Shannon T

I felt that this movie betrayed many of the themes set in place by the first installment. This story attempted to piggyback off of the first movie's themes of racism, classism, and sexism and built a complex murder mystery that revealed audience biases through subtle subtext. however this movie paid no mind to those nuances. The end was not powerful in the way I'm sure was intended, and the reveal of the murderer was not compelling. In terms of the movie itself, I felt there were multiple plot holes that were not addressed and became much more apparent upon the second watch through. The first movie so cleanly wove the mystery allowing for re-watchability that enhanced the original story, but the more you watch this movie, the more issues are recognized. I wanted this movie to be as amazing as the first but I feel that the attempt to make lightning strike twice was not meant to be.

Alright, I had to write this out. The first season was well done. There were parts that definitely reminded me of the teenage angst and general pretentious nature of teen shows, but there was still the overarching story of how Rue is absorbing the world in horrible ways and how that influences her relationship with drugs. It all fit together so well and I felt the show handled lgbtq+ representation really well by having lgbtq+ main characters but not making that the focus of their conflict with the world. All that being said, this first episode of season 2 was utterly disappointing. The episode was over an hour long and yet I felt nothing happened. The reuniting of Rue and Jules felt unearned and Fezco's backstory and Grandmother was vague and dull. We spend a good part of the episode looking for Cassie and the emotional reconciliation she could have had with McKay leaves us feeling that all of the suspense was for nothing. Jules barely speaks even though her own episode considered detransition and other serious issues. Rue is high and in pain but the level of depth explored in her individual episode is not seen either. I feel we were just looking at all of these characters in a fan fiction. All of them together, but none of them being the people that we spent the first season and individual episodes getting to know... I'm worried for this season honestly. I hope it gets better- and no disrespect to the actors or production crew, but I feel the story is already lacking what was so beautifully built- especially in Rue and Jules' episodes.