(May Contain Spoilers)
I was really excited to watch HANNA since I watched season 1 in March! I loved series one, so knew that without Erik season 2 had to be just as good. Season 1 was based on the 2015 film of the same name and so I was equally excited to see what the makers were going to do with season 2 considering they would be making up the next series.
If you need a recap on Season 1 make sure to check out that review >>HERE<< first and come back.
This season starts right where we left off where Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles) and Clara (Yasmin Monet Prince) have escaped Utrax - the training facility - and are now living in a Romanian forest. This scene shows the progression that Hanna has taken in her character arc from season 1 as she was trained by Erk, but now SHE IS THE ERIK training Clara. Of course the CIA are after them and are still active in hunting them. John (Dermot Mulroney) calls upon the help of Marissa (Mireille Enos) to track Clara down to bring her back to the facility but swears that they won’t harm or take Hanna. Marissa agrees and suggests to track down Clara’s mother as Clara recently found out she is alive and will try to find her...which of course Clara does resulting in her getting captured.
Hanna of course goes after Clara but finds Marissa instead. Marissa takes Hanna under her wing to dye her hair and goes to the effort of making her a new identity but Hanna just wants to save Clara. Therefore, Hanna goes to the new training facility ‘The Meadows’ to break Clara out. Meanwhile, Clara who is taken back to The Meadows starts settling in as they are moved to the socialisation stage of their training and are given new names and identities to memorize. Once Hanna catches up she is detained at the facility too and ends up becoming accustomed to the life there and works with them. Marissa, on the other hand, was abandoned by Hanna after she thought she was being a double agent, but still goes to the Meadows to track down the girls and save them.
Towards the end of the series the CIA give Hanna and Jules (Gianna Kiehl) a mission to assassinate a journalist who has come across sensitive information, as well as Sandy (Aine Rose Daly) and Clara being sent to assassinate the source of this information in Barcelona. It follows that John leaked an assassination list and was trying to cover up his own mess up and Hanna begins to sense something is wrong so works against them to help save the target’s lives, but fails. Hanna does eventually come out on top where there is a shoot off between the CIA and the trainees.
What disappointed me about this series was lack of combat fighting as it was mostly guns, which got repetitive and boring. Hanna was also a B-line character and story, yes she was following Clara to save her, however she was more pushed to the side and was going her own thing which I didn’t like as much. Additionally, the coming-of-age element of the series was still there but in the form of the meadows and the trainees trying to rebel, which was orchestrated by the men behind the curtain! Therefore, I prefered the originality of season 1 and wish they kept these elements for season 2 but additionally kept a more cohesive storyline all together, because the ending felt tacked on and needed some early indicators to help.
I did love Hanna’s story arc from season 1 to 2 and she was more confident and sure of herself which I loved. Clara made more of a feature and her ending was a surprise to see, but I enjoyed that, however, I felt she played the one-tone angsty teenager for the most part. New additions like Terri (Cherrelle Skeete) were great but we didn’t get to see her background as much so I hope she makes more of a feature in season 3 … if there is one. I did enjoy seeing more interaction with the trainees and seeing them come to life in the story and Sandy was particularly interesting because she believed so much in her life she was given that at the end she turns and shows that she was invested in pretending to be this character but is a cold-hearted killer when it comes down to it. Gripping, high action and thrilling.
Stream Season 1& 2 on Amazon Prime Now.
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