Pantheon Season 2 Review

Pantheon season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

Somewhat fittingly for an animated show about corporate malfeasance and digital life after death, the wildly ambitious sci-fi series Pantheon has re-emerged on Netflix more than two years after it was purged from AMC+ for tax purposes. These final eight episodes (previously unavailable in the United States) conclude Pantheon’s deeply weird transhumanist story in a way that is largely satisfying if a bit unfocused. The plot falters as it picks up the pace to follow its millennia-spanning source material: Ken Liu’s short stories about a future where people achieve immortality by uploading their brains to the cloud. Though the visuals remain spectacular, too much time is devoted to characters and arcs that have little impact on a saga shaped by the somewhat visionary, somewhat destructive aims of the Steve Jobs-esque Stephen Holstrom (the late William Hurt in his final role).

As Holstrom clone Caspian Keyes (Paul Dano) works with tech prodigy Maddie Kim (Katie Chang) to correct a flaw that will allow uploaded intelligences (UIs) to achieve true immortality, they spend much of season 2 trying to figure out who deserves that power – while other uploads seek to claim it for themselves. Uploaded astronaut Joey Coupet (Anika Noni Rose) felt like the least necessary part of season 1, and the weak payoff of Caspian and Maddie’s attempt to turn her into the cloud’s superhero in season 2 only makes her character feel more unnecessary.

Maddie and Caspian’s quest also introduces them to a host of other UIs who also have little impact besides losing to the season’s villains to show the situation is serious. While there’s some charm to an espionage romance plot involving uploaded Iranian scientist Dr. Farhad Karimi (Navid Negahban) and MI6 researcher Dr. Olivia Evans (Lara Pulver), season 2 gets incredibly hamfisted when it brings in Mossad UI Yair Gispan (Mark Ivanir) for a plot about brokering peace in the Middle East that has aged very poorly in light of the war in Gaza.

The creation of the cure has the unintentional side effect of producing the world’s first computational intelligence, MIST (Thomasin McKenzie), who is one of the highlights of season 2. Childlike but extremely powerful, she seeks to understand her connection to humanity and build her own future while toddling around in a robot body, producing some antics reminiscent of Black Mirror’s “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too.” MIST embodies Pantheon at its best, using hard science fiction to explore deeply human concepts like grief, love and family.

Pantheon season 2 truly shines when it embraces its cerebral side. One of its best scenes is a quiet discussion between season 1 villain/vengeful rogue UI Vinod Chanda (Raza Jaffrey) and the Chinese political prisoner-turned-UI Han Ping (Clyde Kusatu). Unfortunately, those characters are quickly relegated to playing reluctant lieutenants in Holstrom’s plans, complete with new demonic looks to represent their fallen status.

While Hurt does a phenomenal job of embodying the arrogant contempt of Holstrom, his turn as the main antagonist fails to distinguish itself from the other tech bro villains who have come to dominate Hollywood. His scheme to encourage uploading by making the real world intolerable is especially unimpressive given how many characters show a willingness to make the transition early in the season without added incentive. It also replaces a far more compelling and topical idea of manipulating public sentiment through social media with a generic race-against-time plot that feels cribbed from James Bond or Mission Impossible. In the process, Holstrom’s better ideas – like recruiting MIST or attacking the very concept of nostalgia – fall by the wayside.

The anime-inspired animation from Titmouse is absolutely stunning. The details are always sharp, whether they’re capturing the condensation on a glass of water or the anything-goes nature of combat in the cloud. Drawing on imagery from The Matrix, The Terminator, and Dragon Ball Z, Pantheon’s battles are incredibly creative, demonstrating the ways the characters think of themselves and their limits as they tear apart the virtual environment and each other. The animators also do a great job adding depth to the characters: Caspian’s perpetually haggard appearance is nicely complimented by Dano’s flat affect, and the way characters age in the real world and reinvent themselves in the virtual one subtly reflects their personal growth and how they view their truest selves.

Some of the big ideas in Pantheon have already been explored by Black Mirror, Upload, and Devs, but Pantheon is remarkable in its willingness to push the envelope to cosmic levels while still feeling true to its protagonists. The show acknowledges that building a better future for humanity will be a messy complicated process, and its portrayal of that transition is also imperfect. But as a time of rising instability and technological anxiety, its message about our species’ potential to evolve feels powerfully relevant and beautiful.