TV REVIEW: SNOWPIERCER - Season 2

 

3.5/5

All A'Thawed. 

10 Episodes. Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, Rowan Blanchard, Mickey Sumner, Alison Wright, Iddo Goldberg, Kate McGuinness, Sam Otto, Sheila Vand, Mike O'Malley, Annalise Basso, Steven Ogg, Shaun Toub, Lena Hall & Sean Bean. 

Is it the end of the line for Sean Bean? From 'Lord Of The Rings' to 'Game Of Thrones', this walking spoiler dies in everything. And the only way the 'Sharpe' actor made it to the second season here whilst keeping his head (or his arm...as this show would literally have it like 'The Winter Soldier') is because he actually wasn't in the first one...but at least he was in spirit. 1,034 cars long, we give you your Mr. Wilford. The Wikipedia like W to this train. But going off the rails in its sophomore season, is 'Snowpiercer' Season 2 running out of track? Is your loyalty still to the train? In this age of binge like a 'Star Trek-Discovery' it's better to make this a weekly journey...and that's not just because of the cliffhanger nature of this series, akin to a 'Wayward Pine'. Sure that keeps the excitement levels turning on these tracks, but this show like a federation 'Discovery' would surely suffer from binge fatigue. Especially with the double decker finale like ABC. It's perfect entertainment, but not mindlessly so in epic escapism. You have to think about this s###. And just like 'Wayward Pines' was a poor detectives 'Twin Peaks' this piercer as cold as it gets doesn't come close to the pieces of snow 'Parasite' Oscar winning host and director Bong Joon-ho gave us in 2013 as he made Captain America eat babies. Even if it does expand on the universe of its executive producer with enough plot hatching eggs this Easter to crack any body part. From mobile icing devices in this Apple age that saves tailies sticking all sorts of appendages out of holes on the side of the train until sledgehammers rock them like Peter Gabriel, to Pan Am stylistic first class references to catch whilst you can. Now there's nothing wrong with snow, but we just don't know how many seasons of this cold we can take? Maybe it just mirrors too much of what's going on in the planetary pandemic real world right now through these sheets of ice for us to truly enjoy in our great depression. Brrr! 

Crabs in a barrel with that, "if I can't have it, neither can you" mentality will have everybody pulling each other down to their collective demise when they could let some just reach the top. Turn that barrel over and what have you got (apart from a lot of spilt crabs)? A train. With all these crabs racing to the front that Ed Harris used to occupy on the big screen and now Sean Bean does on the small one in penguin pinstripe and furs. And they're all here, but this time breakout season star Daveed Diggs is forming an alliance down the lines with 'Labyrinth' legend Jennifer Connelly. Retracing her villainous steps like the time she marked those revolving stones with lipstick as a teenager, with a new anti-hero perspective here. The more she steps into the light the more we see the darker depths of Diggs character and just how far he's willing to go down the train as he digs in. And as an actor Daveed delivers it all perfectly in not just his sobering sacrificies, but what he takes from the tail as a result. Cutting it and them off like a dog. Whereas the 'Requiem For A Dream', 'A Beautiful Mind' and 'Hulk' actress Connelly just gets better with age and stage, going to friendly fire Netflix/Disney + war with husband Paul Bettany currently playing solemn sitcom house with Elizabeth Olsen, tuned into 'WandaVision'. Fun fact that you probably already know like the fact that Bettany's Vision started out as Iron Man's J.A.R.V.I.S. vocal assist, like a remote butler, the voice in the Stark designed 'Homecoming' Spider-Man suit is none other but Connelly's. Now how fitting is that? Almost as fitting as the truce called between the tailies and the top of the train that shows that like the nature of anything in this grey area world that's not black and white. No one is all bad...and no one is all good. But you'd be surprised on this train that like Springsteen sang once, "contains losers and winners". 

First class vs the working class heroes. They've all punched their ticket and perhaps even above their weight. 'Frances Ha' star Mickey Sumner's former hospitality character going for broke and getting in way over her head. Fellow great British character actor of 'The American' Alison Wright keeping her accent and the show she steals yet again with the peaks of her performance. Always to be counted and called on in her line of duty. 'Peaky Blinders' star Iddo Goldberg's haunted character as close to Connelly as any. The mental and physical scarring of 'Roots' and 'Hollywood' actress Kate McGuinness. The soul of this sardines in a can crowded series. Characters and actors like Sam Otto reappearing in a different light in the bowels of the trains tail with his 'Winter Song'. Squirrled away with the rebellious Annalise Basso, now emancipated. Or an underused but undeniable Sheila Vand. There's just so many to account for like the 'Glee' of Mike O'Malley now playing world weary wonders. The conviction of confliction by 'The Walking Dead' real and raw revolutionary Steven Ogg. And of course who could forget how different and definitive the villainous Shaun Toub feels no? All those years after helping Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark get out that cave in 'Iron Man'. He has his own hole he lives in now...with everything he could ask, want and demand for. Still, through all the carriages it's singer/songwriter Lena Hall who really holds her stage again in all its grandness. Capturing grace amongst all the Gatsby debauchery and showing darker shades of her character as she walks hand-in-hand down the aisle depths of an abusive relationship. Not only with a certain passenger, but also the passage of points of loyalty and good and bad sides of the coin in all its grey area dividedness. Manipulating these mannerisms, this is were the mirth and menace of Sean Bean shines like all of the lights lit for Mr. Wilford. One moment were we makes a skinny Josh Brolin take a bath with him is truly chilling as the razer blade clicks. This is for all the beans. Forget a hill of them. Or his visionary delusions of Willy Wonka/Greatest Showman grandeur. But even the legend is outshone by the fellow new arrival he's bringing to this meeting of the trains in this second season play. The less we reveal about 'Girl Meets World' actress Rowan Blanchard's character the better. But just like that great concept of a 'Boy Meets World' reprisal she started in, when you find out more about her (character and actor), you know she's going to be at the helm of stardom for a very long time. World meet Rowan. Some may say this crowded train leaves for little character development, but locked down at home watching the tube, have you taken a walk around and looked outside recently? All our characters are under construction of real reflection. This show is bigger than the sum of its working parts. It couldn't be any more telling of our times than how Joon-ho originally intended to in lines of social commentary back almost a decade ago than it is right now. These passengers may be moving, but because of the end of days of a planet in panic they are still stuck in the same place on this train that feels like a sinking ship. Sound familiar? Dystopia apocalyptic films always felt too close to home, but now we're collectively confined to ours, it really does feel all the more as real as it gets. And the human horrors that haunt us here remind us of the reasons we can't sleep at night right now. Struggling to survive whilst others thrive. Everyone battling for position without realizing we can all stand together...if you want it. What's this world coming to? The end of the line? And how about this? Now coming out of winter in this game of trains, as this thing Scalextric's itself on the track for another go round. Can we stand another cycle? Or will all of this eventually defrost in a world that's getting warmer as our hate gets hotter? We're about to feel it now. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Snowpiercer (2013)', 'Star Trek-Discovery', 'Wayward Pines'.