lathany

Last night I finished season 2.

So how was season 2 (The Coming of Shadows)?
Again, impressively rewatchable and much faster paced than I remembered. The Centauri-Narn war is the main thing of this season, but it only kicks off in episode 9 (The Coming of Shadows) and ends in episode 20 (The Long, Twilight Struggle), so much is packed into only half the season. Both G'Kar and Londo are magnificent.

In terms of the Shadows plot, it is shuffled nicely along, with references all over the place in practically every episode, keeping the momentum going. Plus the various (other) minor plots - telepaths, Grey Council, Earth becoming more aggressive, all continue in the background.

Characterwise the key thing is that Sinclair is replaced with Sheridan. Neither lead is a favourite of mine and I found Sheridan's long stories tended to set my teeth on edge, but he works well enough. However, I did find the bonding with Garibaldi seemed somewhat forced and felt that JMS should have switched around some of his ideas for Ivanova and Garibaldi from here on to suit the switch of main character.

Season 2 is Talia's last season and I was sorry to see her go. I also like Lyta though, and it was good to see her appearance in Divided Loyalties. Season 2 is also Keffer season - I'm not sure whether they never really decided what to do with him or if he was supposed to be as peripheral as he turned out in the "due to be killed" bracket. In terms of a four season view, this is also Na'Toth's last season, although the original actress turns up playing someone else (Sheridan's lawyer in There All Honor Lies). Given that they had changed actress, I wasn't sorry to see Na'Toth go - the replacement was too wet for a Narn. Similarly, Delenn starts becoming rather wet from this season.

Season 2 continued with the long speeches - and here Vir's response to Morden is great, if a little unrealistic (would you piss off someone that powerful?). However, it's also got a number of small, excellent scenes which I will really remember it for. These include Vir's apology to G'Kar, Vir and Lennier emphathising with the difficulties of working with Londo and Delenn, Corwin being interviewed with Ivanova in the background, the alive and dead list at the end of GROPOS and Garibaldi commenting on Londo being terrified.

There are no bad episodes this time, but the slightly less good ones include: Spider in the Web - this feels as though it should be really important, but nothing seems to come of it later, perhaps because of Talia's departure (but what happened with Bureau 13 anyhow?); The Long Dark - some lovely scenes, but again the Shadow Warriors make no second appearance; Knives - nothing feels like a main plot here.

The really good ones include: The Coming of Shadows - all the what-ifs and the hindsight moments; The Fall of Night - Kosh, Keffer's death, Zack's loyalties and the Narn ship; And Now For A Word - mainly for the idea; Divided Loyalties - For Lyta, Talia and Ivanova.