- Feb 7, 2011
- 8,627
- 3,168
- 118
- Country
- 'Merica
- Gender
- 3 children in a trench coat
Having finished Season 2 of Arcane yesterday, I liked it overall, but it definitely has a ton of problems, especially in terms of pacing.Arcane season 2.
Binged it in a single day. Literally first words out of my mouth after finishing the last episode were "what the fuck?"
2024 has produced 2 absolutely baffling, and ultimately disappointing sequels to smash hit pieces of media. Folie a Deux went completely wrong and Arcane season 2... I don't even know man. This feels like a sequel to a completely different show than season 1. It's one of the most complex and convoluted stories I've ever seen. There's a shitton of plot elements, twists, reversals and double-crosses that watching it in one day was probably a mistake. It goes so all over the fucking place I don't even know where to begin. I'm probably gonna have to watch it again to see if it makes any sense at all.
Positives though: the show's animation quality hasn't suffered one bit despite the much shorter production time. There isn't as much action as in season 1, but what there is can absolutely stand up to it. The show looks even better than season 1 which I thought basically impossible. There are so many images that are basically moving paintings that the eye candy gets downright overwhelming. The design, colours and cinematography are simply out of this world. Again: binging this was a mistake. The characterization and writing are still extremely strong and you will not have any idea where the story is going.
But hoo man, does this season make some big swings and misses. And that requires getting into spoilers, so...
Soooooo yeah, a pretty big disappointment, but I probably screwed myself by binging it in one day. We'll see if a second watch proves different.Like I said, this is a horrifically convoluted story. It feels like character loyalties and allegiances are reshuffled like every episode, and some of it I was having a really hard time keeping track of why. There's a bazillion different plot threads going on at once, and the pacing is just all over the goddamn map. For like half the show you're left completely baffled at some elements which do get explained and reincorporated later, but the show simply goes totally overboard with this style of storytelling. You gotta be really careful when leaving viewers in the dark, plot elements unexplained, or stranding characters for episode after episode. The worst offense in this category is probably the start of episode 8, when we get a whole lot of exposition dumped on us, and you can just feel the writing creaking at the seams in that scene.
Fuck, it's really settling in: this season's a mess. Instead of a continuation of the themes, topics and characterization of season 1 it switches gears entirely, going for astronomically high swings about transhumanism, the quest for power, and morality in politics. Which is fine, but that's not what the first season was about! The story ends up cheapening the amazing ending of season 1 by basically letting Jinx go scot free, no biggie. The obvious looming class conflict between Piltover and Zaun gets basically ditched completely, which is a fucking crime. It's also really depressing. Season 1 was no parade of smiles either, but there were moments of levity and reprieve. Here it's just an onslaught of tragedy, and whenever there's a happy moment you just know it's just the pause between kicks to the stomach.
This season also introduces multiple elements that can completely deflate and break a story, and it doesn't fully get away with them: 1. resurrection, 2. alternate timelines and 3. turning back time. The time travel is kept extremely limited, but I was getting really anxious when they were introducing it, because it also introduces the possibility of the laziest solution to any story ever. Bringing back Vander as a pseudo-zombie was IMO a huge misstep. Not necessarily because it felt out of place, but because it felt like a betrayal of season 1. The first season had a real sense of finality and stakes to it: no take backsies, no do-overs. Introducing resurrection in any form is always going to deflate that sense to some extent, and it just doesn't work here. The alternate timeline episode just felt weird. It's another example of this season's wacked out pacing. It really should have been sprinkled in with the rest of the plotlines instead of being a full episode in itself. Now that I think about it that would have been way better. The plotlines and pacing being so chaotic gives me the feeling that they hadn't really planned this story out, and instead just came up with it as they went along.
The biggest issue is that the show is still introducing new plot elements and new characters at episodes 7 and 8. We're 80 to 90% of the way through the show and they're explaining about The Black Rose, a secret organization of mages, and essentially adding in a new antagonist to an already packed roster of characters.
The story feels unfocused, like they crammed it all into a single season when they may have planned for it to be a trilogy.
The animation is absolutely gorgeous, and I suspect that the cost of the animation made it cost prohibitive for netflix to greenlight 2 more seasons even though the first was a massive hit, so they had to truncate certain parts of the plot to make it all work as 2 seasons.
They're definitely setting up for spin offs in the same universe, but I suspect any follow up shows will have reduced animation cost and quality. They couldn't skimp on animation for season 2, but they'll be able to once it's a spin-off.
It's overall good, but the first season created a lot of expectations that season 2 was not able to fully meet.
Definitely would not recommend watching it all in one sitting. 1 episode a day would probably be the best viewing experience.