Definitely early to judge, but as someone who saw potential in season 1 but thought it had some big problems nothing so far is changing my outlook on the show as a whole.
A couple things that struck me:
- The Gaal/Salvor plot continues to lack direction. I have no idea why they had to contrive the plot to bring them together or what they are going to be doing this season. And that is in spite of the fact that the writers clearly tried to explain it in the scene where they were looking at the predicted timeline diverging, which felt really generic to me. They haven’t done a great job of giving these giant stakes personal impacts for the characters.
- Really not a fan of the faceless enemies threatening empire, or the whole genetic degeneration. I think it would have been a lot more interesting if the main focus was the idea of the Cleons changing in spite of their identical genetics. I did like the color blindness plot last season, just not how it ended up being due to the wider genetic manipulation scheme. The Empire plot line was at its best when the focus was on politics and the human and philosophical nature of the genetic dynasty.
- The Queen plot already feels rushed. I don’t understand how Dusk and Demerzel would have even let it progress this far, it feels like something they would have quickly nipped in the bud. I feel like we skipped a step in seeing the Queen’s faction growing in power and Empire feeling threatened by it.
Again, I think it’s too early to judge. This series has such a strong foundation (ha) in the politics and philosophy of a collapsing empire and ideas like the genetic dynasty and scientific prophecy. I really hope the series is able to center its focus on those aspects this season rather than the generic sci-fi elements that started showing up last season.