Season two of Fionna & Cake might be the first true misfire for me in this franchise. Granted, there were plenty of episodes from the original series that I didn’t like, and I was pretty negative towards Wizard City, but I still overall adore the first series and was left with mostly mixed to positive reviews about Distant Lands as its own thing. Of course, I also loved season one of this spin-off, and while it wasn’t perfect, it did feel particularly refreshing to have something that felt so inspired and passionate with what could have easily been such a gimmicky concept. Season one was billed initially as a miniseries, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the crew wasn’t really expecting to work with this concept beyond a first season. Regardless, I was still pretty excited for what this season would have to offer even if it wasn’t as strong as what came before it. As much as I’ve taken the piss out of it in my episode write-ups, I still don’t see season two as something especially awful. I’m not gonna act like this is something that destroys the franchise as a whole or is completely devoid of creative merit. Still, I am kind of surprised at how aggressively mediocre I personally found it to be and how divisive it would ultimately land itself within the fandom. As a result, I think reviewing this week to week, episode by episode was kind of a mistake. I really only did it because of how much I loved the first season and how much I have enjoyed writing for this blog. But this wasn’t my cup of tea and as much as I tried to make an effort to see the good in each episode, I was doing a bit of a disservice to the nature of this project to force myself to gel with something I really didn’t have any level of passion for. It was fine with the original series, because for every episode I didn’t like, there was one that I loved on the horizon. But to constantly be forced to engage with something that I didn’t find all that engaging probably wasn’t doing justice to all of y’all who did enjoy the season and I apologize for that! Not that anyone should feel bad about not liking or criticizing the series either, but it just doesn’t really feel right to me that a site dedicated to my love for a series would constantly be revolving around my dislike for it. Moving forward, I’m probably gonna re-evaluate how I tackle things and maybe refrain from the week to week format that I chose for F&C. I’m still going to share my thoughts, both positive and negative, for projects that I think are worth talking about. But episode by episode reviews may be scrapped moving forward, with potential exceptions.
I also feel like myself and many others have already voiced our qualms with this season a plethora of times, so I’m gonna keep it relatively short for the most part. The Fionna-World segments really failed for me on most fronts, which doesn’t totally shock me. I didn’t care too much for the more grounded approach last season, but I was also okay with a lot of these segments because I feel at the very least they were working to tie together thematic elements about Fionna learning to understand and accept her world as it was while also cleverly paralleling the characters and relationships from Ooo and giving us more insight into how they operate. Season two seeks to expand and flesh out these characters beyond what we already know about them, but I really don’t think the writers can make up their minds with how these characters work. They’re either too similar to their Ooo counterparts or not similar enough and never feel fully realized. All of the attempts to create symmetry between Fionna-World and the magical world are in vain, because they’re just borrowing from the same emotional beats of Adventure Time without giving us a real point of investment. Marshall Lee and Gary don’t have any of the yin and yang that made PB and Marceline engaging, Marshall Lee and Simone have a bare bones relationship that the season doesn’t even seem especially interested in exploring in more detail, and a character like DJ Flame is there to reignite the turmoil of the Ooo-world relationship without really giving the character any interesting traits himself. I don’t even really blame the team behind this season for dropping the ball anywhere, because really, what do you do with these characters? They just feel like diet versions of the original cast and I don’t think anything in this season has made me excited to explore them further. There is some interesting stuff teased throughout the season about how this world just kind of shifted entirely when the magic was stripped from the crown, and I did think it was sort of fascinating how these characters are all just given lived-in backstories and realities without seemingly having any control or autonomy over it themselves. But again, I don’t think this season was super interested in exploring that concept, and it’s already kind of discounted as not making any linear sense by the fifth episode. And speaking of Ooo parallels, good God, there are waaaaay too many Easter eggs this season. I think Easter eggs are fine as sort of a fun detail that only true diehards will recognize, but I felt like a good chunk of Fionna-World’s exploration boiled down to, “hey, remember this character? Here they are in human-form!”
As much as I don’t enjoy the Fionna-World stuff, I think the B plot doesn’t really get enough flack for being equally as unengaging. The Ooo segments are super frustrating, feeling like they’re never able to progress for the entirety of the season, yet we still spend a decent amount of time each episode with red herring cures for Finn that don’t go anywhere. I think PB gets the best role, as her grief and stress are apparent with each episode, building up to her breakdown in the final episode. I love her call with Huntress where she completely loses it – it feels like the staff took full advantage of the severity of the situation through her actions. I can’t say the same for Marceline and Simon though, who are pretty nerfed this time around. Simon does have interesting ideas laid out for him with the Demonic Wishing Eye and Gunther, but the season just doesn’t have enough time to really delve into some of the potential lingering baggage of this character, or it’s just not really interested in doing so. Marceline feels like she’s been boiled down to just having a couple of quippy one-liners every other episode, which is disappointing to see. I can’t really only limit my criticism to Gary and Marshall’s relationship, because PB and Marcy feel especially vapid this time around. The show is just kind of comfortable with them because they know how much people have engaged with their relationship in the past, and it doesn’t feel like there’s really any effort to give them anything to work with beyond being a cute and loving couple. I mentioned it in the last review, but this season does feel weirdly conflict-averse with its character interactions. There is conflict, namely towards the end of the season, but most of it is internal and any external quandaries are settled in pretty abrupt, healthy matters. The original show was filled with bubbly characters that rarely ever devolved into totally nasty territory with each other, but I don’t think that transfer works when you’re dealing with a more grounded tone and trying to tackle the quandaries of adult life. Additionally, I think the grounded tone really clashes with everything going on in the Ooo segments. It’s hard to chill out and relax with the day-to-day problems of twenty-somethings when Finn is rotting out from the inside elsewhere.
As much as people ragged on Fionna this season, sometimes rightfully so, I never got to the point of truly hating her character. I think there is just kind of an inherent charm and likability to her even in some of her worst moments, which I once again credit to Madeleine Martin for bringing so much life to her. I really didn’t care for her arc this season, however, and felt like it was really just retreading what we already went through with her back in season one to an even more debilitating degree. I think this would’ve been fine had I found myself invested in the individual pieces of her character exploration, but since it’s mostly chasing around DJ Flame for most of the season, I just find myself kind of annoyed. He’s probably the most uninteresting aspect of this series and that extends to his interactions with Fionna. They have very little chemistry and I think even people who liked this season would agree that he and his connection to Fionna are kind of a weak spot. I really like anytime she’s able to interact with Finn, as seldom as it is, because I think that’s when the most potent parts of her character comes out. She does have this desire to help others but doesn’t really know how to actualize it, and it’s pretty sweet how much Finn sort of serves as a guide to her on how to fulfill those desires, even if she gets it completely backwards. When she does fail at trying to be good to the people in her life, it’s pretty painful to sit through. I don’t really blame the character as much as just the way it’s presented – namely in episode eight where I felt the execution was really goofy and gimmicky. She comes around at the end of the season, and while I don’t have lingering negative feelings towards her, I’m certainly a bit more indifferent to her. Especially because I just don’t find her interactions with this season’s guest star character nearly as enticing as the previous season.
Speaking of which, Huntress Wizard finally gets her moment in the limelight! I don’t find her nearly as compelling as Simon was last season, though I don’t think she was handled completely poorly. I do like the character overall and was additionally surprised at how much I got into Ashly Burch’s performance. I think Burch is pretty great overall and instills a lot of passion into her performance, even if she really doesn’t sound anything like Jenny Slate. So much so that when I think of HW, Burch’s portrayal is what comes to mind immediately. I think her overall arc this season is okay, I appreciate how a lot of her growth comes in smaller moments throughout each episode as opposed to big revelations about the lessons she needs to learn. As much as I loved Simon’s role last season, I do think some lessons were a bit on the nose, namely The Star where the entire journey is reminding him that Marcy wouldn’t have survived without him. And like, duh. HW’s discoveries are a lot smaller in scale and it doesn’t always feel like it takes an obvious route in having her learn what she needs to learn. For the most part, there are some lines here and there (namely Fionna’s at the end of episode six) that kind of feel like you’re being hit over the head with it. As for the lesson itself, I don’t think it’s… bad, but I’m not sure if learning to communicate better is necessarily the takeaway I got from this character originally? I think her major episodes in the original series actually show that she’s pretty solid at communicating, just kind of closed off to the concept of romantic relationships in fear of becoming “soft.” A lot of it is explained through her backstory and other pieces this season, which certainly aren’t bad, but I dunno, a lot of the arc and lessons felt slightly manufactured to me. Flute Spell is cool because it feels like Jesse Moynihan is using Huntress Wizard as a mouthpiece for his own relationship shortcomings and connecting magic back to creative energy and the sacrifices that come with it. Here, it feels a lot more designed and structured, not leaving as much room for personal exploration. But I think that’s just an overall issue with the the current direction of the series. And as is, it’s certainly not bad, I think I just would’ve liked something that maybe feels a bit more abstract in its approach than what feels like a life lesson the writing team is trying to convey to the audience. Also heavily tied to HW’s journey is the Heart of the Forest, which gets a little drawn out by the season’s end. I think there’s a lot of strong visual elements and nice sentiments about working with the world around you instead of taking from it, but it’s not something I found myself super invested in after a few episodes. I do really love her relationship with Finn though; I think those two rock together, and I have few qualms overall with Finn himself this season. Granted, he doesn’t get to do much because, yeah, but I think he’s a character that this entire series has never really wronged. For as much as the season does falter, Finn is left relatively unscathed. I just love that sweet, dumb boy.
I complained last season that Cake having an arc felt kind of unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, but I actually really love her journey this season! I think she’s probably the strongest character in this show up to this point and the only one who really left me engaged regarding what was going to happen from episode to episode. I previously compared her role in this series as kind of an inverse of Finn’s – Finn is the one regular guy in a world full of odd, magical creatures, while Cake is the singular magical entity (somewhat) in a world of normies. It’s both fun and sad to watch her try to conform and please others in a way that varies from episode to episode. She either is encouraged to lean into her identity as an anomaly or try to hide it, and it’s a super engaging conflict that gets resolved in a very intricate way. Of course, it mostly boils down to accepting and loving yourself, but I think the Transformation song in episode nine helps carry it out in a way that feels unique to the character. We don’t really know exactly what this lesson means for Cake yet – does she want to lean into fully being magical, or is there a middle ground that she wants to explore? Does she belong in Fionna-World or somewhere else? I think there’s enough room here that, if there was a third season, I wouldn’t mind seeing where they take Cake with it. I really love this character, and it’s clear that Roz Ryan does as well. There’s so many good bits and lines from her this season throughout. I was critical about her not hooking up with M-Cron, but that’s mostly a personal gripe. I think it works with everything she comes to learn about herself, I just think it would’ve been hilarious and awesome if he fucked the cat. I was waiting patiently all season for him to fuck the cat.
I’m not even gonna bother to try to talk about the board artists this season, because I had such a hard time deciphering who did what throughout most of this. I noticed a few Graham Falk drawings and Rebecca Sugar’s touch was unmistakable, but that’s about it. I think this is partially just me getting rusty with identifying the styles of newer board artists, but like, I’m pretty positive the animation for this season conformed a lot more than the previous one. Animation-wise, I think a lot of this season looks kind of stiff! There’s an interview where Adam Muto talks about how they can’t get as much individual style into the final product because of the current pipeline of animation, and it’s a huge bummer. I kind of wonder how much this is true, though? I’ve seen the early run of Side Quests episodes and was shocked to see how many individual artist touches made it into the final product, let alone in a rigged series. But I’ll trust that there were just more roadblocks in translation this time around, which is certainly noticeable. It’s benefited by how great the backgrounds looks, as well as the specially designed opening sequences. My only gripe is that every episode didn’t have a specially designed opening, but I imagine that just comes down to a budgetary problem. Of them all, I really liked Graham Falk’s sequence in episode two. Falk’s been in the animation world for so long and for a series that is mostly compiled of young artists right out of school, it’s really neat that the series has this generational talent that can adapt to so many different tones in the medium.
Here’s the episode ranking, but beyond the first three, I’m pretty indifferent-to-negative towards everything after.
Season Two Episodes Best to Worst
- The Worm and his Orchard
- The Bird in the Clock
- The Crocodile Who Bit a Log
- The Wolves Who Wandered
- The Hare and the Sprout
- The Bear and the Rose
- The Lion of Embers
- The Cat Who Tipped the Box
- The Butterfly and the River
- The Insect That Sang
Final Consensus
Overall, I didn’t like Fionna & Cake season two. I really can’t even blame the staff for struggling to work with these characters and this world, because really, I don’t know what I would do with this concept either. I don’t know how you take characters like Marshall Lee and Gary and DJ Flame and make them compelling for an audience that loves the original characters so much. I guess on some level they succeeded, because there are a lot of people who did enjoy this season. I understand to a degree; I think the human characters are so straightforward that, for some, it hearkens back to the charm and simplicity of the original series. I also have seen a lot of people enjoy the more grounded, slice-of-life stories that have been compared positively to the less story-focused episodes of the OG. I’ll also give credit where credit is due that the staff didn’t take the easy way out when writing for this season. They had the easiest lay-up in the world to keep utilizing the multiverse gimmick and just explore different worlds like they did last season, but they chose to try something different. It’s a direction that didn’t work for me personally, but I do commend this team for trying something that didn’t just try to retread old concepts. I’m additionally glad that many people seem to like season two much more than me. Maybe they should be writing for this blog instead of me! But as is, I think season two was a pretty big hiccup for the series. If there ends up being a season three, I think I’m too stubborn to not tune in, but only time will tell if I want to review it in great detail. Side Quests, though? We’ll see, I’m surprisingly eager to talk about that.