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Arcane Season 2 Review

The second season of Arcane premiered on Netflix in 2024. It’s a very weak sophomore season that is inferior to its predecessor.

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“Perfection is not a prize,

only an end to a pursuit“

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I did not love the first season, but I at least liked it to an extent and respected it. This second season, however, lost most of the interest that the original had for me. This is because it’s clearly a middle chapter in a trilogy that felt overly rushed and not well developed in characters or plot at all. It had none of the strong world building of its predecessor, thus trading that for endless fight scenes and music video shenanigans.

I am of course talking about those awkward scenes where everything turns into slow motion and a song is introduced to strike an emotional punch, but all it did for me was take me out of the show and make me feel as if I’m watching MTV instead. I also did not care for the action. Some of the fights looked and sounded cool, but for the most part it was a lot of punching and shooting with no interesting choreography or stakes at all.

I did not feel stakes because I did not care about any of the characters. Vi and Jinx are clearly the best developed of the bunch, but even they were better realized before. Jinx was particularly less interesting this time around. Jayce, Caitlyn and Viktor did not get much to do and all were rushed in their development and their arcs. This is one of those series that are so obsessed with female characters, entirely sidelining the men, who are the prime demographic for this genre.

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Arcane looks great, there is no doubt about it. It’s a unique style that no other show has, though I personally wouldn’t call it entirely appealing. It’s polished and particularly well designed in its characters, but not as artistic as most would proclaim it to be. The score is fine at times with the opening theme still being a banger, but too many metal songs hurt my ears.