[Yamer]

Definitely need to re-watch the season now that it has wrapped. As someone mentioned that will probably be very rewarding...like re-reading a book once you have the gist of what the hell is going on.

Of course it's not as good as the first season. That would have been an incredibly tall order. Season 1 was an amalgamation of everything good colliding into 8 episodes of excellent acting, superb writing, intriguing dialogue, and suspenseful action.

After being a bit put off by Vaughn early in the season, I thought he really showed a depth many of us probably didn't believe he had. Yes, some of the dialogue between him and his wife were cheesy, but that can be attributed to the hyper-noir atmosphere the show-runners injected into this year's story. I thought Kelly Reilly was just fine in her role, not getting the complaints about her talent (although I have a theory that relates to the same folks lambasting Anna Gunn for her Emmy winning role in Breaking Bad).

Farrell and McAdams go without saying. Tremendous performances, but I think we all knew they were capable of it. We only got glimpses and allusions into the McAdams character, which was sufficient to explain most of her, but Velcoro was a slap in the face of tragedy.

Kitsch's character seemed mildly inconsequential, although his end ended up serving a larger purpose for the story and the audience.

The story was incredibly convoluted, however. I'm still super confused about almost all of it, so a re-watch is essential. The conclusion fit well into the world and characters they created this go around, so even though I felt slightly jilted that Ray and Semyon ended the way they did (especially when they panned to Ray's phone and the failed upload) it made sense and didn't seem out of place.

This season was destined to suffer as it was on the heels of some of the most brilliant television I have ever seen in Season 1, but it also didn't do itself a lot of favors with the cliches, conventions, and complexity. Even so, I'm looking forward to see what they can do in Season 3.