This is a pretty clear step down in my mind, and I wasn’t nearly as into season 1 as others. Season 1 had at least two arcs I felt like were appropriately dramatized: the heist arc and the prison arc. The Ghorman resistance arc is the closest we get in this season I think? But honestly it’s a pale imitation. I don’t really care about any of the resistance member characters. There’s hints at good stuff, but I just never got that invested because we don’t get enough meaningful characterization to hang the drama on.
The bigger issue is the fact that they have to wrap up everything to get us to the beginning of Rogue One. The secret of the Death Star is even less interesting here than it was the film. It would be more interesting if it didn’t come out of nowhere plot-wise where Jung just tells Luthen at a random time. We get Saw Guerra, who feels like a pointless distraction in every scene he’s in. The only good thing to come out of this aspect is Alan Tudyk is back as K2-SO, who was one of the best parts of Rogue One.
On that note, I think that a lot of the characters from season 1 are unmemorable, which makes it hard to follow the plot a bit. I didn’t realize Vel was a character I should remember until Cinta showed up and they had a look. My thought was literally, “oh the space lesbians!” Brasso and Wilmon sure are guys who are there sometimes.
Another dishonorable mention is Syril. He felt pointless in season 1 and this season is different but about the same on balance. He has something to do, although it’s not very consequential. And then he dies, pretty much randomly. The only thing that’s kinda interesting is his moment of disillusionment, but since it doesn’t go anywhere it barely rates.
The one overall good episode is “Make it Stop” where we get Luthen and Kleya’s backstory. Some actual emotional moments. It’s really frustrating because I know they could have been doing stuff like this all along and yet we get so little of it this season.
I suspect given the fact that this takes place over 4 years, that some of this was condensed. But the lack of drama makes me wonder if there was even a real plan to begin with.
Overall there’s some decent bits but it just doesn’t cohere. Like a 5/10 at best.