Arcane season 2 review: an awe-inspiring, unwieldy finale

Arcane may not have come out of nowhere when it premiered in November 2021, but it did defy everyone’s expectations for it. No one, at least, went into the Netflix show based on and set in the League of Legends universe expecting it to be one of the best animated TV shows of not only that year but of the modern streaming era. That’s exactly what Arcane turned out to be, though. Across its first nine episodes, the animated series proved itself capable of shocking viewers, breaking their hearts, and making them want to stand up and cheer. It’s a series that, despite its many connections to League of Legends, ultimately feels more indebted to Prestige TV shows like Game of Thrones than any video game.

Expectations were, therefore, always going to be much higher heading into Arcane‘s long-awaited second season than they were for its first. The fact that viewers have had to wait three years for new Arcane episodes and been told that its forthcoming nine installments will also be its last have, however, only raised their hopes even more for what might lie in store for the show’s characters. To its credit, Arcane season 2 doesn’t make fans wait any longer for the answers they’ve been wanting. It begins immediately in the fire and brimstone promised by its season 1 finale, and where it goes from there proves to be far more striking, messy, and subversive than anyone could have expected.

Arcane‘s season 2 premiere spends much of its runtime sifting through the mournful fallout of Jinx’s (Fallout star Ella Purnell) explosive attack on the Piltover Council at the end of the show’s season 1 finale. As returning characters like Caitlyn (Katie Leung), Violet (Hailee Steinfeld), Jayce (Kevin Alejandro), and Mel (Toks Olagundoye) all try to determine the next best step to take, the long-brewing conflict between Piltover and its neglected undercity, Zaun, is quickly escalated by a series of events that send Arcane‘s overarching plot lurching forward again. These early season twists — and one set piece in particular — effectively reestablish the show’s unrivaled ability to rip you out of your passive viewing mode and force you to sit forward in sudden anxiety within the span of just a few seconds.

The season’s narrative turns are best left as unspoiled as possible, and there are many of them. It is unclear whether it was always the plan to tell Arcane‘s story of war and personal relationships torn asunder in just two seasons or if that decision was motivated by the show’s pricey production costs. The latter possibility is not out of question, given that Arcane reportedly ranks as the most expensive animated TV show of all time. Either way, the feeling does begin to creep in early in the series’ new episodes that Arcane‘s sprawling story may have been forcibly constricted to fit 18 episodes. The season’s first six chapters, which were the only episodes provided early to critics, feature more time jumps than Arcane‘s debut season, and there are long stretches where entire characters and storylines jarringly disappear from the show’s ongoing action and drama.

Arcane season 2 attempts to communicate these jumps in time and focus with montages set to original pop and rap songs that aren’t as consistently effective — sonically or narratively — as its first season’s more selective pairings of music and imagery. These sequences do give Arcane the chance to further experiment visually, though, and often to awe-inspiring effect. There are instances in this new season in which the series briefly rewrites the visual language of its world so surreally and beautifully that it ends up matching the form-breaking standards of other, recent experimental animated works like last year’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Like that film, Arcane‘s visual flourishes and phantasmagoric animation is so assaultive that its visual splendor frequently becomes overwhelming.

Arcane‘s imagery, as detailed and impressive as it’s always been, does a lot to make up for some of the shortcuts its second season takes in telling a story that is arguably too big for its nine episodes. And in spite of that reality, Arcane creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee refuse to give up even an ounce of their storytelling ambition. Its second season is, consequently, less deft of a juggling act than Arcane‘s first. That said, the scope of the season also gives the first six of Arcane‘s new episodes a propulsive, heart-pounding pace. Every episode resets the emotional and political landscape of the show — pushing characters into new, exciting positions, tearing certain alliances apart, forging new ones, and opening doors for potential, shocking reunions. Arcane doesn’t just pack a lot into its latest season; it demands that you give it your full attention at every turn. Even better, it rewards you when you do.

Amid all the chaos and turmoil of its new season, Arcane continues to benefit, just like it did in its first, from its cast’s abnormally great vocal performances. Ella Purnell remains the standout — turning in a performance as Jinx that is no less transformative than it was three years ago but somehow feels even more raw, prickly, and vulnerable. Opposite her, Hailee Steinfeld shines again as Vi, bringing intensity and poignancy to a character that — especially in Arcane season 2 — could come across as little more than a one-note, mean-mugging fighter in a lesser creative team’s hands. Her and Purnell’s work is, like everything else in Arcane, just a step above most industry standards for an animated TV series. It may have cost a lot and taken a while to create, but every bit of time and money that went into the making of Arcane season 2 is on display in all of its immaculate, vibrantly rendered frames.

In its second season, Arcane doubles down on everything that made its first such a spectacular surprise. The series is bigger, faster, meaner, and darker than it was before. Its new episodes embrace the elements of surreal mysticism and body horror that were only sprinkled throughout its first nine, all while Linke and Yee attempt to test Arcane‘s characters in more introspective ways. As the show nears the potentially catastrophic end of its central war, there is a clear, concerted effort on the part of Arcane‘s creative team to dig down and find again the humanity beneath its warped surface. The result is a season that is more unwieldy and uneven than its predecessor, but also more beautiful and horrifying.

The worst thing you can say about Arcane season 2 is that it doesn’t seem to know what its own limits are. Watching it push forward so recklessly and fearlessly at all times is a spectacle in and of itself, though, and one that leaves no room for questions about just how special Arcane is. It’s a twisted, expensive, maximalist steampunk epic, and there’s nothing else quite like it on TV right now.

Arcane season 2 premieres in three-episode drops November 9, November 16, and November 23 on Netflix. Digital Trends was given early access to the season’s first six episodes.