Upright (Season 2)
Feb. 8th, 2025 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustI loved Upright so much, I almost didn't want to watch the sequel.
1. When a show has one perfect season, and puts the characters through the most important journey of their lives, it feels like any continuation would be a letdown by comparison.
2. Sometimes, sequels will have characters facing new challenges. But all too often, sequels rely on regression or backsliding. Plot problems are not as solved, character flaws are not as overcome, as the original story promised.
3. At the end of a story, the future is full of endless possibilities. A sequel kills them all, locking in one reality.
But as someone told me, Tim Minchin can pick and choose his projects, and probably wouldn't have signed onto a sequel unless it was worth doing. And I figured, even an ordinary season of Upright would be better than a good season of a show I didn't care about. And also, why miss out on Milly Alcock, who is one of those brilliant actors I would follow anywhere. (Except Westeros.)
Anyway. Season 2 is set four years later, when Meg shows up on Lucky's doorstep, and asks for help to find her mum, who has been gone since she was small. This time, instead of driving across the desert landscapes of the Nullarbor, they travel through the tropical rainforests of North Queensland. It's funny and it's emotional. There are secrets and revelations. I didn't love everything about it, but I loved enough.
One of my favourite scenes, when Lucky is driving and Meg is talking:
Her wistfulness! His expression! And fine, okay, I would watch Lucky and Meg meet up every few years for another life-changing road trip, and more of their unlikely friendship, and Upright Season Whatever.
1. When a show has one perfect season, and puts the characters through the most important journey of their lives, it feels like any continuation would be a letdown by comparison.
2. Sometimes, sequels will have characters facing new challenges. But all too often, sequels rely on regression or backsliding. Plot problems are not as solved, character flaws are not as overcome, as the original story promised.
3. At the end of a story, the future is full of endless possibilities. A sequel kills them all, locking in one reality.
But as someone told me, Tim Minchin can pick and choose his projects, and probably wouldn't have signed onto a sequel unless it was worth doing. And I figured, even an ordinary season of Upright would be better than a good season of a show I didn't care about. And also, why miss out on Milly Alcock, who is one of those brilliant actors I would follow anywhere. (Except Westeros.)
Anyway. Season 2 is set four years later, when Meg shows up on Lucky's doorstep, and asks for help to find her mum, who has been gone since she was small. This time, instead of driving across the desert landscapes of the Nullarbor, they travel through the tropical rainforests of North Queensland. It's funny and it's emotional. There are secrets and revelations. I didn't love everything about it, but I loved enough.
One of my favourite scenes, when Lucky is driving and Meg is talking:
When I was little, I used to think, imagine if everyone was leaving like a trail of like, coloured ink or whatever. And you could take a satellite photo of the earth and see where everyone has been their whole lives.
Like, all the times you were just around the corner from a celebrity. Or all the times you walked past a murderer. Or when you like, bumped into someone that you later became friends with. And the bit between your bedroom and the bathroom was just like this dark splodge.
And me driving away from Karingunna four years ago, and you from Sydney, and our trails getting closer and closer and closer and then... (screech and crash, brings her hands together).
And then our lines became one line for a while.
Maybe a new colour while they mixed.
And then, you know, we... (snapping sound, pulls her hands apart).
Her wistfulness! His expression! And fine, okay, I would watch Lucky and Meg meet up every few years for another life-changing road trip, and more of their unlikely friendship, and Upright Season Whatever.
