I really disliked Season 2 of The Secret Show.
Reason 1: Personality Change
The characters feel like they've become more mean and idiotic.
Changed Daily went from being a respectable, but slightly dim leader to an idiot and manchild, towards the point of where he can barely defend himself. And gets mad at Victor for dumb reasons.
Anita went from being a sweet, kindhearted woman who was strong, but acknowledged her flaws to a Mary-Sue who's good at everything and a jerk to Victor and laughs at him whenever something goes wrong for him (but not always, usually at the things that are played for comedy), and yells at him consistently.
Victor went from being a slightly dim, but good natured person, who usually got snarky whenever he had something bad happen to him to an idiot who does incredibly dumb things that blow his and Anita's cover. Not to mention he gets unfair torment for doing minor things.
Professor Professor went from being a ditzy scientist who cared about Victor and Anita's wellbeing, and doing dangerous experiments when things got on the line, to being a jerk who barely cares about the wellbeing of his coworkers and experimenting on them for fun.
Ray stayed the same, and mainly stayed out of conflict. Which I feel was better for him.
Reason 2: Cruelty for Comedy
The second season was awful in comedy. It felt like the show wanted to rely more on Victor torture, which could sometimes be funny, but was mostly lame. And wanted something bad to happen to Victor, which got old, fast. The first season did it right by making Victor competent and not having bad luck hit him consistently, and everyone else have their fair share. And making him much more sympathetic, by having him acknowledge his flaws. While the second season is like "It's always Victor! Punish him, even if he did nothing wrong!!!".
Reason 3: Plot
The episodes felt real boring here. They relied more on comedy than the actual plot. Like having a joke come after every other scene that displays a different emotion. Unlike season one, where the characters were more relatable, and let them have moments when they needed them. Whenever I watched a season 2 episode, I was so hyped up, but then when it happened, I just sat there like, "....That's it..?".
I swear everytime I remember an episode from season 2, my love for the show decreases. Like the episode where we met Victor's dad. And then they had this horrible joke where it was revealed that everyone (except Victor) knew his parents were secret agents, and they didn't even explain why nobody told Victor that. In season 1 the plots had more things on the line, and villains we didn't know a whole lot about, which made them intimidating. And the main characters were a lot more sympathetic and likable.
Things That Can Be Fixed:
- Less character torture in order to focus on the plot better.
- Villains with a meaningful motive.
What I mean by that is make the villains be more sympathetic and memorable by giving them a better reason to do the things they do, other than the same taking over the world or revenge routine. Like the villain Robert Baron, who tried to take the moon out the sky to make his son happy.
Other than making forgettable villains like Lucky Leo, or Simon Sayz. Tbh Simon Sayz had a lot more potential. Like I imagine he makes toys because he had a bad childhood and got bullied by other kids for playing with toys, while his bullies played video games, which made Simon Sayz become hostile towards them.
- More character growth
Make Victor start off as an immature, laid back guy, and develop him into being a serious, yet calm character. While giving Anita more flaws and weaknesses. I wished that Anita had a more sad background, like she was abused or neglected a lot and she wanted to make the world a better place, because from what I've seen she has a pretty perfect life, she was successful, being an Olympic skiier and martial artist. I'll change that background in one of my stories, and give her more weaknesses.
Conclusion
To be honest, I feel like the second season was pandering towards the fanbase while trying to be funny at the same time, which I feel didn't quite work. The tone I feel would work better was the season 1 tone, staying with a simplistic, but adventurous plotline, and less character torture.
