***This review contains minor spoilers***
Watch the SPOILER review on YouTube
Krypton” season 2 ditches the first season’s quest to save Superman’s existence, and instead opts for a rebellion to overthrow General Zod. While there are a few memorable moments, the story falls mostly flat.
What worked for season 1 was the ticking clock element of trying to keep Superman from vanishing from history. Add to that the emotional conflict of knowing that if the good guys win, all the rest of Krypton will eventually die, and you had a compelling concept. The plot twist at the end of the season was that they completely failed, and General Zod takes control of Krypton before going on to conquer the galaxy. However, despite the promising story, season two just never get out of first gear with it. With the rebels on a moon and Zod’s forces on the planet, there are only limited opportunities for the two groups to battle each other. It’s mostly Zod talking on a view screen to Val and Jax-Ur, making threats back and forth. And despite the threat of Braniac still looming, he ultimately goes from Krypton’s greatest threat to just being a thorn in the side of Seg.
As far as Seg goes, he has finally grown on me. I found him bland last season, but here is much more motivated and ready to spring into action. It took most of the season, but Lyta also overcame her staleness. Having her let her guard down really helped humanize her character. Nyssa was also much improved. She was pretty generic in season one, but putting her with the rebels added some dimension to her, and her duplicity was always worked into the story while still keeping her in character. Val-El, who was an emotionless-hologram most of last season, grows into the caring father figure role quite well, and is extremely likable. Adam Strange lays it on a bit too thick with the comic relief, but eventually settles into a more integral role. Sadly, the always funny Kem is absent most of this season, and when he does show up he’s been forced to become a more serious character. Meanwhile, Zod is mostly one-dimensional. He’s just the evil ruler with few morals and doesn’t do anything to make him relatable or sympathetic. The only major new character is Lobo, who’s a mixed bag. He’s a bad ass with a funny quirkiness to him, but sometimes he overdoes it and comes off corny.
The show still looks fantastic. The production designs and the special effects look almost too good for television. The biggest challenge was making a convincing CGI Doomsday. When standing still, he looks pretty damn good, but when he moves it often looks a bit wonky.
“Krypton” season 2 takes a great starting point and slowly runs it to an anti-climactic finish, while previous big bad Brainiac and the mission to save Superman have become afterthoughts. Most of the characters finally show some signs of life, and Lobo adds some hit-and-miss charm to the proceedings.
** out of *****