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Phew, what a finish and WHAT a second half. The show became so amazing as the season went on and eventually it became better than the first season.
The second season concentrates on a very important topic, mental health issues of the sportspersons. In addition to that, it also deals with few romantic relationships.
A lot of things changed from the last time I wrote about the show, the show was not a cultural juggernaut that is today, the show didn't have a heap of Emmys and the show didn't run for more than 30 minutes. And I'm very happy that all this happened.
Coming off the bat I wanted to say that I didn't like the first half that much and found some of its storytelling choices to be bizarre. There were no consequences to anything. The two instances are the team canceling their Dubai Air sponsorship and Roy's sudden departure from his pundit job. These two things nagged me very much. And I couldn't get into the show till the second half, by the way, I loved the Christmas Special (S02E04).
The weekly approach or the standalone episodes didn't bother me. Carol of the Bells and Beard after hours (these two episodes were additional episodes to this season) were two of my favorite episodes this season. Another this is that I'm one of the people who is watching the show from the very first day, from the first set of three episodes, so the weekly approach didn't bother me a bit (I know that the weekly approach became a huge discussion on Twitter).
My thoughts going into the second half was that I still liked the show but it was not up to the season one's mark. But once the dust settled and each character was there in the position they were supposed to be, the show turned into an uncontrollable beast. Episode after episode the show just churned out magic. Each one of the episodes was just so good. This made me love the show all over again.
The character development was and still is the winning formula for the show along with its heart. Roy's arc in the first season was that season's best work. But in this outing, the show delivers more than one best character development be it positive or negative. The relationship between Roy and Keeley is one such development, it has now become one of the best TV relationships. The other one is that of Nate, going from worse to worst in each passing episode. Each area where he was motivated to become lesser and lesser of a good guy that he was in season one was perfectly noted down. Kudos to Nick Mohammed for this brilliant portrayal.
The addition of Sarah Niles as the team's psychiatrist was a very good move. You know what made it better, them giving a very good arc for her. The same goes for the kinda filler episode, Beard after hours, which adds more character to Coach Beard.
Happy to hear that the next season too will contain a total of 12 episodes.
Season Rating: A
Little Things:
Just like the first season this season too is riddled with some super pop culture references
Loved the conversations between Roy and his niece Phoebe
The next awards season might be dominated by the acting and writing team
Shooting the semifinal in Wembley was such a nice touch
Bottom Line: Top-notch character development makes this season better than the first one (which is a huge task)
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