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Adventure Time Season 2 Review

The second season of Adventure Time has its terrific episodes, but overall it was a step-down from its more memorable preceding season.

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“The main enemy to the Nice King right now

is the disorganization of his love life“

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It Came from the Nightosphere is one of the highlights of the season and such a phenomenal opener. Whenever the show featured Marceline, it was bound to be super entertaining. In this story we get to meet her dad whose soul sucking activity made him surprisingly menacing. Their fraught relationship was so well realized and the song that she sings about it was a lot of fun. The episode is a deft mixture of light comedy and sporadic darkness.

The Eyes is an interesting concept with the creepy horse looking at Finn and Jake, not giving them room to sleep. It was goofy and surreal, but the end twist that it was Ice King all along felt anti-climactic. Loyalty to the King is a much better Ice King episode that sees him shave off his beard and attempt a disguise in order to get a princess. He looked ridiculously ugly without the beard and the episode is by far one of the funniest of the season.

Blood Under the Skin is utterly forgettable and overly childish, but Storytelling was pleasantly inventive in the usage of these wild animals being quite creepy. The episode featured a couple of truly hilarious moments with these animals while they also proved to be great foes to Finn. It was pleasantly reminiscent to the Woodland Critter Christmas Episode from ‘South Park Season 8’.

Slow Love is another animal-centric episode, but one that was too simplistic and forgettable. Power Animal is also not all that memorable, though the main gnome character was amusing. Crystals Have Power is a surprising episode as it was truly dark in the dangers that the duo faced in this imposing crystal world, but it was also unexpected in bringing back Tree Trunks from the dead. That was a terrific development as she was such an interesting character in the first season.

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The Other Tarts is another quest episode that was simply forgettable as most of these are. To Cut a Woman’s Hair isn’t great by any means, but it does feature a memorable witch character and a surprising, hilarious ending that finally confirmed to us not only that Finn has hair, but one of the long golden variety. The Chamber of Frozen Blades was a bit childish in Finn and Jake’s ninja activities, but the two going to Ice King’s palace always produces adventurous results and this episode is no exception.

Her Parents is a very goofy, but fun episode centering on Jake trying to impress her girlfriend’s parents. The Pods was way too silly for its own sake, The Silent King is very forgettable and The Real You is yet another Princess Bubblegum-centric story that doesn’t quite work. This was the weakest stretch in this season and the one that had me worried for a while.

Thankfully, the final section of the season was much improved. Guardians of Sunshine features Finn and Jake sucked into a video game and the resulting episode is an absolute joy for any gamer out there. It’s so inventive and uniquely designed, being reminiscent of the early 70s games in particular. Death in Bloom has a memorable Death character, but the episode was too ridiculous.

Susan Strong is very memorable in its artistically ambiguous ending, but otherwise the premise was not stellar. Mystery Train was absolutely hilarious and so ingenious in its twist that it was Jake fooling with Finn all along in the murder mystery that he made up for him for his birthday. The episode humorously lampooned many detective genre conventions. Go with Me is very light in plot and tone, but establishing Marceline and Jake as just friends and Finn as too young to date was so sweet and endearing.

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Belly of the Beast is one of the most original in concept Season 2 episodes. Finn and Jake must save these crazy, dance-obsessed creatures from the titular belly of the beast that they amusingly are not aware of being in. Again, the mix of lightweight and dark tone is the biggest strength of this show. The Limit makes use of Jake’s stretching ability, but otherwise it’s a slight story.

Video Makers and Heat Signature are both solid in their own right, though they are far from the best episodes of the season, but Mortal Folly and Mortal Recoil ended the season on such a strong note. The Lich is the only truly creepy and imposing villain so far in the show’s run and these two episodes were by far the ones with the biggest stakes. What happened to Princess Bubblegum was surprisingly creepy while Ice King being actually on the good side here was a great choice.

Overall, the second season of Adventure Time is inferior to the first one. The show is great at its diverse tone, unique animation style and inventive concepts, but this season was sillier and more childish than the first. Too many episodes were only okay, but those that were great were superbly crafted and very memorable.

Worst Episodes: Blood Under the Skin, The Other Tarts and The Silent King.

Best Episodes: It Came from the Nightosphere, Loyalty to the King, Storytelling, Guardians of Sunshine, Mystery Train, Belly of the Beast and Mortal Folly.