t happen very often.

Attached - Iwan Rheon, Antonia Thomas, Lauren Socha, and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett at the British Comedy Awards last week.