Chapters. (Season 3)



Chapters.'  third season is subtitled Bad Things Happen At Noon. Created by Mike Barkhoff, it follows the second season and sees a new setup, as episodes are no longer released monthly and are collaborative in comparison to it's predecessor, which had all of it's episodes written and directed by Barkhoff.

Background
Season 3 was originally to be titled "Broken Stars" and follow both nonfictional and fictional celebrities as they cope with new expierences and fall apart. Barkhoff decided to delay this concept, feeling another conceptual season would ruin the series for himself and the audience. He took unreleased projects and used them to form "about half" of the season.

Barkhoff knew "almost instantly" after wrapping Season 2 that he wanted Season 3 to be a more collaborative effort, citing many episodes of Season 2 as being, in his eyes, "rushed and exhausting" due to him being the sole contributor.

Production
Due to the setup of the season, many episodes were in the editing stage or already finished and stored internally or externally on laptop or hard drive.

The new episodes, however, began filming just a little over a month before the first episode premiered. Barkhoff's use of collaboraters was similar to how he and Jarrod Van Hauen collaborated with Death, My Darling, where he would send dailies to the episode's director to opine the camerawork and acting. The scripts were all honed by the collaborator with Barkhoff extending a helping hand. The stories, also, were all partially set up by Barkhoff, save for the episode "Limbo", which was Ron Gomes' contribution.

Due to the nature of filming, continuing the film style quarantine just for extra safety among the crew, Season 3 was overall filmed in little more than a month. Ron Gomes' guest writer credit "Limbo" had been sent to Barkhoff prior, but he asked for Gomes to allow him the use of it as an episode. This was the last episode to be finished due to the usage of multiple actors during the final stage of COVID-19, which still brought difficulty to the overall set.

Marketing
The season employed no marketing before premiering March 30th, 2021. A share of the aired episode was the reveal of Season 3's airing. A poster was released within the week on Barkhoff's website.

On May 30th, 2021, exactly two months after the first episode, Barkhoff sent a tweet and deleted it, in which he said: "Just got Episode 14 of Chapters. done. They're out of order, so we got 1 more (Gomes') but I'm thrilled to share these w/ u."He then released another tweet, again deleting it within a minute, where he revealed the episode titles: "Sozzy - Revisitor - Vent Sess - Your broadcast to... - Limbo - (The) Syringe + Communicator - Drip / in no order"Barkhoff confirmed the episode sequencing on July 11th, as well as updating the IMDb page. The day prior, he had shared a picture of Limbo's title card to the company Facebook, hinting that the episode had wrapped filming. A specific episode he revealed the title to was nowhere to be found and, due to this, it remains to be seen where and when, if ever, The Syringe will be released or seen.

Unlike the previous seasons, which each had one episode with a trailer and at least one episode with a poster, this season, being midway complete, has yet to see either of those two marketing techniques attached to an episode.

Reportedly, an early contender for a later episode in the season - presumed airing around October - would have been a clip from Dylan Van Hauen's debut feature film. However, due to that aforementioned film beginning filming much later than expected, this idea was shelved. It was also later reported that the season would wrap before October, even.

Themes
Season 3 employs themes of moving on and moving in (quite literally, as two episodes feature a character moving into a new house). It also focuses on death heavily, and draws on revenge, ego, and pettiness.

After the season wrapped, Barkhoff suggested a theme he hadn't seen anyone mention: the loss of a friend. As Barkhoff put it, "I was going through a loss of one of my own in life - someone who I got along with well in my middle years of where I'm at now. I found out just about right before the new episodes began filming that he betrayed my respect for him. As I do, I used art to familiarize myself with the way life is. And because of that, a lot of the episodes are sharper than I would usually make films. I'm not holding back because I'm going through it. That's why ego and narcissism are concepts I drew into the picture, too."

Unlike Season 2, which fit the same theme in several episodes, the theme for Season 3 is varied in weight, and can be more focused in one episode or entirely drawn out for a timeframe. For example, Episode 8 of Season 3, the "artistic specialty" episode of the season, ends on a bleak note because, rather than trying to fit a similar theme, Barkhoff wanted the artistic collaboration to also be heard. He asked Delfs, that episode's director, what he would do in reality if faced with a circumstance similar to that, and suggested Delfs make that the ending.

Cast
Mike Barkhoff appears in Episodes 1-4, 6-13

Anessa Smith appears in Episode 9, Limbo

Reception
Season 3 of Chapters has received acclaim, though it is notable that the first three episodes received less lively reviews in comparison to Season 2. Beginning with Episode 4, the season has received steadily rising positive reviews. All episodes but one hold a minimal of 9/10 on IMDb as of current date.

Episodes 4 and 5 were noted positively for their comedic roles brought to the table of the usually dark show, while Episodes 1 and 3 were met favorably for being "unique". Episode 2 has received positive reviews for it's acting and camerawork but has been criticized for being "effortless" by some and "not going anywhere" by others. Episode 6 was met with positive reviews for it's camerawork and the acting of Mike Barkhoff, while Episode 7 received critical acclaim for it's "inventive style" of carrying on a 'diss track'.