In terms of visuals, the second season got rid of the stupid red and brown horror like filters and features more action scenes with ok enough motions. In terms of sound the opening and endings were better, albeit still pretty forgettable.
The best aspect of the second season was reducing a lot the amount of purely evil one dimensional nobles that ruined the first and focusing more on the cat and mouse game between Holmes and Moriarty with high stakes, even attempting to deal with the birth of the nation and a woman’s life at stake in a conspiranoical way…for about three episodes before going back to the same thing, and the woman changing gender thus being a transgender man in 1800’s London because I’m sure that was a thing back then.
A complaint I’ve seen from others that I agree with is that this season feels like it’s throwing references to iconic names just as fanservice, here is Jack the Ripper, here someone names himself James Bonde, Bond, without the e so it’s not too obvious, although not a major problem.
The bad things implemented in the second season that weren’t present in the first were more comical scenes and cool action. The former were supposed to add a bit of personality to the main characters and give them some scenes to interact between them in a relaxed way to make them more likable, but they clash a lot with the overall serious tone and approach of the series, not fitting into the whole thing, plus a character changed his personality completely between episodes and the fact that he can adapt different personalities and looks with ease does not let these moments feel genuine. The latter were supposed to make things more exciting but they are short, over the top and feel way too improbable within a more or less realistic setting in a show that takes itself seriously to the most part, kicking a coin at a ridiculous speed to make a bullet bounce? Come on now.
Anyways the show got rid of the one dimensional evil nobles to the most part, thank God (besides a completely absurd flashback episode) to focus more on the gang trolling them and getting important information of them while presenting more enemies and people with ideals similar to William’s along the way, thus becoming more political, which would have made things more interesting if they were handled properly. More seemingly capable enemies would have add more tension but since anyone’s still playing under William’s rules, that doesn’t happen. There are even fights among two gangs of assassins and you can barely see them.
No major complaints about the other guy, but he was too idealized and threw away his ideals way too easily, before becoming a tragic figure in a rather preachy manner and disappearing from the show completely in a couple of episodes.
Eventually the major issues within the show were, ironically, the elements that I expected to save it at the end of the first season, the interactions between Holmes and Moriarty and the conclusion, which was rushed and contradictory. Regarding the former, for a show that was supposed about these two geniuses going against each other, making one of them being completely fooled by the other was a major disappointment, but making them respect each other and even become friends with major fujoshi vibes ruined it completely, especially with the finale, which did the right thing of not being the exact same as the original, but it was too different, a very lukewarm alternative to it. I recently watched the 1995 “Heat” and the 2004 “Collateral” movies where, respectively, a cop and a criminal and an assasin and his hostage come to respect each other while trying to get rid of the other and they don’t become friends, because their very line of work and positions in the conflict make it impossible, and the finale of those movies were a lot better while still keeping the dynamic between them.
The second aspect was seriously bad for several reasons, first it tried to pull a Lelouch without comitting itself completely to it, second it resolved the major conflict very easily, all it took after all the killings was a two minutes preachy speech about the ways of the past and how the former nobles were different to resolve everything and last but not least, both Moriarty and the series desperately tries to paint him as some sort of villain and a necessary evil, yet almost every new character he encounters treats him as a tragic hero and one of them even says something like “you’re the man this country needs to change”. Excuse me, what? We’re talking about a mass murderer here. As much as I dislike the V for Vendetta and The Dark Knight movies for being too silly and too improbable and forced at points, they still did a good job when it comes to present both of their criminals as the villains who are clearly wrong, even if somehow they ended being supported by the majority of their audience.
Apparently the manga still goes on but what’s the point? The main character accomplished what he wanted, the main objective of the series and the themes already got a conclusion, sure, it was terrible, but it was there, going on with it is just stretching it at that point. That is why I won’t keep track of the franchise anymore, there’s no point for it to keep going and what I expected to raise its level was terribly handled. With Death Note, I guess Monster, Heat, Collateral and perhaps even The Dark Knight around, there’s no reason to watch this one.
