Dead End: Paranormal Park Season 2 Review: More Adventure Same Big Heart
Barney, Norma, Pugsly, and Courtney are back for another adventure on Dead End: Paranormal Park Season 2. The new season is every bit the delight that the first was.
Season 2 picks up sometime after the events of the Season 1 finale, which saw the gang defeat both the ghost of Pauline Phoenix and Temeluchus. Under new park management, Barney, Norma, Pugsly, and Courtney have been made the park’s demon clean-up crew.
Despite Pugsly no longer being able to access his powers, the quartet has the routine down as they try to rid the park of demonic trouble-makers. Life has moved on in other ways too.
Logs and Barney are officially a couple and adorable as ever. Meanwhile, Norma has transferred her hyper-focus from Pauline Phoenix to learning everything she can about demons. She even has a podcast with Badyah about it.
I appreciate that the series never paints Norma being neurodiverse as anything other than just part of who she is. It can be a challenge for her sometimes. She has trouble reading social queues, for instance. But it’s also a strength.
Her passion is one of Badyah’s favorite things about her, and it’s part of what makes her vital to the demon clean-up crew. Other shows avoid tired tropes about neurodiversity, but very few do it as well and as explicitly as Dead End.
Relatedly, it is also great to see more of Badyah this season. It’s great that we get more of Badyah and Logs, really. For Logs, it’s fun to see the insecurities and doubts of Mr. Cool, Calm, and Collected.
Both characters are still mostly defined primarily through their relationships with Barney and Norma, but they are starting to come into their own. Hopefully, we’ll have more opportunities to get to know them outside their connection with the main crew or get a bit of their respective backstories.
As great as it is to see both Logs and Badyah in expanded roles, Badyah’s increased presence stands out as a particular highlight.
Partly, that’s just because she is such a fantastic character. She is so much fun and adds great energy to every scene she’s in.
It’s also because of how her relationship with Norma progresses this season, though. Each character gets touching moments and the chance to grow because of that relationship.
Admittedly, Norma and Badyah’s relationship doesn’t go how I thought it would.
I’m always also going to root for queer ships, but in this instance, subverting ship expectations is a more interesting choice and just as heartfelt.
One thing that I’d love to see the series do if it gets a third season (and given how it ends, it better!) is to establish Badyah as Asexual.
There is so little meaningful ACE representation on TV. It is also a largely misunderstood LGBTQIA identity. With a few exceptions, the representation we do get is either implicit or very shallow. I can’t think of a show better situated to explore asexual representation with nuance and substance than Dead End.
Norma and Badyah aren’t the only ones with solid character development this season. Courtney has a great season as well. We learn a lot more about her history, and we learn about it with her. The big reveal about Courtney isn’t entirely unexpected, given some of what is said at the end of Season 1 and throughout Season 2.
Still, the big revelation about Courtney and her reaction is one of my favorites of the season.
I love the direction they are taking her character and, as is so often the case with this series, the potential for where they can take her in the future.
Without question, though, the most surprising and emotional story of the season belongs to Pugsly. Pugsly, and by extension Barney’s, story builds slowly throughout the season and comes to a head on the final two episodes.
Those final two episodes are perfect. The twist is earned in a way that is both unexpected and feels inevitable in hindsight. In other words, is the best kind of twist because you are absolutely surprised but do not feel tricked.
It’s thrilling and heartbreaking, and despite the massive cliffhanger, completely satisfying (if it gets a third season, so get on that Netflix).
Dead End: Paranormal Park Season 2 is an absolute joy. Fans of Season 1 will not be disappointed. If anything, they will fall even more in love with these characters and this world.
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What did you think of this season of Dead End: Paranormal Park? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Dead End: Paranormal Park is now streaming on Netflix.
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Sarah Fields
Sarah is an obsessive geek who likes to get into the weeds and over think things. She is passionate about Sci-Fi and comics and is a giant classic film nerd. Sarah cares deeply about media representation and the power of telling diverse stories. When she's not writing or watching her favorite shows she spends her days working in the non-profit world trying to make life a little better for those that need some extra help.