Even from the start, my feelings about this show had been mixed. Originally, it wasn't a show that piqued my interest. After some convincing, I decided to give it a go. While I may be one of the minority that enjoyed season 1, season 2 hasn't been good, and in particular the past three episodes have been a seemingly never-ending 45 minutes of my life, filled with my yelling of expletives at the screen.
Let’s start with the positives.
Monroe has by far been this season’s MVP. Last season, he was shown to be a power-hungry, crazy, violent, evil psychopath. Funny how people like that change when their power is taken away. My only complaint about Monroe is his plan to revamp the Monroe Militia, with his son Connor’s help. Repeating a storyline isn’t going to help, especially not one that while good for the first season, would make no sense in the second.
While Bass seems to still be the violent, evil psychopath as when commanding thousands of men (as shown in ‘One Riot, One Ranger’ when brutally killing a Texas Ranger), at least now he is working for the good guys, not the bad. His dialogue is fantastic (see 2.07, “I’m batman.”), and in particular his recent interactions with Miles have been the only thing keeping me in the show. The connection between the two, however deep, often has kinks. While this isn’t good from either character’s point of view, it brings out a lot of funny dialogue (see 2.11, Miles: “You’re a dick”).
Miles has been equally as good, but unlike Monroe, he isn’t much different to the character we saw in the back end of last season. You can’t doubt his commitment to helping his friends. Despite having his hand crushed, an infection to his arm and the ever present high levels of danger, he still risks his life to save those close to him. His interactions with every character have been fantastic, and thoroughly enjoyable to watch.
Connor, despite being new to the show, has actually been quite fun. His interactions with the few characters he has been with play out like his father’s demise – just a hell of a lot quicker. “Let me reiterate... screw both of you – with something pointy.” He is certainly his father’s son, and he has been a tiny glimpse of hope in this mess of a season.
So then we move on to the negatives.
The repetition of characters risking their lives to save other characters, however brave, is a highly overused plot. It seems that every single episode seems to result in at least one character being captured. It was good for a while, but, particularly when the character seems to be broken out within half an hour every time, there is very little point to any character being captured.
With last night’s ‘Captain Trips’, THREE more characters ended up either captured (Tom and Julia) or in a situation where they are liable to be captured (Connor). It was fun for a while, but now it has stretched beyond extremes.
Tom’s story was intriguing at first. He and his son’s quest to avenge Julia’s (Kim Raver) death by working their way up to killing all of the high-level Patriots was an enjoyable one. Now that she has returned, not only has it become much more confusing as to what the point of this crusade now is, it isn’t even remotely interesting. Tom’s murder of the Secretary of State, while at first a good plan, when it failed, the crazy ambition took over, leading to Tom killing him in his room. Now, while the Secretary had to die for the story to progress, it irritated me that they decided to make Tom find a different way of doing it. It seemed like wasted time in order to reach the same end result.
The supposed secret meetings between Tom and Julia seemed as though the pair had stolen two of the perception filters from Doctor Who in order to have their conversations. Until their last scene last night, I thought that no one within a 100 yard radius of the two had eyes. Or knew how to use them. The stupidity in that no one noticed them constantly talking is absurd.
The only positive for me in the Tom story is that Jason finally decided he’d had enough of his parents’ never-ending BS plan and took things into his own hands. OK, he got captured (ugh) but at least he tried to do something, rather than mindlessly listening to what his parents say. I find the likelihood that Jason is still alive very slim, but it is still possible.
Then we move on to the Patriots. It’s definitely a common theme in stupidity levels between those in Willoughby and those in Washington. So, when Rachel and Charlie were in the tent with Gene, who had been infected with the typhus, not wearing masks, no one, including Truman, noticed. Since he knows the damn typhus isn't going to spread, he should realise that now they know too, since they don’t need to wear their masks.As for the typhus, the dramatic effect of the realisation that it was made in a lab (which, after 16 years without electricity, much be pretty damn hard to do), had no bearing on me whatsoever. It was obvious in ‘Three Amigos’ that they were putting some kind of deadly virus (or something similar) into the oranges, yet we were meant to be surprised that the typhus was the work of the Patriots.
Aaron’s story has gone way off base. While the recurrence of the nanotech in the season 2 premiere led me to quit the show, it had since improved. Now, the nanotech are a pure annoyance. Directing Aaron to find Grace (who, after two appearances has disappeared – probably captured), where he then finds his old wife before being directed to Lubbock, Texas is a crazy treasure hunt – with an unknown and probably non-existent treasure at the end. And, didn’t the nanotech abandon him? Make your mind up nanotech….
While Monroe has been fantastic this season, his twisted belief that he and Connor can reignite the Monroe Militia would be, if not for the colossal stupidity going on around him, the most ridiculous thought on the show. What’s even more shocking is that Monroe thinks that Miles can help him do so. Miles quit the Militia and helped to take it down. But, he has apparently forgiven Monroe for his atrocities and would be willing to rejoin a new Militia.
While season 1 wasn’t exactly a stand-out set of episodes, it was a lot better than these drab storylines that we have been getting. Something needs to be changed, and fast.
