Halo
Summary
After a divisive debut field day , the world of Bungie and 343 ’s hit television game franchise return to Paramount+ withHaloseason 2 . The fresh season follows Master Chief and Silver Team as they continue the fight against the alien Covenant , this meter over the future of humanity ’s majuscule stronghold : Reach . Under new showrunner David Wiener , Haloseason 2embraces a darker and more gamey tone while doubling down on its geographic expedition of John-177 , which make the show ’s soph out a clear improvement , though one that still has some of the same problems as season 1 .
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Cast
A live - action adjustment of the video game franchise of the same name , Halo follow Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 ( Pablo Schrieber ) as he fights his part in a war between world ’s United Nations Space Command ( UNSC ) and the Covenant , an confederation of multiple hostile races of aliens intent on destroying the human race . The Master Chief is support by Cortana ( Jen Taylor ) - an AI construct base on the personality of Dr. Catherine Halsey , who created the Spartan supersoldier program - implanted in his brain .
John’s Humanity Continues To Be A Core Focus In Halo Season 2
The young time of year continue the controversial decision to boast Pablo Schreiber ’s Master Chief without his helmet for large portion of its runtime , but it does so again in service of exploring the military man beneath the Mjölnir . The character is still haunt by the events of theHaloseason 1 finaleandSchreiber in effect balances John ’s national struggles with the character ’s command presence as a A-one soldier . In addition to swarm of outlander and his own head , John must now also vie with prickly ONI administrative official James Ackerton ( James Morgan ) , who get for an interesting new wrinkle in his larger journey .
Master Chief brawling with Elites feels less like watching a video recording game cutscene this time around , and the camera oeuvre has a hand-held spirit that keeps things more grounded .
While John ’s psychological conflict are a key focus , it’sNatasha Culzac ’s Riz-028 that stupefy some ofHaloseason 2 ’s most moving character moments . As she calculate with her own limitations during a period of physical convalescence , she arguably becomes the show ’s most efficient geographic expedition of what it imply to be a sharpen legal instrument of warfare with newfound human beings . alas , not all of Silver Team is give this much aid . Kai-125 ( Kate Kennedy ) feels passably underused , while Vannack-134 ( Bentley Kalu ) never evolves beyond his snarky quips . It does n’t help that the squad ’s cliché raillery does small to reinforce their bond .
Halo Season 2’s Action Is A Step Up
It would n’t be Halo without epic moments of fight between humans and aliens , and , in the four episode provided for review , the legal action is a noticeable footmark up from season 1 . Master Chief brawling with Elites feel less like watching a telecasting game cutscene this time around , and the camera study has a handheld smell that keeps things more establish . Although Master Chief cuts through plenitude of Elites on his own , the series avoid bear the CGI aliens feel like mere carom fodder by evince on numerous occasions just how unnerving they are against non - Spartan soldier .
Select natural action scenes still lose from the CGI floatiness that harass certain sequence in season 1 , butseason 2 ’s action is colored , literally , which helps to hide some of the budgetary constraints that come with telling an epic sci - fi story on the small blind . This could easy have made for a thwarting picket in less capable hands ( seeGame of Thrones ’ " The Long Night " ) , but it actually mold inHalo ’s favor here , turn a cloaked Elite into a sinister , repulsion - movie - like phantasma .
Halo Season 2 Struggles With Some Supporting Characters
Unfortunately , Haloseason 2 struggles when it come to exactly what to do with characters outside of Master Chief ’s direct orbit . This includes Soren ( Bokeem Woodbine ) and Kwan ( Yerin Ha ) , andNatascha McElhone ’s Dr. Halseyis also kept in a frustrating guard pattern . Some of this is seemingly a holdover from how their stories unfolded in time of year 1 , andearly episodes of season 2 drag whenever we leave Reach and go to the detritus . gratefully , the latter half of time of year 2 does seem poise to address this as unlike storylines converge .
Haloseason 2 ’s first episodes raise a number of questions and fructify up fully grown events to follow , and bring the series ’ diverging subplots together into a cohesive whole will be essential to successfully tackling the monumental Reach storyline from the games . While the series ca n’t quite happen its ground with prime characters and sometimes veers into predictability with its dialogue , theexploration of John , the man underneath the armored Master Chief , continues to be compelling , and the action is right than ever .
The first two episode ofHaloseason 2 premiere on Paramount Plus on Thursday , February 8 , with the remain six episodes releasing weekly .
Bokeem Woodbine as Soren in Halo season 2
