A definite improvement on the first season, the second season really establishes what this show can do. The first season they had to find their feet, this season they found them and things started to truly move in this story of the Last of the Babylon stations.
There was some good character development this season. Londo is hardly the jovial and fun loving character he was in the first season. He had moments of his old self shine through, but he is a changed man because of the actions he has taken with the Shadows and fighting the Narn. He is trapped. G’Kar was a prideful somewhat angry character in the first season, this season broke him, he is more hurt and saddened by what happens to his people over the course of this season. Delenn makes an entire transformation in the beginning of this season, making her appearance more humanlike to help bridge the gap and help heal the wounds between these two people. She becomes softer and begins to show signs of having feelings for Sheridan.
Let’s talk Sheridan! What an improvement. Nothing against Michael O’Hare, but his performance of Jeffrey Sinclair had been stiff and wooden. He seemed to emotionless and not really human. It’s a problem that can hurt sci-fi shows, if you have all these wild alien characters, you kind of need a somewhat regular humanlike lead...because how does the audience identify otherwise. Bruce Boxleitner is great as Sheridan. I think he is a better actor, one who was able to show a more human and happy side of things, which made his more angry, sad, or frustrated performances seem all the more powerful. Boxleitner seemed human, and not like a piece of plywood. That makes me like him, and the tone of the show so much better. I have a leading man I like, that was a major step in fixing some of the problems I had with the first season.
So the cast was finding their characters and that helped make the storylines come to life just a bit more. But I actually felt the story was getting better this season. The first season had the burden of having to create this universe, this season had the perk of having it already created, and it could really start bringing it to life. Sure I had problems with too many stories feeling like set up for some later down the road story, but when this season had episodes in which events actually unfolded, they were great. It actually made the foreshadowing and premonitions seem more worthwhile, because I actually felt like things were going to pay off.
At the end of the day, this season was a huge improvement that made me really want to stick with this show. The stories that really moved stuff along were all great, and the early episodes of the season re-established this universe and gave us a new leading man who rose to the challenge splendidly. Who’s ready for more?
NEXT TIME: Marcus Cole
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