Marill Finishes Season Two

Prologue

I went into this season with hope but at the same time with my usual pessimism. Good thing too. While Season Two does improve in some parts, it introduces its own heap of badness which puts it on Season One's level.

Background issues definitely influenced some of the rotten parts of the season (Dimension Jump, Why oh Why), then there were times the series regressed a season (Halloween, Return of Third Voyager), and the extreme shippyness was a huge heel turn from the previous's "eew gross" attitude.

I seemingly remembered the series' roots and what I wanted out of it sometimes, and so episodes like Resistance, Man Out Of You and Bittersweet exist. It takes a while, but they eventually steer the series in the right direction. I just have to be patient.

As of end of Fair Chance Part 1 stats

Now's the time to add up not only Season Two's but One's as well.
Season One = Red
Season Two = Yellow

Season One's Counters:

Muttered Count: 1745 + 850 = 2595

Lena the Sue Count: 39 + 8 = 47

Annika Dies Count: 11 + 5 = 16

James Kill Count: 4 + 3 = 7

Sexist Crap Count: 90 + 33 = 123

 

The Newbies:

James Dies Count:
Looks like the trend didn't start until Season Two.
5 + 0 = 5

James Badasses Off Screen For Our Sins:
The first instance I can recall is Holo Q and even then it's stretching a bit. There's no avoidance whatsoever with his violence until Upendi and Fear, both of which were late additions to the season. Strange.
Anyhow in the order they came to me:
Upendi: shoots villain in the back, no one knows till later who. Also mystery knife thrower very likely to be him, all the signs are there. 2
Fear: shoots the strange torture fetish girl when the focus is on Jessie and the guy holding her. 1
Holo Q: So many of the fight scenes avoid him doing anything or showing anything, plus the rock pushing. 1
Fair Haven 2: deletes/kills Sullivan off screen to help Jessie out. 1
18 + 5 = 23

Marill's Playing With Her Dolls Again:
Season Two is definitely the trope starter. While S1 had its moments, I don't think it's worth checking.
81

J/C are the worst (grand)parents ever:
Oh dear, here goes nothing. Top of my head:
Year of Hell: Kiara's involvement
Hunters: doesn't object to Craig taking baby daughter to what sounds like a party
Mirror Universes: YIKES, this deserves 10 points
Holo Q: lets Kiara drink booze
Timeline: discusses Morgan and Kiara so coldly at times
Spirits: lets Morgan go on awaymission to dangerous planet
Voyager Conspiracy: jokes around after Morgan is ruthlessly beaten
Dark Frontier: treats Morgan's abduction exactly like Seven's, which is fine for Janeway since she treats her like a daughter anyway but Chakotay, yikes.
Too Q: does nothing to help with Morgan's Q kid
Fear: doesn't seem too bothered when Kiara's one of the kidnapped
Drinking Game: doesn't care that Morgan wants to take part in a drinking game
Thrown Key: shouts at Kiara for daring to be there during their argument. Poor Morgan's sleeping on Jessie's sofa at one point to escape them. 2 points.
42 + 20 = 62

Lena (Child)Abuses Her Power:
This doesn't start until True Q anyway, no points.
36 + 0 = 36

Just A Little Bit More: 49

Next season some counters will go and be replaced with new ones. I'm hoping the Lena abuse one does, even with a couple episodes in mind. I'll keep it for a while and if there's nothing for ages, it goes.

The Season Two Scoreboard

Unlike last time this is nice and simple, I've already done it.

#01 Resistance: 53%
#02 Man Out Of You: 52%
#03 YWF: 45%
#04 Disconnected: 40%
#05 Kiss of Death, Bittersweet, Suicidal: 38%
#06 Interactions: 37%
#07 The Resurrection: 36%
#08 True Q: 35%
#09 Cause & Effect, Lea Halalela, Deep Under: 33%
#10 Saturday Night, Precise Timings, The Curse of Voyager: 31%
#11 Games Resistance: 29%
#12 Thrown Key Part 2: 23%
#13 F9: Control Failure: 21%
#14 Why oh Why, Fair Chance Part 1: 20%
#15 The Atamit: 19%
#16 An Apple A Day, Heiress, Territory: 17%
#17 I Know What You've Done This Season: 16%
#18 Halloween: 15%
#19 Dimension Jump: 14%
#20 The Slayers: 12%
#21 The Love Spell: 10%
#22 Return of Third Voyager: 7%

Comparing the Scores

Season One has the highest number one spot, while the lowest in the top 5 for both scored the same. So apart from Worse Case, both seasons aren't that much different looking at them this way.

Oooph, this one's far more varied. While Season One has the lowest score of them all, at least its 5th off bottom scored 20%.

Soo while Season One has its stinkers, Season Two seems to have far more of them.

The next one I'm curious about is the average score for each season.

So it's official, Season One is better than Season Two. Not by much so I'm not that concerned. Here's hoping Season Three does better.

Brief Final Thoughts on each episode

Thrown Key wasn't exactly the best series finale in existence, but it did mostly what it set out to do. It was pretty much Aggressions Part 1, while Part 2 of TK tried to repeat history. The B4FV characters intros are too forced, and everything's so weird and random.

The Love Spell has little to no redeeming features. It wouldn't matter if it weren't important.

Interactions things do start to pick up. The opening I liked, Jessie's anxiety is done quite well, James' character arc finally gets under way with his first official kill (official meaning first noticed kill heh). I think if the ending weren't rushed and I judged it after the abortion=bad conversations were edited out, it would've done very well actually.

Disconnected could've been great. James' story is excellent until a certain point in the story where it turns into a ripoff parody. This one bugs me most of all. I'd say the middle is better than the vast majority of both seasons so far.

Resistance is the season winner for a reason. Interactions and Disconnected helped get it there, but Resistance pretty much convinced me I could write semi decent, serious storylines, paving the way for the rest of the series. Its many flaws let it down.

Games Resistance is fine in hindsight. It's mostly a bit of harmless fun adventuring with the two games, with some character development. I think the latter is its biggest problem as bits is rushed; Morgan and Tani's falling out happening off screen, JJ being okay after their turbolift make out.

Dimension Jump, less said about that the better. I've said my piece.

Saturday Night I remember enjoying quite a bit and probably deserved a better score than it did. Sure the Duncan part of the plot should've been miles better and the ending could've been fixed. Other than that it's fine.

F9 Control Failure is a mess, and I imagine Dimension Jump's own mess had a lot to do with it. I can't blame that for the Tani and Scot parts of the story though.

Precise Timings was a test pilot for the dimensions/AU side of the series, and it worked, it helped. I'd be lost without this one. It's fine but wastes time.

The Resurrection, this is a love/hate relationship if I've ever seen one. Sometimes it's great; things are described and sometimes well, the story when it's not exactly The Mummy ripped off are a treat, Part 3 and 4 hold up the rest of the heavy episode. When it's bad it's awful: the Morgan/James kiss, the everyone's drunk later, the Emma/Morgan connection making no sense, Doc knowing about the curse. Yeah. It should've done better than it did.

I liked Kiss of Death despite what I feared it would be. Yes the Tuvok bit is problematic (and still is in the reboot), but the rest of the episode does the job it's supposed to be. A small above average for its time episode.

Yes I dislike The Slayers very much for being a copycat Pokémon cheese fest. However Part 1 wasn't wholly bad, it was just ok, unoffensive. I dunno if it deserves its bottom 5 placement with what comes after it.

True Q did its best, it really did. The biggest flaw has to be how Morgan/Lena's flashbacks were told. James/Jessie and their AU son's story took the spotlight. It's also coloured by the comments in later episodes claiming the entire episode was skipped over due to not being finished, when I remember it being only missing the final scene.

Halloween is a pile of s$$$. No question.

Curse of Voyager's definitely high up there on my favourite Season Two list. Its problem was that it was too long, it wasted too much time on shippy stuff. Without it, it'd be Resistance beating.

Cause & Effect was quite fun until its rushed ending. Seems to be a theme for quite some time.

YWF is problematic with how it treats the kids. There's a lot of pointless boring fights. The character development for Lena's not bad though, and I really like the foreshadowing the Lena versus James notfight gives.

Why oh Why... what can I say other than &*^&%$&^%*%*

An Apple A Day is pretty blah, the series could live without it.

I really love Bittersweet, but like Disconnected it's ruined by stupid decisions that change the last few scenes. I did find my notes for Bittersweet, and its strange, the first few pages are spot on for what happens, Jessie is the one who does the aggravating and the rest of the plot mostly doesn't happen. Almost as if the plot was written AFTER the episode was started, hence why the plot for the beginning is exact. I dunno. I can't blame the dates so much for the Jessie/Lena mixup, but I sure as hell can blame it for the Tani intrusion. It's a huge shame but if it weren't, I'd never have rebooted it in advance and boy, I love the reboot version.

I Know What is such a wasted opportunity. While I like the afterthought that Seven/Annika's story gets its thunder taken, it makes sense for this series, I don't like how it's done. The Seventh Lena and Damien story would've fit better in Return, saving that as well.

Suicidal didn't turn out that badly. It doesn't make sense at times, probably due to its forced link to Halloween (I'm so sure Suicidal was planned long before Halloween was conceived and then written last minute). A lot of it works though and I was relieved of that since its amongst some of the poorest episodes of the season.

Heiress murders Kidz Trek Original and wears its skin so sloppily, kinda like the Vidiian guy in Faces. grotesque

The Atamit. Boy I give this s$$$ and it mostly deserves it. It's not the worst episode though. It's the Hunters of the season I think. Bad but entertainingly so at times.

Lea Halalela is a bit ignorantly racist at times, which ruins everything it does. Except Tani, she sticks her nose into everything and ruins herself.

Oh god Return of Third Voyager is how I imagined 90% of Season One would be like. What absolute crap that was. Writers for the majority, writers versus Voyager writers AGAIN, the fanfic dimensions, Pokemon... it's ironic that the thing that I thought ruined it, the Third Voyager, was actually the only redeeming part. It wasn't enough though. It deserves its worst of Season Two score.

Boy Territory is bad and I feel bad. Nothing's changed there, moving on.

Deep Under is the shortest but it doesn't seem like it. It's just the right length. It has a story, beginning, middle and end. Nothing seems to be rushed. I quite liked it.

Man Out Of You could be brilliant and deserving of a best of the series until Season Four comes along, but so much filler pads it down. Near the end I was rushing to finish it cos I had plans andor company, and so just chucked anything in. Jessie telling James about the pregnancy, the bridge coming out scene comes out of nowhere and descends into fat man jokes, some of the dialogue at the beginning of the final Peter scene is just so, wtf. With some time and minor edits it can be saved.

Fair Chance is a pretty poor finale. At least Thrown Key Part 1 bothered to tell its story, and barely side tracked at all. Fair Chance does the opposite. The actual Seventh, getting home part of the story is fine. All the bizarre shipping, Tom, writer inclusions, Wobbuffet. It's all bad. It really does end the series how it started, Thrown Key Part 2 was a similar mess too.

Final Thoughts

To be very fair, I definitely tried with this season. The Interactions/Disconnected/Resistance trilogy, half of Resurrection, Bittersweet, Man Out Of You, they wouldn't have made it in Season One. Characters developed (in James's case he'd go back and forth), there were a couple of story arcs, a few twisty reveals here and there. Season Two paved the way for the rest of the series, and I guess some of its faults can be forgiven.

Onto the negative. The biggest sin for me is always going to be the Dimension Jump incident, and then later the Why oh Why aftermath. I started Season Two as a comprehensive school graduate with very little going on, to the bitter and angry college (near)drop out with less friends and plenty more drama than she could handle. I can see it effect the season as it progresses. I mean true Love Spell is pants, Halloween etc, but the first half isn't that bad compared to the second half, where clearly everything went to hell and back.

Season Two did out stay its welcome with its 29 + two specials length. It'd be a good season if some of the clutter was gone.