See: Season 2 (Full season)

November 7, 2021 2:07 PM - Season 2 (Full Season)

Queen Kane, purportedly pregnant, survives to set up a new seat of government with Maghra in tow. Baba Voss continues his search for his family but is reunited with his brother first.
posted by porpoise (4 comments total)

I just inhaled both seasons of this, and I don't know if it's good, exactly, but it's very watchable and I love it. It's not always consistent, it doesn't always make sense, and sometimes it's a hot mess, but I like the cast and the characterisation and the bits of worldbuilding that are actually thought out well.

I like that all the clothing, armour and hairstyles are embellished with so much texture, and that people use scarification to make recognisable markings on their faces. It might make more sense for those markings to be on their hands and arms, but this is probably a Doylist accommodation for sighted viewers, like the colours which everyone on Reddit bitterly complains about.

It's amazing that all these people, despite living in unhygienic low-tech conditions in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, both age and recover from major injuries extremely well.

They also seem to be super bad at making sure that someone is actually definitely dead (not that I'm complaining about the improbable return of a particular character, with a redemption arc and a better haircut).

The premise of the series reminded me of the novella Mother and Child by Joan D. Vinge, in which it's hearing that has disappeared from a far-future humanity and is considered to be a supernatural ability.
posted by confluency at 11:45 AM on November 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

The second season is certainly doubling down on the implausibility. Only halfway through the second season.

And I agree, the story and the characters are compelling. I am huge Dave Bautista booster - and while I'm a little disappointed that he's in yet another typecast villainous role, he at least a serviceable actor and I think that he's still got upside.

Ironically, it's a pretty gorgeous (visually) show. I'm a sucker for post apocalyptic/ post anthropocene visual media. I would have gone in a very different direction for costumes and makeup though.

A small detail that really turns me off is Wren's secret place - she discovered it a long time ago and presumably lived in it on and off, yet the dust over everything is even and undisturbed.

I can get why a sightless society would shun high rises, but the underground locations have great heights as well (albeit, with pre-existing railings).

Thanks for introducing me to Joan D. Vinge! Really looking forward to reading 'The Snow Queen.'
posted by porpoise at 6:21 PM on November 20, 2021

I particularly appreciated Maghra's storyline. Fantasy politics is very much my jam. There was a point towards the end of the first season when she was unwell, and I started to worry that she was about to die tragically of some nonspecific ailment, as mothers of chosen children in fantasy stories are wont to do once they're done being an incubator and instilling values. So it was nice that what happened was extremely not that.
posted by confluency at 8:18 AM on November 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

I like thinking about politics, and fantasy politics devolves back to what has amounted to politics for much of human civilization; power through force, then maintaining force through ideology and favours to secure enough force to maintain the power required to have enough force to...

I'm only to the point where Queen Kane's starting to lose her force via abandoning ideology and she doesn't have much of anything to give in terms of favours. Am sticking it out to see how it all plays out.
posted by porpoise at 5:00 PM on November 21, 2021