Unlike my season one review, I won't be vague this time around. Since it's been almost a year since season one and hopefully the show has gathered an audience, I will be going into more detail this time around.
Picking up from the end of the last season, the Runaways live up to their namesake after confronting their parents about their murderous nature, but their plans to leave town are hindered when their parents put out a news report making them look like the killers of one of their victims. So right off the bat, we leave behind the traditional tropes of teenage home and school life as our main characters adjust to their new normal.
While this is a dramatic show with many big moments and development, the parts I enjoyed the most were the small ones. Despite leaving their old lives behind, we still have teenagers dealing with teenage things. We have relationships that develop and have their ups and downs, such as Nico with Carolina and Gert with Chase. You'll become quite invested where you'll enjoy the sweet times and feel sad when things seem to start breaking down for them. Besides that, you see the characters making the best of their situation and still have fun, like when they throw a quinceanera for Molly. There's a clear message here that even through the dark times, you have to stop enjoy the brief moments of joy and the ones you share it with.
After two seasons, I have to say my favorite characters of the series are Nico and Molly.
While Alex may be the tactician of the group, Nico is very much the field leader. She's able to take charge and get the others to listen to her, showing much strength in her character. Through all this though, she struggles by keeping her relationship with Karolina in a good place as well as trying not to be as domineering as her mother is in her own group. On another note, I just love her fashion sense. From a Black Parade style jacket to some Victorian style dresses, her goth attire helps her stand out as the best dressed of the group.
As for Molly, she has really grown over these two seasons. Being the youngest of the group, she always feels like the outsider with the most to prove; even in season one, no one would even listen to her when she tried to tell them about her super strength until she finally displayed it. This season, it finally occurred to me that she has suffered the most out of the whole group. Her parents were killed when she was young and she was taken in by Gert's family, so unlike the others, she has no blood relatives left. This motivates her to make sure no one suffers like she has, saying that they should use their abilities to do good outside their own problems, as well as put her on a journey to realize that the Runaways are the family she needs (her and Gert also grow closer as sisters this season as well). I've much enjoyed watching her go from this insecure kid to one of the strongest characters on the show.
I do have to give props to Alex's character this season too. He's kind of the odd man out of the group since he doesn't have any super technology, alien genes, or even a dinosaur. He's essentially the normal one, and at the beginning of the season, he's still tempted by some semblance of a normal life. He grows close with his father's old friend Darius, as well as strike up a relationship with his young sister-in-law Livvie; he wants to fill the void left from last season in terms of family and romance. It just makes it all the more crushing when he's forcibly snapped back to the reality of his situation, fueling his desire to see his parents brought to justice even more. You could say it conflicts with his role as team leader, with his own vendetta getting in the way of what's good for the team. It makes for good character complexity, showing he's not perfect but you still hope he realizes the right thing to do.
As for the PRIDE parents, while there were definitely shades of gray last season, I found there was a lot more black and white this season. I liked only a few of them since they seemed to genuinely have good intentions even until the end, some of them are still in that gray area, but many of them act so reprehensibly that I can't see them as anything but villains. While I guess some could still feel some sympathy for the ones in the last group, I just didn't feel the same about these characters like last time where I could still see a hint of reluctance in their actions.
Speaking of villains though, Julian McMahon returns as Jonah, the leader of PRIDE, who we later learn also goes by "The Magistrate". McMahon continues to provide a great villainous and at times creepy performance, and we get to learn a lot more about his past, nature, and goals. Though perhaps we learn too much; not to go into spoilers, but let's just say he has something in common with Jacob from "Twilight", and it's not a good quality. Unfortunately, McMahon is out of the show two-thirds of the way into the season. While the character is still around in some way, losing McMahon means the show losing its most charismatic villain.
McMahon's departure brings me to another point that this season reminds me a lot of Luke Cage's first season. It feels like the overall season is comprised of two smaller seasons, with one episode at the half-way point feeling a lot like a finale, and the second half not being as strong as the first with characters making some really dumb decisions. That said, the second half still has some interesting and entertaining plot lines, going into the season's true finale, which promises a third season even more different than before.
Special effect wise, it's about half and half. A lot of the effects are still on par with the first season, like Old Lace and the powers of the characters. Other times though, the fakeness is glaring with scenes that are clearly set in front of a green/blue screen. This is just a minor problem I had though since it's the characters that are the driving force of the show.
It's worth mentioning that this season appears to have more connections to the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's a brief mention of Wakanda, but perhaps the biggest connection is to "Doctor Strange" during the last third of the season. I won't go into details, but it appears to have to do with the Dark Dimension.
And while not necessarily a connection, there's one thing that happens that really bugs me. In episode eight, the PRIDE parents talk about Jonah as if he's the first real proof of alien life. I know it's harder to place the TV shows in terms of where they happen in relation to the films of the MCU, but I feel like it should be safe to assume that the first Avengers film happened already. That said, did they all just forget the Chitauri invasion in New York? You can't even say that Runaways happens before that since much of the technology and references are very modern. I know it's a minor detail, but it's just baffling that the Chitauri invasion was such a huge event to the world that it gets referenced in almost literally every MCU TV show, and yet it seems to be ignored here.
Overall, season two of Runaways isn't as groundbreaking as its first. But in terms of the second chapter of a larger story, I'm still enjoying these characters, the journey they're on, and the trials they'll all continue to face. The cliffhanger this season ended on has me itching to see what happens next even more than the previous season's finale. Unlike the Netflix shows though, I don't think we'll have to worry about this series being cut short and a third season announcement should be soon.
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