Series review: The Sinner (Julian-Season Two)
There was plenty of promise coming into this season, I was still pumped from the quality of the first, and then the opening to this episode one of ‘Julian’ was shocking, and once again I was enticed. There’s no real way to go into this without talking about the plot so I’ll warn you now there are spoilers within, but with warnings closer to the time.
I usually watched 2 episodes at a time, and the overriding emotion after the opening two seasons was ‘promising’, like the first season, there was shock, controversy and layers of mystery to be thinking about. What got my attention mainly was the nightmares that Julian had and described, and the way they came unannounced to us as an audience was thrilling and a different tone to the first season. The figure in those nightmares was very creepy, and the equally the practices and the suspicion around Mosswood. In general, the premises that were set up were equally as gripping as the first season.
My disappointment does come with mild spoilers, so skip this paragraph if you are due to watch this season. I found that the set up was so outlandish and crazy at times and then the explanation had a very trivial feel about it. The final few hours of the season almost felt like a soap rather than a crime and mystery drama. The parental controversy wore a bit thin and the whole crime and murder side of things slowly thistle out from the moment the opening ended, there was very little danger and tension very often. One of my main joys in the first season sadly didn’t occur again and that was that none of the filler and the long scenes with just conversation, I can’t say exactly why, maybe it was too frequent or not relevant enough, but it fell slightly flat for me.
Even though I have criticisms, the season was enjoyable for the most part, and the acting of Bill Pullman once again as well as Elisha Henig who played the child in distress did a fantastic job. The enjoyability wasn’t the same however, therefore it doesn’t get close to the 9/10 that I awarded the first season.
Rating 7/10
