ARCANE, SEASON 2 - Too Much, All At Once - Review

The show had a lot of expectations placed upon it, and while good in places, it felt underdeveloped or rushed in others.

SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Arcane is an interesting series in that to me personally it is one of two shows that managed to avoid the curse of being a failed video game adaption. The other is Edgerunners in how it managed to do what so many video game to movie adaptations fail or refuse to do (looking at you Fallout), which is to recreate a near 1:1 copy of the game’s world space. The Night City as you see it in Edgerunners is practically the same as the one you play in, down to even the smallest detail and there are even guides online pointing out points of interest that match the show. I’ve seen some mention of the Last of Us TV show, but I haven’t seen it. It does appear to do some things right, but some fans feel the show is just Druckmann’s attempt to fix the first game. The casting like with everything nowadays has been hotly debated also.

I feel Arcane is going to end up in the same position and I fear that no matter what it did, it would have been nigh impossible for it to ever top the stellar first season. As a relative layman to League of Legends, I can’t speak for the lore breaks, and there are many better equipped for that type of deep dive. The biggest criticism many share is how rushed and all-over this show seems to be. We had a fantastic cliffhanger that to many would imply a future conflict between Zaun and Piltover with the possibility of it being all out war between the two. Honestly, seeing where Viktor sought refuge and who he began healing. I at first thought he would seek to unite Zaun under his influence, but the show bounced around so much that it was at times difficult to know where we would end up next. One minute, Ekko is living his best life (Congrats man) the next Jayce is fighting for his life (the cuts to Jayce made this kind of funny to watch, the man was locked in for sure). 

That being said, I can't fault the show’s visual design. It is frankly gorgeous and to say otherwise would be lying. It never fails to pop with different set pieces and styles. The shots of Cait and her allies hunting through the under-city to root out Jinx were incredibly well executed with a toxic gas being the primary means to disable anyone they come across. It does a lot to hint at Cait in particular being more than the girl we saw at the start. Her family has a history, and with her mother’s death, she becomes driven by revenge for what Jinx did. And will stop at nothing to apprehend or kill her. This leads to an awkward situation where an utterly defeated Jinx after Isha’s death is so resigned that she would sooner die than continue in the world she has influenced so much. You would think her sister would do more than just have safe horny sex with Cait, but I digress. On the subject of Isha’s sacrifice. It is done well, and the show builds up to it by showing just how close Jinx is to her. To the point that the Jinx from S2 feels at times unrecognisable to how she was in S1. Now that she has something to care about. Funnily enough, Isha is by far one of the most driven to getting her back out there, to the extent that she even becomes a copycat Jinx of sorts to inspire the people at the mercy of Ambessa’s men. 

The soundtrack was also good, but it felt like after a while I was watching AMVs stitched together with various talking scenes. They looked good but it's quite jarring hearing lyrics that reference real-world locations, maybe that’s just me being nitpicky though. 

Hextech is weird, the show tries to make it seem bad but it’s largely bad because of how it’s used and employed, which is true for any technology that has the potential to be weaponized. The Jayce and Viktor arc was interesting and the dark timeline opens many questions, but we could have had more focus on them, especially Viktor. Whose power level just goes climbing off-screen? There is also the reveal that he is the one who saved Jayce as a child, which opens a can of worms by itself. The show at least does time travel in a fun way that mostly relies on showing it in action over telling us how it works, something the MCU should have avoided. Though, I do wish writers would find more solutions than just using the multiverse (someone somewhere just raised the mother of all eyebrows considering what type of writing I post but still I think I make a good point here). 

The sad thing is the Warwick reveal was incredible, it nailed the horror vibe to a T, but in the end, he was more just a tool for a plot and while we have some endearing moments of him remembering his past, it isn’t for long as Viktor robs him of his past and completes his transformation in the monster. Somehow, in all of this, Singed, the guy who created shimmer and more, got away relatively unscathed. As of the show’s end, Jinx and Warwick are dead with many others having to pick up the pieces of what just happened. I can’t not mention the Black Rose, because the way they toyed with Mel was unique, using her family to try and trick her. I wish we had more of them, as the visual of someone trapped in their black chains against a reddish nightmare reality is probably one of the standout visuals in the show. Along with Mel, Ambessa was a solid villain with her knowledge and experience showing itself at various points to the detriment of Caitlyn and the others.

The conclusion is that it's fine. Just fine. Nothing spectacular, but then it had big shoes to fill following S1. If you like this type of fantasy, I would recommend both seasons just for the visual storytelling as that carries so much of the show. I can’t understate how detailed each character is along with the world, the team behind this needs to be praised for this alone. As for what comes after, I’m not sure. This is the one time I would understand if a show either needed more episodes or an extra season to give things more time to breathe.