Staged Season 2 Review

This is from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every movie and limited series I see.

This is actually my review for the entirety of Staged Season Two, or as it's formatted this time around, Staged2. To my horror, I've only just realized that Stages Season One was completely taken off Letterboxd, and thus the review that I wrote for that first season might be completely lost to the sands of time. I'm very sorry for that inconvenience and I'm really sad that the review is now completely gone.

For those of you that didn't get to read my original review, I gave the exact same rating to the first season because of how much I adored it. The writing, direction, and acting all felt authentic, David Tennant and Michael Sheen have brilliant chemistry as usual, and as a show that takes place during quarantine, it felt like a unique show that actually embraced the limitations of that format better than any other show I've seen. While I did have some problems with some of the editing, like when characters appear to get closer to each other when they suddenly cut from wide to medium shots, and sometimes the pacing could feel a bit rushed, I thought overall the first season was phenomenal.

This second season is phenomenal for a completely different reason. Somehow, this season manages to be a lot more meta than the previous season, which constantly made fun of the real-life personalities involved in the writing, direction, and acting of the show. This plays with that format even more than the previous season, allowing for some legitimately hilarious banter between the two leads and what is genuinely one of the best performances I've ever seen from Michael Sheen in particular. There's one monologue in particular that absolutely blew me away, look out for it.

While the first season focused on being a satire of trying to perform a show through digital mediums during such a strange time, the second season focuses more seriously on the built-up stress that ultimately bubbles to the surface as a result of feeling isolated from everyone while still also incorporating elements of personal satire and plenty of pop-culure references that will make lovers of British media smile. it may be a completely ridiculous scenario, but every moment of the show is acted and written so well that I genuinely can't tell how much of this show is improvised or not (even when the show itself keeps insisting that it's written while also arguing that it's mostly improvised). Oh, and while there were a few surprise random guest stars in the last season, there are so many more here to the point where it becomes Guess The Celebrity, and none of them feel tacked on or simply a face to put on the screen because it's a well-known actor. They all feel like they get a chance to make fun of their own images along with the leads, and the women even get more of a chance to shine in this season, which I absolutely adored. This season takes all of the best elements of the previous season and expands upon them to make a unique borderline-spinoff season that is just as entertaining, with an ending that is so emotionally heartfelt and yet satirically accurate that it cemented the second season as my favorite, even though I still adore the first season.

Now, the problems that existed in elements of the first season still exist to an extent. I only noticed one scene where characters get closer to each other from a wide shot to a medium shot, though, and even though the sudden conflict between the main characters didn't feel quite as built up as I thought it should be, I have a feeling on re-watch, the idea of the built-up stress from being stuck inside the same place for months causing that stress will end up resonating with me. Ultimately, if you love David Tennant and Michael Sheen, if you love British (and American) actors, and if you're looking for a genuinely GREAT quarantine show, watched Staged on Hulu ASAP.

Letter Grade: A