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Carnival Row Season 2 Post-Mortem
2023-03-25 06:47 pmSo, I was a bit too busy to keep up with my reactions through the week (turns out I have to learn a lot of technology stuff I am not the least bit interested in right now, like which bus does what and what the difference between SRAM and DRAM is), but I did manage to keep with the new episodes. My reaction, from what I gather, is more positive than most people’s (hence me having noped out of Reddit and general discussion), but it’s not altogether positive, and some aspects I really don’t like.
Generally speaking, the second season, especially the middle, needed more time to breathe, and the characters and relationships needed more time to move in the directions they went. So I understand why people complain, but to me at least, the overall trajectories made sense, at least in theory. I also appear to be one of the few people who like the Pact-related world-building we got, and didn’t think the series demonized communism or something. I actually really appreciated that we got to see the fae react in different ways to different types of oppression some more this season.
I just really wish it hadn’t been so rushed, especially around the middle, with Jonah and Sophie – they deserved at least two more episodes to end up where they did! And the case could have needed some more work.
The one thing I really, really didn’t like was the Vignette/Tourmaline ending. Not because I ship Vignette/Philo more (although I do) – I liked Philo’s ending, including him being alone. And not because I wanted Tourmaline to end up with Darius either (she clearly wasn’t into him in that way). I just absolutely loved Tourmaline’s take-down of Vignette’s personality when she shot her down at first, because it makes Vignette a very interesting character to me and explained a lot about her behaviour. But also, Tourmaline deserves better than her because she’s the best, especially since the series didn’t put in the work to show me that Vignette had changed. I read somewhere that they cut out some stuff that would have made it poly, and honestly, I’m not really into poly pairings, but this would have been one situation where it would have actually worked, and I’m sad they had to cut down so much.
Things that I liked in general:
Berwick (I do need to write a fix it for him, don’t I?)
Kaine (especially the Philo and Kaine team-up!)
Darius and Tourmaline and Darius and Philo!
Runyan being out of his depth in politics (and going back on the road with his kobolds at the end)
Philo grappling with his identity
Agreus and Imogen’s ending
Generally speaking, the second season, especially the middle, needed more time to breathe, and the characters and relationships needed more time to move in the directions they went. So I understand why people complain, but to me at least, the overall trajectories made sense, at least in theory. I also appear to be one of the few people who like the Pact-related world-building we got, and didn’t think the series demonized communism or something. I actually really appreciated that we got to see the fae react in different ways to different types of oppression some more this season.
I just really wish it hadn’t been so rushed, especially around the middle, with Jonah and Sophie – they deserved at least two more episodes to end up where they did! And the case could have needed some more work.
The one thing I really, really didn’t like was the Vignette/Tourmaline ending. Not because I ship Vignette/Philo more (although I do) – I liked Philo’s ending, including him being alone. And not because I wanted Tourmaline to end up with Darius either (she clearly wasn’t into him in that way). I just absolutely loved Tourmaline’s take-down of Vignette’s personality when she shot her down at first, because it makes Vignette a very interesting character to me and explained a lot about her behaviour. But also, Tourmaline deserves better than her because she’s the best, especially since the series didn’t put in the work to show me that Vignette had changed. I read somewhere that they cut out some stuff that would have made it poly, and honestly, I’m not really into poly pairings, but this would have been one situation where it would have actually worked, and I’m sad they had to cut down so much.
Things that I liked in general:
Berwick (I do need to write a fix it for him, don’t I?)
Kaine (especially the Philo and Kaine team-up!)
Darius and Tourmaline and Darius and Philo!
Runyan being out of his depth in politics (and going back on the road with his kobolds at the end)
Philo grappling with his identity
Agreus and Imogen’s ending
