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But season 2 seemed a lot weaker and like it focused on characters more while not really building them out enough to make them interesting and there wasn’t enough wacky background stuff going on to alleviate how underwhelming the character development was. It felt like the background cast got more screentime while the show regressed their characters from last season, and really outside of Gigi and Brett, I found most of the supporting cast a little worse.

I felt like Rand especially was taken in a direction that didn’t really match his season 1 character trajectory. Rand seemed to be borderline sociopathic in season 1 and it was hard to tell what his motivations were and if he genuinely cared for Reagan, or if she was just a tool for him to have control and enact revenge. I think this made him a very interesting and compelling villain with a lot of potential for growth and conflict with Reagan. 

But season 2 basically opens by saying “Nah we’re not doing that”. And there’s just never any real conflict or development between Rand and Reagan. It really feels like the show built up how Reagan would have to outsmart and/or potentially get her father to have a change of heart so she could retrieve control of her life goals. 

Instead the plot just seems to go “Nah shes not smart enough to do that on her own, she should just distract herself to cope”. Suddenly Reagan seemed to lose all her determination, conviction and self discipline. Suddenly she needed others to support her to achieve her life’s passion, when most of season 1 she seemed really adept at pursuing what she wanted against all odds, external pressures and a system that seemed constantly rigged against her. I think I found that a really disappointing turn for her character, because I loved Reagan’s obsessive isolationist nature, and how she could be self centered, neurotic, and controlling but was never intentionally malicious about it.  She seemed to suddenly go from being too aloof to being too concerned about other’s approval.

Rand’s character development also felt as if it bent to support this unnatural direction in the storytelling. It felt like he became a lot more affectionate, emotionally honest and contrite out of nowhere during season 2 and that seemed to also serve to remove him as an effective antagonist. Seeing as he was a pretty big force for the plot in season 1, his character being so toned down in season 2 seemed to leave a pretty big vacuum for driving forces in the plot.

I honestly felt like the show avoided effectively using some of the best characters like Alpha Beta, Brett, and Rand, while not really being able to bring in anyone new to justify that choice. The lack of Brett and Reagan duo kinda bummed me out especially as their dynamic is almost always the best part of any episode for me and really seemed to naturally bring out and develop Reagan’s social abilities. 

The jokes also felt more referential and less witty too which kinda made everything about the show seem a little worse. They felt more blatantly pandering to a younger and more progressive demographic in a way that I found obnoxious and less clever even though season 1 had similar jokes, they were smarter and more punchy.

I found Ron to be alright, but I guess he was so isolated from most of the rest of the plot that he wasn’t given a lot of room to have more than two character traits which was loving Reagan and hating his job. I feel like we missed a lot of opportunities with him to explore the Illuminati or react to Cognito or something that would’ve added a little more to his personality. 

I feel like the plot let Reagan lose herself in a relationship in a way that just wasn’t enjoyable for the audience, and that all the external forces that normally would’ve complicated her relationship in season 1 (her dad, her company, crazy random stuff in the world itself) just mysteriously didn’t exist or were extremely sedate in a way that felt uncharacteristic. Reagan just kinda seemed to complicate her own relationship for no reason in a ways that felt rather boring and unimaginative for her character. 

Overall season 2 just felt disjointed, I enjoyed it but I guess it felt like eating a dish full of all the things I liked but not in the right amounts. The chemistry was off and it really felt like the writing lacked oversight or needed more drafts or something so that all the different aspects gelled well together. I wish the jokes had been less lazy and more layered and that the show had continued being sardonic while also being sincere.