NOS4A2 has always been a strange beast. A horror drama with the sheen of prestige TV and a deep, often confusing mythology, the first season was just as interested in the working-class struggles of its teen protagonist Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings) as it was her battle against the immortal, vampiric child predator Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto). All of that’s changed fairly substantially in the show’s second season.
When Season 1 ended, it appeared Vic had defeated Manx by burning his Rolls-Royce Wraith, the car he’d been supernaturally connected to, and had kept him alive, for almost a century. She also discovered she was pregnant, gave up on her season-long desire to go to art school and went to work in the garage of Lou Carmody (Jonathan Langdon), who helped her battle Manx in the first season finale. When Season 2 returns, it seems things haven’t changed much for Vic. It’s eight years later and she now has an 8-year-old son named Bruce Wayne McQueen (Jason David). She’s also in a relationship with Lou and still working in his garage. And she continues to be haunted by what happened with Manx years ago.
So when the news reports that the man who used to feed on children’s souls to sustain his own life has passed away, she should be relieved. Instead, she's tortured by the belief Manx is somehow still alive and will soon resurface. Of course, anyone who’s read the book of the same name by Joe Hill knows she’s right. Charlie Manx isn’t done yet. And now Vic has a child of her own that is exactly the right age for Manx to lure into his Wraith and deposit in Christmasland, the place where he keeps all the children he drains and twists into vampire-like creatures with sharp teeth and a disturbing thirst for blood and violent games.
Fortunately, now that viewers know the series' mythology, the story is no longer bogged down by the need to explain things and generally much easier to follow. Of course, the story is also much more straightforward in Season 2: Manx and his deadly ally Bing Partridge (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) want to take Vic’s son to Christmasland and Vic, Lou and their friends and family will do anything to prevent that from happening.
That doesn’t mean Vic isn’t facing down psychological demons too. In many ways, the adult Vic seems to have become her father; she drinks too much, isn’t there for her son the way she should be and can’t fully commit to her relationship with Lou. This also means her son, who prefers to go by Wayne, isn’t always sure how his mother feels about him. It’s a sad statement about cycles of trauma in families, although this isn’t explored nearly as deeply as Vic’s struggles with her parents were last season.
Instead, Season 2 spends most of its time on Vic’s new battle with Manx and is the better for it, especially since Manx’s laser-like focus on taking Wayne for himself ups the story’s stakes. The series compresses the novel’s timeline but stays fairly true to its narrative. However, by parsing that narrative out over multiple 10-episode seasons, Season 1 could stretch things out too much, leading some of the middle episodes to feel like they were treading water. While there are still some episodes that sag with too much filler in Season 2, in general, there is a lot less of this in the five episodes made available to critics, which increases the season's narrative momentum. And in the noteworthy fifth episode, there’s even some experimentation with format.
The show’s performances continue to be strong. Thankfully, Quinto spends a lot less time in old-age make-up this season, which enables him to spend more time outside the Wraith working the sinister charms of Manx in his younger form. This makes him feel more ruthless and deadly than before. It also helps that the show shares some of the character’s backstory. Cummings remains a powerful lead. And Langdon, as the likable, noble Lou, is a welcome full-time addition to the cast.
Strangely, however, there’s been no attempt to age Vic to accommodate Season 2's eight-year time jump. She looks exactly the same as she did in Season 1 -- even her hair is styled the same. While this may be a way to show the character’s stagnation, it also feels off given Vic has aged from a teenager to a young woman in that time, and would likely look at least a little more mature. This oversight seems especially strange in a show that would go to town aging Quinto in the first season.
In addition, while the show’s mythology has now been established, there are several points in the new episodes where it appears to break its own rules. For example, Vic seems to be able to use the Shorter Way without the same extreme pain she experienced when she was younger. On the other hand, Maggie (Jahkara Smith) now has seizures when she uses her tiles, whereas they used to cause a stutter.
Overall, however, the second season of NOS4A2 improves upon its first. The stakes for Vic, and also for Manx, are more personal, giving the story a greater sense of urgency and making what happens even more horrific. This will leave fans eager for the next episode, while those who were on the fence about the series after its first season may find new reasons to tune in.
Premiering June 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and BBC America, NOS4A2 Season 2 stars Zachary Quinto, Ashleigh Cummings, Jonathan Langdon, Jason David, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Virginia Kull, Jahkara Smith and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.