When season 2 of Revenge first started and a lot of the viewers started becoming more and more vocal about their criticisms with the season, I admit that I was probably more willing than most of the other fans of the show to defend the season for most of season 2. However, I eventually fell behind on watching the show at some point during the second half of the season for reasons I can't even remember now. When I finally got around to finishing the second half of the season, watching the show started to feel more and more like a chore to the point where wasn't as willing to defend season 2 as I had originally been, which is a big part of why I decided to not watch the show any more when season 3 started.
That being said, after watching the first half of season 2 again for the first time in about two years, I have to say that the season has grown on me quite a bit since I watched it the first time around. Don't get me wrong, I still think that the season is a major mess in a lot of ways, but I'm definitely having a lot of fun watching the show again after not having watched it in such a long time. As for what I feel went wrong with the show in season 2, the introduction of The Initiative was definitely a big mistake on the producers’ part. I truly think that everything with The Initiative played a big role in the show really going off the rails in season 2.
However, what I still absolutely hate about the season even more than everything with The Initiative is definitely the direction that the writers took Daniel in as a character. I hate that they made him basically become his father's son, which I think is weird since I love Conrad as a character. I think the reason why I hate seeing Daniel act incredibly devious, ruthless, and an all around asshole to pretty much everyone around him, Victoria and Conrad included, while I'm able to see Conrad act the same way in a lot of way is due to the way Josh Bowman and Henry Czerny play their respective roles.
While I do think that Josh Bowman is a good actor, I don't think that he has the same charm and charisma that I feel Henry Czerny has to make Conrad work as a character. Conrad has always been one of my favorite characters on the show along with Emily, Victoria, and Nolan. I think that the writers have always done a good job of writing Conrad as a character, but I feel like the writers kind of dropped the ball in terms of how they handled the direction they took Daniel in as a character in season 2. To me, my dislike of Daniel as a character, while I love Conrad as a character, is very reminiscent of how I feel about Christopher Ewing and Bobby Ewing on TNT's Dallas in the sense that they are both supposed to be the good guys of the show, and yet Christopher is arguably the most despicable character on the show, and therefore the most hated character amongst the show's viewers.
The difference in that case is that the writers have always done a good job of writing the character Bobby, and Patrick Duffy is a good actor. Christopher on the other hand has been a horribly written character ever since the very first episode of the series. What makes things even worse in that case is that Jesse Metcalfe couldn't give a good performance on the show even if his life depended on it, while Josh Bowman has always been at the very least a decent actor, regardless of what the writers have done with Daniel. As I said earlier, Josh might not have done the best job of making Daniel work as a character starting with season 2, but he's still a decent actor.
It really upset me seeing Daniel seize control of Nolcorp from Nolan. I'm no business or legal expert, so maybe he had the legal right to do that given that Nolan got the start-up money for his company from David Clarke, and David was once an employee of Grayson Global, but that still seemed very messed up and unfair to Nolan when Daniel did that.
Nolan has always been one of my favorite characters on the show and just one of my favorite things about the show in general, so I felt really bad for him throughout season 2. Despite how upset I felt for Nolan in season 2, I also loved everything the writers did with Nolan and his ex-boyfriend, Marco. When I was watching season 2 the first time around, I always thought that Gabriel Mann and E.J. Bonilla had great chemistry with each other, and I really wish that the writers had featured Marco more than they did. While there are so many things that I love about the character Nolan, especially the dialogue the writers write for Nolan, I think that the writers have always done a great job of handling the fact that Nolan is bisexual. Being bisexual myself, I feel like the writers have done a great job of utilizing Nolan's bisexuality to create some truly great soap opera-style drama, while still being respectful of the bisexual community.
The other issues that I have with the season is the way they brought back Emily's mother, Kara, what they did with the character and the way the writers had Kara leave in what I feel was a rather abrupt manner was all rather disappointing. I'm also still not sure that Jennifer Jason Leigh was right for the role in the first place. The one final issue that I still have with season 2, at least at the moment, is the presence of the character Amanda on the show. I never really liked both Amanda as a character and Margarita Levieva as an actress very much at all. They both always annoyed the hell out of me, and I really feel like Amanda/Margarita Levieva totally overstayed their welcome on the show. Honestly, I remember that I was really happy when Amanda was finally killed off in episode 1x14 "Sacrifice". I found Amanda's death to be a welcome relief for me personally, and time hasn't made me feel any differently about Amanda getting killed off.
Watching the season again and given that I just finished watching episode 2x14 "Sacrifice", four episodes that really stand out as some of my favorite season 2 episodes are episode 2x04 "Intuition", episode 2x06 "Illusion", 2x07 "Penance" and episode 2x08 "Lineage". What I loved about "Intuition" is the whole thing with Amanda falling over the balcony in the Grayson's mansion during her fight with Victoria and giving birth to baby Karl prematurely. That kind of thing is a classic soap opera staple, and I absolutely love that the writers did that. Victoria and Conrad getting married again and everything that happened with their wedding in the episode "Illusion" was a lot of fun to watch.
Mason Treadwell/Roger Bart's presence in both the episode "Illusion" and "Penance" also added a lot to my enjoyment of those episodes. Mason Treadwell has always been one of my favorite recurring guest-star roles on Revenge, and I think that Roger Bart plays the role flawlessly. The first thing that I ever saw Roger Bart in was on Desperate Housewives as Bree's pharmacist that killed Rex in the show's first season, George Williams, and I loved him in that role. I've seen Roger Bart on a few other TV shows besides Desperate Housewives and Revenge, and I just think he's always awesome, not matter what TV show he's on or what movie he's in.
As for the episode "Lineage", I think that episode did a great job of providing more back-story for every character on the show, and I just think it's an altogether fantastic episode.
All that being said, while I still think that season 2 is a mess in a lot of ways, the season really has grown on me a lot since the last time I watched it. Despite the season's many flaws, I'm enjoying season 2 a lot more than I did the first time around. Once again I'm finding the show to be rather addictive and a lot of fun to watch like I did back when it was in its first season. Perhaps there's some truth in the expression "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." after all. :)
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