To begin with, let’s see how different it is compared to the prequel. It appears the most prominent thing that comes to our minds is the shift in tone and genre. In the first season, the narrative features a structure of episodic side stories going along with an overarching one. Having a steady flow and being self-contained, they can be enjoyed independently and slowly. However, in the second season, everything changes drastically. The tone becomes dark and intense, slowly shifts from drama-oriented to crime-oriented. This direction was already foreshadowed from the very beginning of the first season and apparently, there isn’t anything bad about it like most people claim. In fact, it presents a very action-packed plotline with many intriguing events. The fight between Xiaoshi and Tian Chen, the battle in the hospital, the heart-breaking backstory story of antagonists, the chasing sequence, the swap of Li siblings, the kidnapping and hostage exchanging scene, the confrontation between main characters and antagonists, the reveal of Tian Xi’s memory and Lu Guang’s identity. Yet concept and execution are two separate matters, the idea is great regardless but it seems the overall story quite struggles in the process of delivering, especially the middle part.
Pacing is the rate of events that occur as the story progresses. Based on this definition, the pacing here seems really inconsistent. Taking from my own experience, I don’t remember how many times I had to pause during the first 4 episodes because of information overload. New characters come to the screen, new plots arrive, new questions are thrown while those previous mysteries are still left unclear. It creates a sense of overwhelming that fits the atmosphere of a thriller show, with almost no moment for breathing as our eyes are glued to the screen and our brains being 100% concentrated on finding clues and hints about what’s really happened. In opposition to that, everything starts being stagnant after the backstory, the plot hardly moves. Sidestepping some flashbacks for the purpose of characterization, the story wastes too much screen time for filler scenes and unnecessary actions. Perhaps the original script is intentionally written for only 10 episodes and not 12.
Moreover, what’s worse here is that cliffhangers are so annoying and unpleasant. It used to be good but now no different than a cheap bait to tantalize viewers. Xiaoshi dove into Lu Guang’s body and hid himself inside the bathroom, a police noticed and was about to discover him. Is the past gonna change? Nope, another incident kicked in and distracted him, everything went back to normal. A kinda great suspension is solved by a generic plot device, which is just basically unsatisfying.
Another weakness that needs to be brought out is the mystery narrative. In season one, though most parts are drama and slice-of-life, hints are dropped deftly and every scene no matter how trivial is really important and has a certain purpose. All the mysteries are connected and the unfolding of plot twists perfectly ties up everything. Now in season two, what do we have? The story keeps jumping from this point to that point, leaves off some details to make it vague and only explains them in the next episode. What makes season one better is its subtle use of ambiguity and revelation in proper places, a mundane story turns into extraordinary, while season two literally just tries to change the event order with almost no significant details for addition in between. Not totally predictable but still is not enough to keep us on the edge of our seats like what it used to be. The reveal in the final episode is amazing but the buildup prior just feels a bit off.
The plot may suffer several issues as presented above but the characterization is excellent. Cheng Xiaoshi, who used to be spontaneous and impulsive, shows many great signs of maturity. He acknowledges from his past mistakes that the death can’t be reversed and doesn’t act without consideration anymore. When seeing the photo of Chen Bin, a brief thought of using it to save Lu Guang crossed his mind but he immediately refused to do that after introspection. He later actually uses that but only to alleviate the mind of Bin’s wife upon his death. Lu Guang, who is seen as laid-back and nonchalant, goes into full action. The opening wound still hasn’t healed and keeps hurting him a lot yet he’s willing to give his body to Xiaoshi for the move. In the tunnel scene, when Xiaoshi is in a disadvantageous situation against Tian Chen, Lu Guang doesn’t hesitate to plunge towards and rescue him. Qiao Ling, much like a supporting character, becomes an important role. She has a great personality of a big sister, taking care of her brothers and being strong when needed. Despite being a small girl, she goes out of her way to help Xiaoshi fight the thugs in the hospital. When Xiaoshi is scolded, she’s the one who intercedes on behalf by slapping Qian Jin’s face, not displaying any sign of scare or being inferior. The trio isn’t related by blood but throughout the story in this part, we can see the bond between them keeps strengthening. That’s a heartwarming point of this show. If season one is just them helping each other, this season shows they protecting and even sacrificing for others.
Along with the old cast, the antagonist side is very interesting to watch. Qian Jin, a lawyer who works for Liu Jing, appears to be a polite person with a mild personality and behaves with proper decorum. However, under this facade is a douchebag who would do anything at any cost to achieve his goal. He even deceives himself and others with a tragic past about his wife being murdered while it turns out he’s the actual culprit. That makes an interesting parallel between him and Li Fan, father of the siblings as they’re both pathetic, insecure, and misogynistic. Tian Chen, the red eyes, is the person who helps Qian Jin do the dirty job of killing people. He’s seen as a psychopath with a sadistic personality, very determined and talks with strong words. Ironically, it later reveals him to be not that kind of evil who doesn’t have any feelings towards people. Through the sharing of memory via Tian Xi’s ability, he experiences the emotion and memory of the person he controls. He cries a lot and can’t resist apologizing for the decision of killing Chen Bin. As his sins are unforgivable, his redeeming side can’t be trivialized. And finally, Tian Xi, the disabled sister with selective mutism. Tian Xi is innocent and naive, that’s why she suffers great pain seeing her mother getting abused by his father and it also affects her mental health. She is also an altruistic person, has a kind heart, and cares about her brother, she doesn’t want him to become a bad person. Just like the bond between the main characters, the bond between Li’s siblings is also well-depicted.
A big factor that makes the success of character writing is the use of experimental animation and montage sequence. What creates the magic for season one appears again in season two. The prison scene in episode 1 combines shots of different pieces of Xiaoshi’s memory with Lu Guang. The past story in episode 3 shows different sweet moments of Chen Bin and his wife. The ending of episode 9 intertwines three stories with three animation styles into one. The reveal in the last episode brings out all of Tian Xi’s memories and explores her psyche. I really love those cinematography techniques here. Not only does it enhance the aesthetics but also is able to communicate a huge amount of details and deliver a large range of emotions over a short span of time.
Talking about Link Click, I can not mention the music aspect, season two is on par or even better than season one. The opening is likely to be the best of this year, fascinating animation with smooth transitions and a unique gimmick of reverse that fits well the theme of this show. The ending is a cool reference to the novel “The Time Machine”, the song feels sad, melancholic, and ominous. Besides that, we’ve also got some insert songs and extra endings. They’re all stylish, attractive, and go well with the atmosphere of the situation they feature.
That’s all I want to say. In summary, Link Click season 2 is still an emotional roller-coaster like its prequel. With the unfolding of Lu Guang’s identity and the debut of the mysterious hat man, it’s pretty much excitement for the upcoming of the next season.
