Season 2 Discussion

[AngieBee1]

Now airing on Sky.

Elliot is back and under the thumb of a shadowy organization whilst the Dumanis adjust to their new power and the Wallaces fight to reclaim their place.

[aghst]

Violent as ever, with the extended fight sequences, very bloody.

the blood seems digitally-enhanced, like one person drowns underwater and a burst of crimson red expels from his mouth.

these gangs kill, including bystanders, and blow things up with impunity.  Cops are rarely seen until the aftermath of fights or battles.

there are few unexpected strategies, because these characters seek nothing else than power and they’ll kill anyone in their way.

You see brief glimpses of what motivates them, like the Kurds wanting to fund wars back home by making as much money as possible from crime.

Koba is interested in squeezing out all the other gangs, who are mostly organized by ethnicity, most of them immigrants in the UK.  He threatens Luan’s family and abducts his wife.

Elliot just wants to protect himself and his father, the only family he has left.

the aim of the show runners appears to be to maximize violent action scenes but the kind of nihilism depicted shouldn’t be sustainable.  They turn parts of London into war zones, at least for a few hours.  One imagines that kind of overt violence would be met with more forceful response from the authorities and they’d lock up a lot of these players.

I have 1 and a half episodes left to watch so I’m not sure who survives but the series is already renewed for season 3.

if the formula is the same in season 3 it would strain credulity.

[BigBlueMastiff]

I watched this awhile ago, and forgot how it ends😐 I loved season 1, and will rewatch in anticipation of 3.

[Ottis]

I've watched all of S1 and only 1 ep of S2 so far. but at some point this show changed from an interesting study of gangsters hiding behind business to a show that just loves gore and finding new gross ways to kill people.

It's going to lose me if it doesn't return to something more interesting. It did end with Marion in a hanger with weapons, so maybe that will help if she has a bigger plan than just "mow everyone down!"

Edited January 26 by Ottis

[Ottis]

On 6/18/2023 at 9:42 AM, aghst said:

if the formula is the same in season 3 it would strain credulity.

Not only that, but the way the season ending was disappointing for two reasons:

- If all that is going to happen is the main players will switch alliances over and over, what is the point?

- Koba would never fall for being poisoned that way. Even I noted Sean opened the food trays and left them on the car and didn't start eating anything. 

There needs to be some sort of driving direction besides "we will control this city!" Clearly there are too many factions for any single faction to control everything, so why make that the only strategy?

They need to address those things. Other buggy stuff, like Sean's posh accent and Super Elliott traveling the world as a successful assassin, would stand out less if there was a larger direction.

[Auntie Anxiety]

I stuck around for the second season but will not be returning for the third. Wow, that was terrible AND stupid. The gratuitous fighting and the non-stop blood-letting was filler because the writers couldn’t come up with a storyline. 

On 1/29/2024 at 1:06 PM, Ottis said:

Sean's posh accent

I noticed this in the first season and it was inexplicable. He could have had any accent but they settled on the Queen’s English? Really?