Thoughts on "Pacific Rim: The Black"

Season 2 of "Pacific Rim: The Black" aired on Netflix last week. I binged it. Now, as my seasonal allergies kick me in the brain stem, I find myself processing it.

"The Black" is a sequel (I think) to Pacific Rim 2. Set in Australia, the Precursors (the extradimensional aliens behind the invading kaiju) open multiple rifts in Australia, overwhelming that land with kaiju. The Pacific Defence force (it has a fancy name that I forget just now) enacts a protocol to cut off Australia from the rest of the world and leave it to its own devices because of reasons.

Mind you, I don't understand what the reasons are, but when you watch Pacific Rim, you don't worry about the details too much.

"The Black" follows the Travis family. Parents Brina and Ford Travis are Rangers who pilot a Jaeger. Young Taylor Travis is a cadet, learning to become a Ranger and pilot of a Jaeger (and kind of shit at it). Young and headstrong Hayley is the baby of the group. For reasons, Brina and Ford leave their children with some survivors of the frenzied and chaotic evacuation of Australia in some kind of isolated and idyllic haven, then go off for help.



Five years later, it seems Brina and Ford ain't coming back. Taylor has grown into a teenage control freak with a stick up his ass. Hayley is a brat determined to get out of the idyllic haven and try to get off of Australia, despite the continent being overrun with kaiju. Things happen. The kids come across an abandoned Jaeger named Atlas Destroyer with a fancy talking AI to guide them. Atlas Destroyer, being a training Jaeger, is unarmed and needs proper power cells. That leads to hilarity that has the annoying protagonists come across the mysterious Boy, a mute child in an abandoned government lab, and Mei, a gun-toting teenager with attitude who works for the ruthless Shane, an Aussie warlord in a casual suit who wants Atlas Destroyer.

Whew!

Shenanigans ensue. Turns out Shane has Jaeger drift tech and uses it to do a mind-whammy on Taylor. He steals Atlas Destroyer and tries to have the kids killed, but Mei swoops to the rescue. They all jaunt off in Atlas Destroyer as a dysfunctional family with interpersonal strife and... wow does the story go off the rails.

Season two introduces the Sisters, some goth-mask wearing cult women who work with hybridized kaiju. They want Boy because it turns out Boy ain't a normal boy. More shenanigans. Then we have our conclusion that ends our weird anime excursion.

Yeah, I hastily summed up the plot there, but I have to say, season two really didn't make a lot of sense. It offered a lot of mystery, but answered no questions posed in season one, and really just made all the characters annoying as hell. Except Boy. Boy was just Boy.

All-in-all, I appreciated what "Pacific Rim: The Black" was trying to do. It was trying to be Pacific Rim: Road Warrior. It was doing pretty well in season one, getting that mojo down. The character of Mei was clearly the writers' favorite, with her attitude, lethal skills, and dance moves. I'll be honest: she was pretty much my favorite as well, along with Boy. Those two seemed to have the most interesting stories going for them. The Travis family was just a bunch of dead weight, as far as the narrative went. They were agencies of moving the plot along, but I wouldn't call them especially sympathetic characters. In the end, I really wanted to know Mei's story and what the deal was with what Shane did to her. And I wanted to know exactly wtf Boy's story was. Like explicitly. But the writers didn't seem interested in actually answering questions. They concluded their story the way they wanted and... uh... well that was that.

There were some good mecha vs monster fights, mainly in season one. Season two spent way too much time trying to delve into contrived conflicts, which frankly distracted heavily from what season one set down. It was disappointing, but such is the way of things.