Snowpiercer: Season 2 Premiere

  

Based on: Snowpiercer movie written by Bong Joon-ho and Kelly Masterson & Le Transperceneige French graphic novel by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette

Developed by: Josh Friedman and Graeme Manson

Executive producers: Scott Derrickson, Bong Joon-ho, Dooho Choi, Miky Lee, Tae-Sung Jeong, Lee Tae-hun (and several others) 

Starring: Jennifer Connelly (Melanie Cavill), Daveed Diggs (Andre Layton), Mickey Sumner (Bess Till), Alison Wright (Ruth Wardell), Rowan Blanchard (Alex), Sean Bean (Mr. Wilford)

This show has really kept my attention and it's still getting better! 

I watched the movie on Netflix before the series premiered and I actually didn't like it. Too much needless violence, the social commentary fell flat, and I lost interest halfway through. But the sci-fi concept remained exciting enough for me that when the TV series was announced, I was eager to try again. I was definitely not disappointed. 

I think the format needs serialized platforms. It seems to have thrived in graphic novel form and it's thriving again now in episodic form. (I read that the show has been renewed for a fourth season ahead of its third premiere, though my HBO subscription is making me wait long after each has aired to continue.) It makes sense--it's a big world and the nature of the story requires a passage of time to mature. It can be done in feature form, for sure. But I think the train setting suits episode format. The passengers are travelling distance over time and it just feels more accurate to portray this over a number of episodes and for each season to portray a different era of the train. 

It also allows focus on different characters as they change. Both of the stars, Melanie and Layton, are different people this season than they were in season 1. They've both matured a lot and have become allies, whereas they were very much not so during the first. Several flat characters from season 1, like Ruth and Bennett (Iddo Goldberg), have been given a lot more room this season to explore their characters and give them much more depth. It's been very exciting for me to watch because this is exactly as it should be. Having already established the main cast in season 1, season 2 should allow others to blossom. Snowpiercer is doing it right, too--Melanie and Layton are still relevant. Their characters are growing, allowing them to stay relevant to our interest and the story, while these newly expanding characters are also adding to the story in important ways. It's exciting to see it done right and it's vastly entertaining. 

Layton, Melanie, and crew

And I haven't even touched on the story! The world aboard the train is changing and new, as it needs to be. A setting trapped on board a train (even a ridiculously long, somewhat sci-fi train) can easily get boring and stale. Snowpiercer has kept it fresh. After quickly establishing a status-quo of very different first, second, and third classes that represent starkly different economies, the first season watched the third class ("Tailies") hold a revolution for equality against the first class, fighting for such simple rights as food and, well, not dying. After some semblance of equilibrium was established at the end of the first season, the season finale brought yet another very exciting change to the world: contact with another train that had separated and been lost many years before. Thus, the second season began with delicate diplomacy and high tensions between the crews of both trains (now attached). Now, as the second season is progressing, another major change to their world is being introduced: the possibility of climate warming outside, presenting the opportunity for humanity to leave the trains. Melanie, as a chief scientist, has left the train for a research station to explore this new data and determine possibilities. This has kept me on the edge of my seat and I'm really eager to see where the show takes it. 

Tensions are high between Melanie and the terrifyingly power-hungry and manipulative Mr. Wilford

Basically, I'm really happy to see writing done right. Every episode keeps my attention. Characters are evolving and the world is evolving. Nothing has been stale. And I think this bodes extremely well for the currently-airing third season and, as I mentioned, currently-developing fourth.