When I watched season 1 I found myself pleasantly surprised by parts and aspects of it that I had forgotten. With season 2 this is sort of the same situation, but not in the same way. What I found here is that my memory had blocked out a lot of the bad aspects of the second season, in particular the second chunk of it. It starts out great though and I am not sure what happens to it but up till Laura's killer is captured and unmasked, the show is as good as the first season was. It continued to have the Blue Velvet approach of American idealism but with this constant darkness always pushing to envelop it from beneath.
This is maintained well in the first half of the season it the way the first season did and it produces plenty of distressing moments – not least of which the murder of Maddy and the scene where the identity of Laura's killer is revealed to Laura's killer. All of this occurs as the main event on top of the same sort of soap opera material as before. And, as before this material is well balanced so that there is just enough of it to be recognisable and to be part of the show but not enough so that it becomes the focus of the show. Now, it is the episode after the exit of Bob from Leland that the entire season seems to take a turn for the worse and I genuinely have no idea what happened – whether the studios changed everyone involved with the writing or what, but something went badly wrong.
In the second half the material involving the investigation into the demons led by Cooper stutters and stumbles badly. Up till now it had been building well with plenty of mystery and dread to keep the viewer interested, but as it should be continuing to grow it seems to scatter to the wind, unsure of how to do it. While this happens we also have the many soapy sub-plots seemingly elevated to become as important if not more important than the investigation and the darkness. Now, while I appreciated this material as the bed of the show, it really clunks around in the second half and I really struggled to care about the majority of it – and did so less and less as it went on. Some of the 50 minute episodes were so heavy with this stuff that when I finished them really only 10-15 minutes had engaged me – which is a shame for a show that held me so effortlessly for the 16 episodes that made up season 1 and the first half of season 2. It does feel like someone decided that the OTT soap opera aspect was what was winning the viewers and that it was this aspect that should be embraced at all costs.
Sadly for the cast, this does expose a lot of them. In season 1, while this material was being done with a knowing air that allowed some of the "daytime TV" performances to be appreciated in context, the move to actually becoming a poor soap opera in some of the threads mean that some of them no longer have the protection of being a small part of a better whole. This affects all of those who have soapy threads that don't contribute particularly towards the central thread – and without this none of them are good enough to lift it themselves, going down with it, Marshall especially is left hanging out in the open badly. The main players continue to be strong though – benefiting from being in the threads that are engaging.
The season does recapture some of the darkness in the final few episodes and does pull off a particularly disturbing finale but I, like many viewers I suspect, felt fatigued by pointlessness by this stage and was grateful for it to be done. The first half of season 2 is great stuff and it is a shame it wastes it all away to nothing for the latter half, losing touch with what made the show work in the first place. Still a great show and worth remembering – but, having rewatched season 2 now I can totally understand why my memory from twenty years ago selectively edited out much of the second half.
This is maintained well in the first half of the season it the way the first season did and it produces plenty of distressing moments – not least of which the murder of Maddy and the scene where the identity of Laura's killer is revealed to Laura's killer. All of this occurs as the main event on top of the same sort of soap opera material as before. And, as before this material is well balanced so that there is just enough of it to be recognisable and to be part of the show but not enough so that it becomes the focus of the show. Now, it is the episode after the exit of Bob from Leland that the entire season seems to take a turn for the worse and I genuinely have no idea what happened – whether the studios changed everyone involved with the writing or what, but something went badly wrong.
In the second half the material involving the investigation into the demons led by Cooper stutters and stumbles badly. Up till now it had been building well with plenty of mystery and dread to keep the viewer interested, but as it should be continuing to grow it seems to scatter to the wind, unsure of how to do it. While this happens we also have the many soapy sub-plots seemingly elevated to become as important if not more important than the investigation and the darkness. Now, while I appreciated this material as the bed of the show, it really clunks around in the second half and I really struggled to care about the majority of it – and did so less and less as it went on. Some of the 50 minute episodes were so heavy with this stuff that when I finished them really only 10-15 minutes had engaged me – which is a shame for a show that held me so effortlessly for the 16 episodes that made up season 1 and the first half of season 2. It does feel like someone decided that the OTT soap opera aspect was what was winning the viewers and that it was this aspect that should be embraced at all costs.
Sadly for the cast, this does expose a lot of them. In season 1, while this material was being done with a knowing air that allowed some of the "daytime TV" performances to be appreciated in context, the move to actually becoming a poor soap opera in some of the threads mean that some of them no longer have the protection of being a small part of a better whole. This affects all of those who have soapy threads that don't contribute particularly towards the central thread – and without this none of them are good enough to lift it themselves, going down with it, Marshall especially is left hanging out in the open badly. The main players continue to be strong though – benefiting from being in the threads that are engaging.
The season does recapture some of the darkness in the final few episodes and does pull off a particularly disturbing finale but I, like many viewers I suspect, felt fatigued by pointlessness by this stage and was grateful for it to be done. The first half of season 2 is great stuff and it is a shame it wastes it all away to nothing for the latter half, losing touch with what made the show work in the first place. Still a great show and worth remembering – but, having rewatched season 2 now I can totally understand why my memory from twenty years ago selectively edited out much of the second half.