The Kingdom Season 2 (El Reino: Temporada 2) continues the events from the previous season and follows Emilio Vázquez Pena as the country’s new president. It is an Argentinian political crime drama created by Marcelo Piñeyro and Claudia Piñeiro and co-directed by Marcelo & Miguel Cohan. There are 6 episodes in total with a runtime of about 50 minutes.
The main cast of the series includes Diego Peretti as Emilio Vázquez Pena, Chino Darín as Julio Clamens, Nancy Dupláa as Roberta Candia, Joaquín Furriel as Rubén Osorio, Peter Lanzani as Tadeo Vazquez and Mercedes Morán as Elena Vázquez Pena. Along with Vera Spinetta as Ana Vazquez Pena, Nico Garcia as Remigio Cardenas, Victoria Almeida as Magdalena Vazquez Pena, Santiago Korovsky as Ramiro Calderale, Patricio Aramburu as Pablo Vazquez Pena, Alfonso Tort as Oscar, Sofia Gala as Celeste and Alejandro Awada among others.
Netflix’s description of the series reads:
Two years after the rise of Emilio Vázquez Pena to power, political intrigue and social unrest reach maximum heights. But even in darkness, there’s hope
-The Kingdom Season 2 Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-
The sequel series continues after two years since Pastor Emilio became the president of Argentina—but things aren’t going well. One would expect some strict and conservative measures in place according to Emilio’s ideology but the reality is completely different. The pastor is just the face, the real power holders are the ones who placed him in the position & they make all the decisions about the country.
This has left Emilio in a lost state where he doesn’t own all the control & has to face the brunt of everything, as people protest against his regime & want him to leave the office. If anything, the world is all the more violent and ordinary people are the ones who suffer the most.
But rather than concede and find solace in god again, Emilio pushes on, gathering new allies and even an army of his own, which he will use to bring about a reign of terror. It’s his way of gaining control of his life and the nation. However, in an all-out struggle between good and evil, his adversary is Tadeo, who has unwittingly become a populist leader and won’t shrink from his mission.
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Going into the series, I expected that the story will pick up right after we left, amidst the candidate announcement. But rather it takes a leap and we miss out on seeing how Julio gets himself out of Emilio’s cabinet & creates a family of his own with Ana. In season 2, he is a professor in college trying to make a living for his family, which isn’t particularly all that rosy.
I thought the fight will be between Julio and Emilio, as he tries to uncover the truth before he gets elected into office. But as we have seen in reality, the bad guys always seem to have the best luck or money to make everything happen. With Julio out of the picture, Rubén Osorio was expected to be the leading kingmaker, always at Emilio’s side but we explored his own parallel story which felt crummy with some unnecessary details.
Well, he did get the karma for whatever he did in his career, the part with his therapist wasn’t really needed and the creators gave him too much screen time. But if they wanted to show him as the worst guy, then they totally succeeded. Unfortunately, compared to the first season, the sequel lacked tension in the plot that would grab the attention till the end.
There weren’t many high-adrenaline moments but it stayed on one tangent to tie up all the ends. Yet it left a few open which confused me, especially the reoccurrence of Remigio Cardenas at the end, which made me question if he is even really dead. Apart from it if you were waiting for all of Emilio’s secrets to be revealed then I can assure you the wait was worth it.
Summing Up: The Kingdom Season 2
Overall, the series served what it couldn’t in the previous season. But somehow I feel dissatisfied and want more or something shocking to happen. Last season set the base that Emilio is far worse of a person than he seems but in this season he is nothing more than a puppet, who seems to have given up on everything. The creators failed to take his evil trajectory higher to keep us engaged.
Similarly, it was interesting how Celeste obviously planned meticulously to join the family but they didn’t show any ulterior motives that would explain her actions better. While Tadeo takes up the opposing role, his character arc also fell flat in my opinion. So much for protecting the big fish, he is almost non-existent in the story.
I guess the series took a realistic approach, as they showed how one tragic event is created to cover another – along with the creation of man-made gods & monsters for influencing the public. The quote which comes at the start of the series summarises the season pretty aptly but the realistic ending leaves you a bit disappointed, as the fictional world of the show doesn’t end up creating an ideal world.
The Kingdom Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.