Arcane Season 2’s opening episode proves it was worth the wait

When Exciting season 2 kicks off, just moments after Jinx’s bomb decimates the Piltover council meeting, tragedy has already struck. There is wreckage all around, bodies appear among the rubble as the dust begins to clear. Even for a series as grim as Excitingit is desolate; as one character puts it, another atrocity or so later, it’s the kind of thing that lets you “understand how easy it is to hate” those who did this to you.

It’s an extremely complex feeling to unpack in any show, least of all one released the same week as a tumultuous US election. But in the first three episodes of Season 2, Exciting proving himself up to the challenge, constantly grappling with not just the rigors of life in Piltover and Zaun, but the frightening ease with which outraged fury – and violence – draws closer and closer. Such casual destruction leaves the world at once messy and full of focus: whether it’s Vi to find out if there’s any of her sister left in Jinx, or Cait tumbling and struggling to find out of how much of her instincts are gut and how many are. grief.

To Exciting gets to illustrate so much of their struggle with its artful animation would feel like a cheat if the show wasn’t so damn good at it. Everything from the memorial battle to Jinx’s alley fights look impeccable, and it shows a real ease in pulling off animation styles that naturally fit the mood, person or situation. When we see Cait delve into the science behind the “grey” noxious gas, it’s set against a cartoon style – once again illustrating how easy it is for her team to see everything they do as “real”.

All the more fun that a montage like that could feel just as at home with Sevika’s skirmish using her new, unpredictable Jinx arm. At times Exciting feels like it’s emulating sumptuous anime, classic art, or dexterous music videos; often, like when the second episode sets up Zaun’s power struggle, it feels like all of those things at once. Thanks to the work of the animation studio Fortiche, the visual language of Exciting can be somethingand go anywhere.

And then the show dives in. The shock of last season’s cliffhanger hangs over everything that happens, and the threat – that such a disaster could be around any corner – moves through the narrative. There’s a real sense of scramble and melancholy throughout everyone’s story (who can’t relate?). While Jayce and Viktor’s evolving experiences with hextech may be more singularly focused than Mel’s attempts to hold Piltover together, they share the desperate desire to fix everything and the nagging fear that it might already be too far gone (that cannot relate). Even Jinx, always ready to play the villain to avoid facing her wounds, is more ready than ever for a release.

In a smaller premiere, these battles can feel distant, overshadowed by the small eternity we spent waiting for Season 2. Instead, Exciting keeps it moving, artfully weaving in just enough coherence to pack a punch and letting the remarkable visuals speak for themselves.

There’s a saying that’s been popping up around TV shows lately: It’s a miracle if we get a season every year. It’s a bit anachronistic; never mind that there are some hard-hitting examples that counter this, either running like clockwork a season or so forward (Slow horses) or just be network TV working as it always has (Abbott Elementary, 9-1-1the list goes on). People are tired of having to break up their time between seasons, with no fixed regularity or schedule. The wait, especially with a streaming show, can feel endless. But then a show like Exciting comes, consciously and methodically takes his time. And it finds itself redeemed in a bit of serendipity, when it might provide a mirror for our own experiences.

Media can never be a pure outlet; it interprets and spits out too much of what we feed it. And even in times like these, when many are afraid, stressed and struggling, it doesn’t serve us to just turn away and cover ourselves. Excitingwith its long-overdue release, feels like a reminder of this in its first three episodes, thought-provoking and nuanced as it tracks a group of people striving to improve their condition. There’s no way its long gestation period could have predicted this exact moment, but it feels like one of many responses to it, another encouragement to channel pain into something considerate. A reminder that great ideas don’t have to go down hard.

In the final moments of Episode 3, we see that Exciting plays to something bigger — this is not a simple revenge story, nor is it a bleak world headed for disaster. This may be a tragedy, but every second of it will be a choice. Exactly where it lands, we’ll just have to wait and see.

It may not be easy, but if these first three episodes tell us anything, it’s that we need to be wary of what is. Sometimes things are worth waiting for.

The first three episodes of Exciting Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix. The next act will be released on November 16.