Anghraine

My best friend and I watched the second season of Halo last night. It's been very watchable, more than S1 IMO, but I have enough reservations that it had started to feel like a bit of a chore. It's both more ambitious and less cohesive than S1, with major characters disappearing for significant stretches of time (I was worried about Miranda!) and a split between so many arcs and subplots that it's weird and tiring. I like most of the characters in themselves, even the ones who are dreadful human beings (Halsey is my terrible fave!).

However, it's ... interesting that so many dudebro-type Halo fans had tantrums over the show being anything other than a direct recreation of the game (the protagonist of a TV show having emotions???) and particularly over it being "woke." I can't speak to the matter of fidelity, given that I've never played the games and my brief experience of watching them seemed pretty underwhelming after Mass Effect, but it is anything but woke. In particular, the critique of the UNSC undercuts itself in this season more than in the first and this season is far more racist.

( Spoilers within! )