We’ve already looked at the first season and I have just wrapped up the second season. Season two features nine episodes with the finale being a cliff hanger and it might also be the record holder for shortest season finale ever at about eleven minutes and change.
The Stories: C
I would say that by-in-large the story content remained in a holding pattern for season two. There were some notable better episodes than season one but much like with seasons one there were a lot of things that detracted from the stories from a production standpoint. This is the season where they also began their “controversial” storyline that introduced a gay character in the series and from there a romantic relationship that (I am told) plays heavily into later seasons. For right now the episode surrounding that story didn’t do much for me. Hopefully things will become more fleshed out as the seasons pass.
The Visuals: D
There was not a noticeable jump in VFX from season one to two but there was improvement. The quality of the picture was still quite poor (and to be expected) the modeling and CG matte replacement was still iffy from time to time but did look better in places. What came off as noticeable to me was a pretty decent decrease in Keying Artifacts. There were still plenty of visual glitches involved with the green screen but there were nowhere near as many “green rings” around the performers and fewer and fewer as the season progressed.
The Audio: D
The audio is the only thing that actually moves down a step from last season. It was pretty much the same quality and mix from the first season so there really wasn’t much of a leap in quality there. Where it loses half a step was that I found many of the episodes to have poorly synced audio tracks. While some might call it nitpick-y (and they are probably right), for me it becomes a distraction.
The Acting: D+
I saw an improvement (albeit not a huge one) in the performances of the HF troop this time around. Some cast members were recast (including Lefler, who I enjoyed in the first season) but such things are to be expected. A few of the characters became a little more “colored in” and even more characters found a bit more life in them as I suspect their actors became a little more comfortable with them.
THE SECOND SEASON: D
I am not bumping the grade up here it remains a “D” but fear not! The second season was an improvement from the first but only an incremental one. I wasn’t expecting a collasal sized leap in production after one season so yes, I will continue to keep watching.
I will say that it was tough at times to keep going through the series. It wasn’t that it was bad but it just wasn’t getting any better, at least not at a rapid pace. As I said I had low expectations going in to this as it is a fan production and I did enjoy the second season but it just isn’t anywhere close to the level of “I can wait to watch the next episode!!!!!” for me. I am looking forward to starting season three!
You can download and watch season two of HF for free from http://hiddenfrontier.com/episodes/s2.php
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