A part of me wants to say Britannia is better in season 2 that it was in season 1, but that’s not exactly a high bar to clear for the show, so I’m not even sure I should put it out there. I know this already aired somewhere, and I shouldn’t really feel like I’m tempting fate by saying the show is slightly better, but when a show is this borderline whatever, I just don’t want to give it any more reasons to move to the side of blegh.
The show is a bit easier to follow that we’re not trying to follow different tribes, but it’s also, arguably, worse because we don’t have the characters that made up those different tribes, and instead we have a lot of …Veran and his twin brother, Cait and Divis, doing the exact same thing over and over again, and ….Phelan?
Look, I feel like if I have to say that Phelan might be the best character of the show at this point, which should tell you where we are right now.
You know, nowhere good, because Phelan is about as interesting as flour.
In fact, if I’m giving him some credit is because the show seems to be building him up to be doing something fairly interesting. I’m just not sure what that is, just as I’m not sure what the show is about, what it’s doing, who the main character is, and you know, all those important things you want to know about a show you’re supposed to review.
Amena is around, being Amena. She’s certainly going to betray Aulus sooner rather than later, and if he doesn’t see that coming, then he’s got it coming. I mean, I think we could make a case that he’s got it coming either way, so whatever you’re planning, Amena, please get on with it soon.
The main problem with Britannia – a phrase I use often – is not how boring it is, though by God, at times it is boring, but how little it cares about the fact that we often can’t follow what’s going on. Did something happen this episode? Something plot heavy or even mildly interesting that’s not super setupy and that I’m supposed to remember? Nah? Yeah, I figured.
But boring is one thing, confusing is another, deliberately both is …well, it feels like a choice. And not one any show should be making. As it is I look forward, not to the next episode, but to the joy of this season ending. Or hell, to Britannia killing someone else.
That’s literally their one “let’s make this interesting” move. All they got.
And they got me looking forward to it! Maybe I’ve fallen into the trap.
Except I don’t want to. I’d rather have that show that, at times, looked like it could be interesting. You know, the one with a lot of strong female characters, and the promise of a different kind of historical drama.
Those were the days.
Did I say season 2 was better? Maybe I should take it back. At least in season 1 I had hope. What do I have now?
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Britannia airs Sundays at 9/8c on Epix.
