I have mixed feelings about this season. One thing I will say up front is that it is simply not as good as season 1. The Cardiff story is just more interesting than the Mutiny story. And season 1, with its more precise recreation of 1980s America, had a much more interesting and powerful sense of time of place going on.
This season there were also some plot missteps. What the fuck are they doing with Gordon? It’s almost like they don’t know WHAT to do with him so they decided to force his character into some silly ass subplots just to keep him active. The illness thing is stupid, the cocaine thng is stupid, the infidelity thing is stupid. The writers really fucked that one up.
I will say that part of the problem however may have been false expectations. If season 1 was Pumping Iron, then this was Pumping Iron II: The Women. I thought the Mutiny storyline was okay, but not nearly as interesting as what happens when Joe and Gordon get together. And I basically had this feeling that we were just waiting for Joe and Gordon to team back up and get some crazy shit going like they usually do. I think that if I had realized early on that that wasn’t going to happen—that is, that S2 is basically the Cameron and Donna show—then I would’ve been more into it.
All in all, if S1 was an 8.5 then I’d say S2 is a 7 (or possibly 6.5). That is to say that it’s “okay.” I still enjoyed it enough to keep watching. But I’m also really hoping that if there is a season 3 that the writers are able to learn from their mistakes and return to the level of storytelling that we got the first time around.
