Nothing’s the same as ‘You’re the Worst’ returns

Everything is turned upside down at the beginning of season four of FXX’s “You’re the Worst,” except, of course, how screwed up Jimmy and Gretchen are.

At the end of last season, novelist Jimmy (Chris Geere) proposed to music publicist Gretchen (Aya Cash) on a hilltop overlooking Los Angeles and then immediately abandoned her.

Originally, the two met at a party and had a casual hookup. Then they found themselves continuing to hook up. Despite every attempt by the two of them to undermine their relationship in the ensuing seasons — neither of them want to appear normal — they held it together.

The third season, in fact, found Jimmy learning how to support Gretchen as she dealt with clinical depression while he was dealing with his own crisis: the death of his estranged father. Then he fled. When the story picks up, the Brit writer is living in a trailer park for retirees. He makes a living doing carpentry and spends his nights watching TV reruns with an anti-social old coot (Raymond J. Barry) — something of a preview of where his own life might be headed.

Meanwhile, Gretchen has been in a funk. She hasn’t left the apartment of her best friend Lindsay (Kether Donohue) for three months, and has told the hip-hop group she promotes she’s traveling Europe on their behalf.

So while Jimmy and Gretchen have sunk into the depths, former trophy wife Lindsay has scored a job in the fashion industry and Jimmy’s once homeless war veteran roommate, Edgar, has learned to manage his PTSD and is working in the television industry.

The new season of “You’re the Worst” — created by Stephen Falk, who writes and directs much of the series — takes its time in having Jimmy and Gretchen face-off again.

This odd “romantic comedy” has always taken the approach that no single action makes anyone irredeemable — at least so far. Jimmy and Gretchen often spur each other toward self-destructive excesses, some of which would be beyond the pale for many of us, but they also seem to hold the key to each other’s better selves.

“You’re the Worst” has always been in danger of growing too hip or too stale. So far the series has kept changing enough to avoid that. The early episodes of season four show promise. It seems some reckoning is on the way, but it could also signal the beginning of the end.