Babylon 5 (Season 2)

While the first season of Babylon 5 was alright, its episodic format definitely held it back a bit. Season 2, on the other hand, comes after the game-changing finale Chrysallis and goes for a serialized story arc that feels far more driven and consistently strong.

Unlike the first season, Season 2 has more of an overarching story, multiple in fact. Sinclair has been replaced by a new commander Sheridan, who's investing into the Earth president's assassination. Delenn is adjusting to life as a half-human after her metamorphosis. And biggest of all, the Narn and Centauri enter a full-on war that rages for a large amount of the season. Most of these storylines are pretty great, especially the Narn-Centauri war which had been building throughout the course of Season 1 as well. I'm still not entirely sure if I prefer Sheridan over Sinclair, I do have a soft spot for how comforting and calm Sinclair is, but I think Sheridan works better as a protagonist since he's far more flawed, and Bruce Boxleitner is definitely the stronger actor. Overall, I think the whole cast has improved this season. They're far better written and have much stronger chemistry with each other, especially the power trio of Sheridan, Garibaldi, and Sinclair. 

Generally, I think the seasons strikes a solid balance between serialized and episodic. It definitely feels like things are progressing episode after episode, and even the standalones rarely end up pretending that the overarching storylines don't exist. We end up getting episodes like And Now For A Word and Comes The Inquisitor which flesh out the characters and storylines without progressing the overall plot. The season also ups the humor along with the darkness allowing for a nice range in tone. However, I also think the pacing this season was a bit off at times, particularly during the Narn-Centauri War. I'll be honest and say I forgot about the war and its focal characters at times because there were just a whole bunch of episodes in the middle of the season where it just did not appear at all. With G'Kar and Londo busy with the war, a large portion of the season focused on the Earth cast, while I think Season 1 did a better job of giving each member of the cast equal screentime. On the other hand, Kosh got a lot more focus this season, he's just as intriguing and mysterious as ever, but now that we know he's one of the good ones (or at least he seems to be), he's definitely risen up the ranks to my favorite character.

For a much better seasons, its high points are much higher than in Season 2, and more frequent as well:

The Coming Of Shadows: Around the start of this episode, I realized this would be the one where the Narns and Centauri erupt into war, and it was pretty tough to watch. G'Kar and Londo were so close to finally making amends, but at that point it was far too late, Londo had just blown up thousands of Narns. If it was just the start of the Narn-Centauri War, this episode would be great enough, it's an honest-to-god Shakespearean tragedy filled with unfortunate irony and costly mistakes. But then Sinclair appeared... twice... and I knew this episode would be one of the show's best.

And Now For A Word: This episode was fascinating, essentially a "documentary" about the events on Babylon 5. It's a really neat way to look at the season's events from an outsider's perspective, and adds a lot of interesting world-building towards how Earth thinks of aliens. It was kind of hard to watch given just how targeted and biased the reporter is, but while the format was used to generate drama, it was also used for a lot of funny gags especially seeing characters in the background trying to appear on camera.

In The Shadow Of Z'ha'dum: This episode was pretty intense, with a razor sharp focus on the storyline of Sheridan interrogating Mr Morden. Pretty much the entire cast was telling him to stop, but he didn't listen because he wanted answers, and we finally got them. It's always super satisfying when Babylon 5 finally resolves one of its major mysteries, and this was one of the best. We learn more about who the Shadows are, where they're from, what they did, and how they relate to the Vorlons. The final scene is a mission statement that I hope gets paid off, with Sheridan asking Kosh to help prepare him to travel to Z'ha'dum himself.

The Long Twilight Struggle: This episode was so intense it left me in shock, sitting and staring at the screen for a full minute so I could fully process what had just happened. The Centauri won, not a massive surprise, but the consequences were immense. Narn was bombed back into the Stone Age, G'Kar lost his position, and the Narns pretty much lost everything. The scene in the meeting room was so gutting and hard to watch, with amazing acting all around. But that wasn't even it! We also got to see the full group of the Rangers, which includes Delenn, Garibaldi, and even Kosh! So at least there's a bit of hope... 

The Fall Of Night: While I probably preferred the more explosive and character-driven Chrysallis, this was still a pretty great and game-changing finale. Easily the most suspenseful episode yet, the first half had this unnerving feeling as if things could fall apart at any minute, and it did. Earth signed a treaty with the Centauri for their own safety knowing they're occupying other planets, Sheridan earned the ire of pretty much every Centauri, and now the whole universe knows what the Shadows look like, meaning that they're probably gonna start attacking. Oh, well, at least we finally know what Kosh looks like outside of his encounter suit!

Overall, This was a pretty great second season. Outside of some pacing issues and a new protagonist that I don't quite love yet, the writing, tone, acting, and overarching story was far stronger and more compelling than in the first, and the show has a much stronger sense of confidence that I hope gets even stronger going into the third season.

3/5 Stars