I'm trying to think of the things that seem like significant but subtle changes--like obviously there's a change in the state of how the characters interact (P&E are solidly together; Paige is suspicious, the Beemans are estranged), but I'm trying to think of things that seem like changes in the foundation of the show.
1. Most obviously, it's more serialized with a sense that the whole season was one story. The showrunners said how they now felt like they could end a story wherever they wanted and just pick it up in the next episode, and that definitely changed the feel of things. The first scene of Yousef could have been the last scene of Martial Eagle, but it would have made the two eps very different.
2. Another biggie was the pretty surprising when you think about it splitting of the two worlds of the show. Stan was involved in his own storyline about whether or not he'd be turned and the only times he even got near an Illegals story was when it concerned the Connors rather than the Jennings. But they still dropped in reminders that Stan hadn't given up on the originals or the program. So when people inevitably accuse Stan of suddenly having remembered the Illegals, they will be wrong.
3. This third one's hard since I sort of dismissed a big possibility by talking about the different places the characters were at shifting the Jennings family from P vs. E mode to P&E vs. P & H (but mostly P) mode. So what I'll say instead is that I think the show got more show less tell about the identity issues. Where in S1 Philip and Elizabeth talked openly about the confusion of their lives, saying they want things to be "real," asking "what does lying mean for people like us?" wondering if wedding vows would make a difference, etc., this season we just saw it happening with both of them saying truthful things while being other characters and seeing the conflict between who they wanted to be and who they had to pretend to be.
As for how I felt about these changes:
1. Ultimately, I think this was an advantage for that very reason of not having to spend time on set up and introducing characters in episodes. People popped in and out and you either remembered them or you didn't (plenty didn't, especially Anneleise!). But I'd be fine with one-off episodes in there too. I think another result of this was to make their world feel more paranoid--everything seemed to come back to their precarious position because everything felt like it did to them. Things that would have once just felt like variations on an ep theme seemed more like coded warnings to P&E. Case in point, compare Paige and Henry's adventures in hitchhiking last season to Henry's housebreaking this season. At least that's how it came across to me.
2. This change led to a lot of Russian intrigue, which I really liked. The Redizentura started to feel like a real office and the dynamic between Arkady, Nina and Oleg was incredibly enjoyable, with everybody being interesting in their own right, with very different points of view and background, and strong feelings about everybody else. If asked to pick which relationship was the most interesting between Oleg/Nina, Nina/Arkady or Oleg/Arkady, I couldn't.
3. This was just perfectly delicious, obviously. As much as scenes like Elizabeth laying out her relationship with Gregory for Philip are fantastic, I didn't realize last season how in control the characters still were in them until this season's identity blurring/crumbling moments. Where last season their identities seemed conflicted (Mom and Dad vs. spy and spy), this season they seem more fragmented and fragile. I think that's the word one of the showrunners used talking about BTRD, saying that Elizabeth apologized because she instinctively maybe understood that she'd crossed a line asking Philip to compromise his identity with her when his identity was so fragile.
It's funny writing that that I feel like Gregory, at least as he appeared in S1, would seem almost out of place with these people because he seemed so stalwart and coherent.
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1. Most obviously, it's more serialized with a sense that the whole season was one story. The showrunners said how they now felt like they could end a story wherever they wanted and just pick it up in the next episode, and that definitely changed the feel of things. The first scene of Yousef could have been the last scene of Martial Eagle, but it would have made the two eps very different.
2. Another biggie was the pretty surprising when you think about it splitting of the two worlds of the show. Stan was involved in his own storyline about whether or not he'd be turned and the only times he even got near an Illegals story was when it concerned the Connors rather than the Jennings. But they still dropped in reminders that Stan hadn't given up on the originals or the program. So when people inevitably accuse Stan of suddenly having remembered the Illegals, they will be wrong.
3. This third one's hard since I sort of dismissed a big possibility by talking about the different places the characters were at shifting the Jennings family from P vs. E mode to P&E vs. P & H (but mostly P) mode. So what I'll say instead is that I think the show got more show less tell about the identity issues. Where in S1 Philip and Elizabeth talked openly about the confusion of their lives, saying they want things to be "real," asking "what does lying mean for people like us?" wondering if wedding vows would make a difference, etc., this season we just saw it happening with both of them saying truthful things while being other characters and seeing the conflict between who they wanted to be and who they had to pretend to be.
As for how I felt about these changes:
1. Ultimately, I think this was an advantage for that very reason of not having to spend time on set up and introducing characters in episodes. People popped in and out and you either remembered them or you didn't (plenty didn't, especially Anneleise!). But I'd be fine with one-off episodes in there too. I think another result of this was to make their world feel more paranoid--everything seemed to come back to their precarious position because everything felt like it did to them. Things that would have once just felt like variations on an ep theme seemed more like coded warnings to P&E. Case in point, compare Paige and Henry's adventures in hitchhiking last season to Henry's housebreaking this season. At least that's how it came across to me.
2. This change led to a lot of Russian intrigue, which I really liked. The Redizentura started to feel like a real office and the dynamic between Arkady, Nina and Oleg was incredibly enjoyable, with everybody being interesting in their own right, with very different points of view and background, and strong feelings about everybody else. If asked to pick which relationship was the most interesting between Oleg/Nina, Nina/Arkady or Oleg/Arkady, I couldn't.
3. This was just perfectly delicious, obviously. As much as scenes like Elizabeth laying out her relationship with Gregory for Philip are fantastic, I didn't realize last season how in control the characters still were in them until this season's identity blurring/crumbling moments. Where last season their identities seemed conflicted (Mom and Dad vs. spy and spy), this season they seem more fragmented and fragile. I think that's the word one of the showrunners used talking about BTRD, saying that Elizabeth apologized because she instinctively maybe understood that she'd crossed a line asking Philip to compromise his identity with her when his identity was so fragile.
It's funny writing that that I feel like Gregory, at least as he appeared in S1, would seem almost out of place with these people because he seemed so stalwart and coherent.