I'm just...reminded of how
Saw
was a critically acclaimed psychological
thriller with excellent twists and then once it made a ton of money they started dishing out yearly gorefests. Entertaining gorefests, yes, but the plot became so engorged and unbelievable that it ultimately drug down the series.I don't think anyone reading this thread will deny that the arc of Season One was superb. Fleshed out, full of twists, and just really great. But Season Two was like what Saw became...it was like "LOOK AT THIS DRASTIC SITUATION! NOW ANOTHER ONE! NOW ANOTHER ONE!" with tons of deaths. Was it fun? Yeah, I'm a sucker for anything interactive fiction. But in terms of "goodness"? I feel like it was just a pretty level journey through who-knows-where, America to "Wellington" as the revolving door of death hit everyone but me.
Things I'd like to see in Season 3:
1) LET US HAVE MOMENTS TO TALK TO WHOEVER WE PLEASE IN OUR GROUP. Season One was great because every once in a while they'd give us a moment to talk to whomever we pleased, and real conversations with dialogue choices. Rarely did this happen in Season Two (Episode Four was about as good as it got) and often when this happened the characters would simply shrug Clementine off. Everyone complains about the unlikable characters, but for me people like Bonnie and Rebecca had promise and I wish I could've explored their stories a little bit more.
2) They need to subvert the whole idea that characters who can die in earlier episodes must be dead by the end of the season. It would've been awesome if Nick or heck, Sarah could've defied expectations and survived the whole season even though there was a chance they would die in an earlier episode. With the split endings of this season hopefully that's more of a possibility.
3) Along those lines, an actual arc. I like how in One Hershel set the tone with "the choices you make..." and his admiration of honesty, then there was an excellent introduction to characters, a standalone episode which really showed the drastic side of the apocalypse, and then a pretty tight story spanning the final three episodes. This season? Christa & Omid > alone > the cabin group > the ski lodge > Howe's > the civil war memorial > ??? under the general premise of "north / safety" it just didn't work; the ending was by no means satisfying. When I finished I actually wondered if Telltale had plans to do a sixth episode in this season.
I don't usually get so fired up, but gosh darnit, Season One was so good and Two is such a letdown.