Ever since the release of Raj & DK’s unanimously admired espionage web series ‘The Family Man’, audience expectations from the second season of the show have naturally been sky high. After momentarily distancing ourselves from the rampant razzmatazz on the social media platforms, an eerie thought crossed our mind.
The thought was about an uncanny pattern of second seasons of eminent shows not living up to the expectations compared to the first season. One of the most relevant examples might be that of Amazon Prime Video’s cult show ‘Mirzapur’. And with a supremely talented cast including Pankaj Tripathi, Vikrant Massey, Ali Fazal, Divyendu Sharma, Shweta Tripathi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, etc., the first season made a lasting impact on the audience. It ended in a cliff-hanger, paving the way to a much-awaited sequel.
A few days prior to the release of the second season of ‘Mirzapur’, there was an incredible buzz. After its release, in spite of the show’s massive viewership, some of the viewers found the show’s second season somewhat less intriguing compared to the sheer brilliance and the Game-Of-Thronish unpredictability of the first.
The insipid response to the second season was corroborated by the fact that the average user rating for the first season of ‘Mirzapur’ on IMDb was 8.4/10. Whereas the average user rating for the second season of ‘Mirzapur’ on the same website drastically went down to 7.1/10.
Likewise, another celebrated web series – the Netflix original ‘Sacred Games’ ostensibly suffered from a rather similar ‘Second Season Syndrome’. The first season of the show, which was based on Vikram Chandra’s novel of the same, was produced and directed by eminent filmmakers Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap.
The first season of ‘Sacred Games’ was immensely praised by the critics and the audience alike. The lead performances by Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddique were unanimously applauded by the viewers. However, the average user rating for the first season of ‘Sacred Games’ on IMDb was around 8.6/10. Whereas the average user rating for the second season of ‘Sacred Games’ on the same website dropped to around 8.1/10.
Moreover, the approval rating for the first season of ‘Sacred Games’ on Rotten Tomatoes was 92% (based on 26 critics) whereas for the second season, the rating significantly reduced to 60% (based on 5 critics). Although the second season was nominated for the prestigious International Emmy Award.
Obviously, there have been exceptions in this regard. But what’s the mystery around this unfortunate pattern of the second seasons of these illustrious shows to be less admired than their preceding ones? It probably boils down to the logical reasoning that the makers might simply have more time to develop a compelling story in an episodic format built around a novel concept for the first season.
But our guess is – that’s not the case with the second season of many shows. Because the makers are under tremendous pressure to meet, or even surpass audience expectations. And more importantly, the second time, creators of the show have to adhere to a strict timeline, before the curiosity level for the show amongst the audience begins to diminish.
Having said that, in the case of the second season of ‘The Family Man’, we are of the opinion that it might not be the victim of the above-mentioned factors. We say so because in one of their recent interviews with a reputed entertainment website Film Companion, the creators of the show Raj & DK had apprised they were lucky enough that they had already finished the story (of ‘The Family Man’ Season 2) and also that shooting for the second season had started even before the release of the first one.
Which means that there wasn’t any pressure on the makers in trying to match up with the high standards set by the show’s first season or in trying to enhance the things that worked the first time. The makers were thankful for the way things turned out for them in this regard. They stayed true to the concept of the first season of ‘The Family Man’ besides (in their own words) – probably tweaking it a bit.
So, be assured that the second season of ‘The Family Man’ should be as good as or might even surpass the entertainment quotient of the first. And the show’s riveting trailer (attached below) proved just that.
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