....have we seen a nice, normal, loving, affectionate couple like Megan and Phillip Todd. Why is that? It's generally useful to make the audience CARE about people before you put them in jeopardy......if we don't feel something for them, we won't care much when disaster strikes.
That's an aspect of storytelling that never got much attention on DS.....once the supernatural became the driving force of the show, real feelings and natural behaviour went right out the window.
Even the Todds get only a couple of episodes and now the inevitable kiss of death is at hand. I've never seen 'Leviathans' but I already know that instead of an extended period of character and relationship developement (which would have provided relief from the tension and encouraged emotional investment in the characters) we're about to get hit with All-Hell before we've even caught our breath from the return from 1897.
If we're still talking about why ratings began to go down....THIS practice gets my vote.