The second season of Halo is a bit ruined by too much visual violence. There are plenty of spectacular scenes. The CGI (computer-generated imagery) works overtime. It all looks fantastic. Although sometimes it is a bit too clearly 'fake'. In the second season it is even clearer that this television series is based on a game. This is especially visible from the viewpoints from which the film is filmed. This is done by using the same technique as in the game. For example, filming is often done from the helmets of The Spartans. Moreover, shooting and fighting have become much more central. The result is that there is much more action in this second season compared to the first season.
Unfortunately, the story suffers somewhat from this. By investing all that time in overwhelming action, there is less time for the story behind all that violence. Moreover, there are so many main characters who are in different locations that those stories also take a lot of time. Finally, the mysticism behind the whole thing is rather poorly developed. Almost at the end, a new development comes about that makes it completely confusing.
It all looks fantastic.
Another problem is that rough, white-knuckled Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber, American Gods) does not exactly excel in showing emotions. That suits his role well, but it is a bit of a weakness when emotion is called for. Especially because other characters are often the same raw husks. Because of this, and because of the somewhat fragmentary story, it is difficult to get a real connection with the characters in this television series. For example, the death of certain important characters gives a rather distant feeling.
Even though this second season is inferior to the good first season, it remains a television series to keep an eye on. As mentioned, the visual side is excellently designed. The story may sometimes be a bit grating, but at the end it all becomes clearer and more intense. Moreover, there are several storylines and characters that can be quite interesting. Soren (Bokeem Woodbine, Unsolved) and Laera (Fiona O'Shaughnessy, Utopia)'s search for their son deserved more attention. Just like the events surrounding Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha, Troppo) and Makee (Charlie Murphy, Happy Valley).
The result is that there is much more action in this second season compared to the first season.
In short, it could have been better, but it remains interesting because of all that action and speed. The visual spectacle prevails. This means that the first season, where the story was better and more clearly structured, scores one point higher than this second season. For diehard fans of the game and action enthusiasts, I can imagine that this season is better. There is no accounting for taste.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
Totally agree. I also found this season a bit disappointing story-wise. But in terms of action it is indeed absolutely fine. I hope that more will be done with the story in the coming season. We will see!
There is indeed no shortage of action this season! The CGI was also top notch. In my opinion, Joseph Morgan has been a good addition this season. I think the fact that Pablo cannot show his emotions very well is a family ailment :P. Liev (Ray Donovan) isn't very good at that either, but it always surprises me how they can get away with it because it doesn't bother them. I thought the 2nd season was better than the 1st season.
