Departure Season 2 Forgets What Made the Show Work in the First Place
Warning: This review contains spoilers for the entirety of Departure Season 2.
Departure Season 2 is, unfortunately, an over-complicated mess that loses sight of what made Departure Season 1 so wonderful.
There’s nothing more disappointing than when a show returns, and it’s not as great as the first season. You’re all excited to see everyone again, and while that excitement is still there, as the season progresses, your excitement continues to fade.
Before diving into where the season falls short, it is worth noting that Departure Season 2 still excels at building suspense and tension, as well as choosing some intense cliffhangers to end an episode on. We also, eventually, get to see more of the investigative work that caused us to fall in love with Season 1.
One of the main issues with Season 2 is that there are too many side-plots going on, which pulls our focus away from the main investigation — the thing we actually care about!
The cartel storyline is there to throw us off the real cause of the train crash, and while it is okay for a short period of time, the show feels the need to really focus on it. There’s no need to drag out this flashy side storyline. What makes this show compelling is the mystery, as Season 1 proved.
What would have helped is if Departure kept the focus on Kendra and the investigation, and only showed Max and the cartel when it intersected with what she’s doing. This means no shots of Max fleeing or confronting Emilio. No one really cares about watching Max gets closure and bring Carlos down. He’s not why we tuned into Season 2.
Once the cartel storyline is wrapped up, Departure shifts focus back to the investigation and becomes the show we all fell in love with once again. Of course, we also have to follow around Tyler/ghost guy, which is frustrating and pointless, but overall, the show improves in the final episodes.
My theory is that Departure found itself with too many episodes to cover a train crash investigation.
During Season 1, part of the mystery involved finding the plane. Once it was found, then the investigation shifted into discovering what happened. With the train crash, there’s no need to locate it, causing Departure to have to find a way to draw out the investigation more, resulting in the cartel side-storyline.
Let’s shift gears and discuss Kendra’s team this season.
Ellen and Charlotte are wonderful additions to the team. It’s always fantastic to have a women-dominated team in place, and they bring some fresh energy to show. If there’s a Season 3, I wouldn’t mind seeing them again.
However, the decision to keep Dom and Kendra separated is confusing and is to the show’s detriment. We watched the two of them form a partnership during Season 1, and that dynamic is definitely missed during Season 2. First, he’s not around at all, and then he shows up only to be sent away to investigate the DUI in Canada.
It would have been wonderful to see the two of them as partners again, bouncing ideas off each other. Ellen ends up taking on that role, but it is a shame to waste all the work Season 1 did by keeping Dom away for the majority of the season.
Perhaps the goal was to play up the flirtations between Max and Kendra, but we all would have much rather had Dom and Kendra, right? It’s not like there was ever a sliver of a chance with Max and Kendra, but there could be with Dom.
Is anyone else hoping that Kendra will be spending her post-job vacation somewhere with Dom?
Overall, Departure Season 2 is a letdown. It’s not the worst season of television by any means, but it could have been so much better. If we get a Season 3, let’s hope that Departure learns from this season’s mistakes and gives us back the show we fell in love with.
Stray Thoughts
- The Sheriff being a bad guy is obvious since the actor is recognizable, but that doesn’t detract from the mystery.
- Surprised that Bartok isn’t somehow involved considering how much Season 1 hyped him up as a top-notch bad guy.
- However, I’m super thankful Kendra’s family drama doesn’t re-appear.
- Howard’s scenes are a great emotional tie back to Season 1 and show how Kendra’s coping with it all.
What did you think of Departure Season 2? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Departure Season 2 is now streaming on Peacock.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).
11 comments
I’m watching it now, but I keep getting sidelined by all of the American caricatures. Everything is exaggerated or just wrong. Since when is the FBI required to give a briefing in an open federal investigation to a gubernatorial candidate? That’s not a thing. And why does the candidate have a southern accent despite her family being in Michigan since 1800-something? Oh wait, because all nationalistic, xenophobic Americans must have a southern accent. I’m surprised she didn’t have a twirling mustached too. It’s really as though the only understanding the writers had of America was a couple westerns and a Trump conference.
It definitely got a smidge convoluted but I called the two bad guys from the jump. I’m a huge fan of shows like Air Disasters and what not so it’s cool to see that fictionalized but obviously unless there are nefarious characters/plots it wouldn’t be interesting. Charlotte and Ellen are great additions and while that little bit of world building it did in the last episodes was obvious I’m so excited for season 3; it’s already renewed in Canada.
I didn’t realize it had already been renewed! I’m excited to see what is in store for everyone in Season 3. I hope Charlotte and Ellen return.
I am from Michigan, and it was quit laughable (and cringe-able). Especially considering it is a Canadian production the rest of the US usually think we are more like Canadians.
Too many things in this very first episode that makes no sense:
1-America and Canada have their own people to investigate they would not pull in someone from England.
2- She could not have gotten there as quickly as she did from England. The same night? Not hardly. Then the amount of red tape to cut through, etc. she would not have been near that site for at least 48 hours after the accident.
3- She would have an American liaison with her.
4- Her British id would mean nothing in an American hospital to get information. Not without said liaison.
There are more, but they would have been better served leaving this show based in the UK and those surrounding countries (Netherlands etc.) This season makes no sense with her in America.
I was disappointed that Kendra found BOTH the missing boy AND the “fugitive”. It seemed a bit too coincidental.
Like you I loved season one (except the son storyline) but this season was not good. It’s like you said…there was too much filler. Max, the calls to find the grandfather, to name but a few. But what really bugged me was the terrible police work. They know the train’s window has been pushed out but no one thinks to check it for fingerprints? And the crash site itself is left completely unguarded?? There were too many “Oh come on, really??” moments for me to enjoy this season.
I felt quite let down by this second season, after really enjoying season 1. It is far too convoluted and some of the plot has overtones of a Bond movie. Dare I say it, but I think the fairly understated Canadian-Brit’ season 1 it has become thoroughly Americanised.
It had me until the second episode, when the sheriff started talking about restless native and the one of the characters says he or she comes from two lines of privilege. There is plenty fish in the sea, a lot of good serials from Europe to be wasting time and emotion on woke dramas. Bye bye Departure.
I was super captivated by the first season, but 20 minutes into episode one of season two I was like WTF?!
Part of the excitement of season one was the fact that The show was set in London England. It had all of the British vibes down pat, with lots of great scenery of my favorite city in the world.
I was a little annoyed by the blah blah blah between are in fatigable lead investigator and her off the hook son, but there was a sweet ending when they were doing the puzzle together.
But lots of things didn’t make sense. Where is Dom? There was some serious flirt energy building up, and then they just make the guy disappear? And what organization in the world has investigative capacity to be international? Why is our English investigator suddenly in the upper Midwest?
The introduction of the weirdo blonde woman with the John Lennon hippie glasses was annoying as well. She says the very same thing that the creepy skinny x-ray model girl who got killed when she got pushed down the steps said, oh it’s a pleasure to work with you.
That’s just lazy riding.
I don’t know if I’m prepared to watch the whole season to get to a good final episode.
It’s a disappointment to be sure, but then again the world is on fire, people actually don’t understand how screwed we are, and I’d venture to guess that sometime within the next five years, we won’t even have the Internet.
So I guess we should just enjoy it while it lasts, right? Thanks ☺️
I was annoyed that S2 had essentially the same resolution, a morally corrupt mastermind orchestrating the scheme to take over a company at a deep discount, with the help of a trusted veteran investigator. Seriously??
Comments are closed.