I have read criticism that almost unanimously says that the 2nd season is a downgrade from the 1st one. Bad writing, bad acting, inconsistent quality in a wide range of aspects... while I would like to be able to personally verify those things, I won't.
This may seem odd, but I'll criticize the 2nd season having only watched the 1st episode for one simple detail which is big for me. It's about the lead actor being changed, something which I should have expected given the show's premise of sleeves (mind/body transplants). Either way, it's something that breaks any show for me, the same reason why I could never get on board with Doctor Who.
I am not a huge fan of the previous lead, but I much preferred Joel Kinnaman to Anthony Mackie - although that is probably biased by the fact that I got attached to the actor from the 1st season, but I never really liked Anthony as an actor anyway. I keep repeating myself, I don't like one bit when leads are switched, even when the reason for it is death - case in point: Spartacus. When the late Andy Whitfield (RIP) was replaced by Liam McIntyre, I did go along with the show, but just because the show was damn good, yet it still was very hard to keep up with the lead change up until the end of the show.
I know this may seem unfair and poor criticism, but that's really how I feel about any show when it comes to this; I don't feel like throwing away 6 hours of my life just to validate something which I already know to be true for me.
Review by fungus1487BlockedParent2020-03-09T23:05:02Z
A decent follow up to the first series, I didn't find it as thought provoking and at points the plot can be a little linear. Some episodes merely act merely as filler, it feels like this could have been condensed into a theatrical length film. Visually beautiful with some good ideas, by far the stars of the show are Simone Missick who plays the interesting cyberpunk hacker/bounty hunter with one foot in the action and another trying to balance her commitments to family and the absolutely fabulous Chris Conner.
Exploring the fragmentation of Poe makes him feel only so much more human, a trait which unfortunately is lacking in leads Anthony Mackie and Renee. I understand this is a point the show is trying to make, the humans who have experienced lifetimes of memories and have moved from sleeve to sleeve are potentially less human than their AI counterparts but this just means we don't feel as invested in our lead two. The big reveal of the elders follows a fairly standard execution of aliens in sci-fi, the mystery disappears and unfortunately what could have been a deep dive into an alien culture is brought short abruptly with flashy fight sequences.
Enjoyable enough for any sci-fi/cyberpunk fans.