First of all the new theme song is nowhere near as good as the first season's. They should have just kept it. If the theme song summarises the season's tone as it did in the first season, that's bad news.
Until Matt Jamison's appearance I was confused about why I was being introduced to all these new characters. With this type of show though you just have to go with it and you see why later on, and sure enough, you find out near the end why- Evie's disappearance, which is obviously going to be the driving force behind this season. I'm a little worried about this as it seems contrived to have a tragedy like this happening just after the Garveys moved into the neighbourhood. I had assumed Season 2 would continue exploring plot threads started in Season 1 so to start on what appears to be a clean slate. It feels like this would have worked better as an anthology à la True Detective. Either way, wrapping up last season's mysteries, most of all Matt's condition, would have been a good idea.
With that said, intriguing new mysteries are set up. What exactly did John do to land him in prison for attempted murder? There's definitely a dark side to him, most obvious when he burns down a charlatan's house. Who is that Jesus guy? The bird in the box is... strange. I can't work that one out. And then there's the town itself... for such a happy place, John asking if a pie is poisoned suggests something underneath the surface. Or maybe people just don't like him.
Until Matt Jamison's appearance I was confused about why I was being introduced to all these new characters. With this type of show though you just have to go with it and you see why later on, and sure enough, you find out near the end why- Evie's disappearance, which is obviously going to be the driving force behind this season. I'm a little worried about this as it seems contrived to have a tragedy like this happening just after the Garveys moved into the neighbourhood. I had assumed Season 2 would continue exploring plot threads started in Season 1 so to start on what appears to be a clean slate. It feels like this would have worked better as an anthology à la True Detective. Either way, wrapping up last season's mysteries, most of all Matt's condition, would have been a good idea.
With that said, intriguing new mysteries are set up. What exactly did John do to land him in prison for attempted murder? There's definitely a dark side to him, most obvious when he burns down a charlatan's house. Who is that Jesus guy? The bird in the box is... strange. I can't work that one out. And then there's the town itself... for such a happy place, John asking if a pie is poisoned suggests something underneath the surface. Or maybe people just don't like him.