Dark, season 2
It had similar plusses and minuses to season 1. A new plus is that while my least favourite character, Ulrich, doesn't get killed off in the first five minutes as I and 
monanotlisa devoutly wished he might, he's in it only briefly and intermittently, and this time around, I was more confident the show knows how much of a jerk he comes across as. (And the very last scene he's in is a terrific case of "fuck you, Ulrich". I mean, he totally deserved what another character did to him there, and it was more satisfying than a death, too.)
Season 2 is also the season of the Tiedemann clan - Egon Tiedemann as a young and old man is lovely, and Claudia middleaged and old gets neatly fleshed out. Also, Jonas aquires more than one brooding expression which is good because he's the central character of s2 even more than of s1, in several timelines and incarnations. The big twist of the season being that he's also the big bad, Adam, and both his young and middleaged self are horrified by this and vow to fight against their oldest future self. On the one hand, this sort of is the logical extreme progression of young John Connor in The Sarah Connor Chronicles being more and more appalled by what he hears of old John Connor, on the other hand, it's sort of self evidently futile, since so far there's no indication time can actually be changed, and Adam has remembered all attempts by his younger selves to defeat his schemes (and thus was prepared for them). Otoh, there's Claudia, and I'm on board with how both her older self and Adam accuse each other of being the ultimate big bad who's lost the mission while her younger self and Jonas teach each other how to time travel at different points of their time line. That's my kind of messed up. (Not to mention that they really have more and more in common in the tragedy stakes - young Jonas tries to save his father from committing suicide and instead turns out to have directly caused it (since Michael/Mikkel did not intend to do so until Jonas inadvertendly gave him a good reason by revealing he, Jonas, wouldn't exist otherwise), middle-aged Claudia tries to save her father from getting killed and by that action accidentally causes his death (and then adds not accidental guilt by not calling the ambulance when she realises the consequences).
It's all very Greek tragedy, and on that note, while Stranger Things, season 3, had new character Robin made the obligatory Back to the Future incest joke ("did that mother try to bang her son?") in the family friendly assurance that of course no actual or intended incest happens in Back to the Future and thus there can be a joke about it, Dark, season 2, being a European show goes with the actual time travel caused incest, and then some. When Jonas late last season figured out his father was actually his girlfriend's younger brother, there were a lot of other things going on, so I didn't think much about it. This season, it's a major theme. Unfortunately, other than Jonas, the teenage characters, Martha included, don't fare so well in that in their diminished screentime, they come across as utter jerks to me. (It's the torture that does it. Seriously, leaving someone tightly bound in a cave is Abu Ghraib kind of viciousness, and my sympathy with everyone who did that, including Martha, was less than zero from that point onwards. I was downright sorry Jonas later saved them from the apocalypse, and not so sorry when Adam killed Martha to trigger his own from-hero-to-villain turn.
The other time travelling incest (sort of) occurs or rather it revealed when it turns out that not only is time travelling religious serial killer Noah Charlotte's father but her youngest daughter will become her mother. Well, technically not incest, since Noah and Franziska aren't related, but still. Incidentally, that Charlotte, who was one of my favourite s1 characters, in this season has little else to do than sit in a bunker and be shocked by various revelations was a let down, and while the new police guy wasn't as much of a jerk as Ulrich, I still begrudged his existence.
As with season 1, I appreciate the show doesn't try to copy American tropes (other than Noah - evil preachers strike me as strictly USian as a trope; not that we don't have evil priests in European storytelling, but they're a different trope); its chosen main 80s trope - the fear of a nuclear desaster - being the biggest case in question.
Trivia: when Jonas ends up at the earliest point in the time line yet and hears people talking about "the war", he assumes they mean WWII and replies to the question where he was fighting "the Eastern Front". But the following reveal that he's ended up not post WWII but post WWI is obvious if you've been paying attention not just to people's costumes but also the state of the buildings (the very existence of same - post WWII, at least some bombed out houses would have been inevitable). Thematically, putting the start of the fateful developments around Winden not post WWII but with what historians often see as the Urkatastrophe of the 20th century also works.
In conclusion: continues to be not a must, but an interesting watch. Ulrich having been dealt with, I'm now rooting for the demise of the Junior Abu Ghraib squad, want more of the intriguingly messed up Jonas and Clauda frenemy relationship and continue to hope Charlotte will finally get something to do again.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1347116.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
monanotlisa devoutly wished he might, he's in it only briefly and intermittently, and this time around, I was more confident the show knows how much of a jerk he comes across as. (And the very last scene he's in is a terrific case of "fuck you, Ulrich". I mean, he totally deserved what another character did to him there, and it was more satisfying than a death, too.)
Season 2 is also the season of the Tiedemann clan - Egon Tiedemann as a young and old man is lovely, and Claudia middleaged and old gets neatly fleshed out. Also, Jonas aquires more than one brooding expression which is good because he's the central character of s2 even more than of s1, in several timelines and incarnations. The big twist of the season being that he's also the big bad, Adam, and both his young and middleaged self are horrified by this and vow to fight against their oldest future self. On the one hand, this sort of is the logical extreme progression of young John Connor in The Sarah Connor Chronicles being more and more appalled by what he hears of old John Connor, on the other hand, it's sort of self evidently futile, since so far there's no indication time can actually be changed, and Adam has remembered all attempts by his younger selves to defeat his schemes (and thus was prepared for them). Otoh, there's Claudia, and I'm on board with how both her older self and Adam accuse each other of being the ultimate big bad who's lost the mission while her younger self and Jonas teach each other how to time travel at different points of their time line. That's my kind of messed up. (Not to mention that they really have more and more in common in the tragedy stakes - young Jonas tries to save his father from committing suicide and instead turns out to have directly caused it (since Michael/Mikkel did not intend to do so until Jonas inadvertendly gave him a good reason by revealing he, Jonas, wouldn't exist otherwise), middle-aged Claudia tries to save her father from getting killed and by that action accidentally causes his death (and then adds not accidental guilt by not calling the ambulance when she realises the consequences).
It's all very Greek tragedy, and on that note, while Stranger Things, season 3, had new character Robin made the obligatory Back to the Future incest joke ("did that mother try to bang her son?") in the family friendly assurance that of course no actual or intended incest happens in Back to the Future and thus there can be a joke about it, Dark, season 2, being a European show goes with the actual time travel caused incest, and then some. When Jonas late last season figured out his father was actually his girlfriend's younger brother, there were a lot of other things going on, so I didn't think much about it. This season, it's a major theme. Unfortunately, other than Jonas, the teenage characters, Martha included, don't fare so well in that in their diminished screentime, they come across as utter jerks to me. (It's the torture that does it. Seriously, leaving someone tightly bound in a cave is Abu Ghraib kind of viciousness, and my sympathy with everyone who did that, including Martha, was less than zero from that point onwards. I was downright sorry Jonas later saved them from the apocalypse, and not so sorry when Adam killed Martha to trigger his own from-hero-to-villain turn.
The other time travelling incest (sort of) occurs or rather it revealed when it turns out that not only is time travelling religious serial killer Noah Charlotte's father but her youngest daughter will become her mother. Well, technically not incest, since Noah and Franziska aren't related, but still. Incidentally, that Charlotte, who was one of my favourite s1 characters, in this season has little else to do than sit in a bunker and be shocked by various revelations was a let down, and while the new police guy wasn't as much of a jerk as Ulrich, I still begrudged his existence.
As with season 1, I appreciate the show doesn't try to copy American tropes (other than Noah - evil preachers strike me as strictly USian as a trope; not that we don't have evil priests in European storytelling, but they're a different trope); its chosen main 80s trope - the fear of a nuclear desaster - being the biggest case in question.
Trivia: when Jonas ends up at the earliest point in the time line yet and hears people talking about "the war", he assumes they mean WWII and replies to the question where he was fighting "the Eastern Front". But the following reveal that he's ended up not post WWII but post WWI is obvious if you've been paying attention not just to people's costumes but also the state of the buildings (the very existence of same - post WWII, at least some bombed out houses would have been inevitable). Thematically, putting the start of the fateful developments around Winden not post WWII but with what historians often see as the Urkatastrophe of the 20th century also works.
In conclusion: continues to be not a must, but an interesting watch. Ulrich having been dealt with, I'm now rooting for the demise of the Junior Abu Ghraib squad, want more of the intriguingly messed up Jonas and Clauda frenemy relationship and continue to hope Charlotte will finally get something to do again.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1347116.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.