Question of the week #35

[treonb]

A lot of the critics have talked this year about things that changed on the show between seasons one and two. What are three changes that you yourself have noticed?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first two seasons in the comments.

(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)

Comments

[katiac]

1. I definetely agree on the singular story arc in season two versus more contained ones in season one. As for preference, I suspect I would enjoy something of a hybrid of the two best. Season one often felt too disjointed and like the missions were random. Season two had some moments where I felt the spy story was pushing too hard and fast and not allowing the emotional story to breathe and get fleshed out. Since the emotional story for better or worse is what really interests me, it made some episodes this season fall pretty flat compared to season one. I certainly didn't have as many "can't fall asleep because I'm so excited about the episode" nights as season one.

2. I though they did a much better job fleshing out secondary characters and background characters. Some, like Kate, still seemed pretty flat, but they took Martha and Annelise, who both came across as pretty one dimensional to me in season one, and gave them more than just "likes sex with Clark/Scott" as a personality trait. Charles Duluth was also fleshed out, and Claudia, and the new characters like Lucia, Larrick, Emmett and Leanne had a little more there, I thought.

3. I felt like the major change of Philip and Elizabeth being solidly together was both a bad and a good thing. It was great for what my shipper heart wanted to see, but at the same time, less marital tension at times translated to less focus on the marriage... and focus on the marriage is what i want to see. It's that double edged sword and why I'm really excited for what the possibility of season three could mean... I don't want things "bad" for them like bringing in third parties and cheating again, but the idea of them both wanting to be married while having to navigate how to do that when you have a huge fundamental difference with your partner is a great real world problem, and would keep them both "in" the marriage while centering focus on the emotional story.

[sistermagpie]

Re #3, it's interesting hot them being together wasn't like opening a floodgate of communication or scenes like that. They did communicate, but mostly in the same way they did before. A lot of it was still unspoken or through little gestures.

That said, I agree that the situation they're in now will hopefully demand different kinds of communicating (hopefully they'll still be doing it).

[katiac]

Very true. It's not as if either of them are particularly eager to sit down and spill their emotions at any time. It usually looks incredibly painful! The events of season one kind of forced them into a place where there was no way to get what they wanted without a little emotional honesty after a lot of years of lying and deception and I'm sure it had to feel like such a relief (especially to Philip!) for things to just be okay so they could go back to just getting what each other meant, something they're actually good at when they're not actively lying, and away from the whole having to spill your guts thing, which for him is just sheer torture.