It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to review a full season of a show, I often had the chance to review a full series such as The Addams Family: The Complete Series in both situations everything was firm either a new season on the way or finality to the show. However now what makes this very different is that there’s some rumors that state their might be a season 3 and others confirm that isn’t true, therefore The Horror Times and I will only focus on the facts,. So how does one review a season the best way I know or is by going through several of the episodes, with a summary and review, I shall try to avoid spoilers which will likely lead to cryptic summaries; however no guarantees. Many fans of the series abandoned it midway through the season upon hearing the reports it was ending only after two years on the air, sadly that leads to poor ratings and crippled its possibility to a new afterlife.
The downside is likely depressing fans or viewers in general is the slow start to the new season of this horror drama, as it all starts about 8-years later and some key individuals losing their lives and others discovering evil never dies, only taking to forms. In the first episode “Bad Mother” from director John Shiban, starts with Manx’s children feeding their bloodlust at Christmastown but soon enough through their journey in the woods, Millie (Mattea Conforti) falls crying for her father and later makes discoveries about Christmasland. Meanwhile Maggie (Jahkara Smith) learns serious information about Charlie, although Vic (Ashleigh Cummings) doesn’t believe any of it. Then Bing (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (The Meg [2018]) hunts down others to destroy, yet not all goes according to plan and we all know evil never dies. The second episode “Good Father” might be a tough one to follow as its filled with flashbacks and switching back to present focusing on one character take a majority of the screen time, and that’s Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto). As for the storyline it truly staggers, there’s a lot we learn about Charlie, however it seems to stall overall with more dialogue than action. The next three episodes appear to lose focus aside from the sadistic side of Charlie which is enhanced but the rest of the characters start losing their proper footing, a necessary rhythm once found in season one. Vic’s attitude clearly more focused on rage, but the reasoning seems more rushed for the viewer to fully comprehend leading to ridiculous leaps of mental acceptance regarding a serious accident. The 6th episode “The Hourglass” resurrects some tension which transcends into the following week’s “Cripple Creek” providing an intriguing story for the fans of Bing as it all gives melodrama, with a few flashbacks. The final episode contains the final fight against Charlie and the future of Christmasland is at the center of the all converging on it, the writing for this one really brings in everything to a high point with the characters’ convictions and tensions thoroughly entertaining for the audience.
The Blu-ray contains very little in the manner of special features a preview of the season 2 and recapping with the characters, as well as a further in-depth origins story of Charlie Manx though one does learn it through the episodes, perhaps not as well-versed. The downside through the season comes from the slow pacing of the stories, where AMC’s breadwinners of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead do have excessive dramatic moments, multiple stories with several characters running at once, just like a soap opera, it has action, carnage and zombies; the gothic and blodlusting takes a tally on the viewers.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5194792/
IMDb Rating: 6.7/10
Baron’s Rating: 6.0/10