Dutch, D'avin and Johnny are Killjoys: bounty hunters sworn to take no political allegiance in exchange for considerable latitude in the actions they take when pursuing their warrants. Unfortunately, as season one of this series was already broadly hinting, "not taking sides" is not as easy as it sounds. And not just because at the end of the day, being neutral is functionally very similar to siding with whichever happens to be most powerful.
As often happens in media, of course, the side that happens to be most powerful in Killjoys also happens to be pretty darn awful. Far more awful, in fact, than even their "penning up their labour force and implicitly threatening to starve them" public actions make them appear to be.
I found the first season of this show to be moderately engaging but very emotionally heavy-handed science fiction action. Tragic backstories of emotionally abusive father figures; evil figures of power who really needed to buy glue-on moustaches so they could twirl them as they contemplated their evil plans. A noble doctor fighting to help the downtrodden while hiding dark secrets of her own. It was all slathered on with a trowel.
This second season trades in the trowel for a dump truck, as it veers the narrative in unexpected but also not terrible interesting directions. On top of that the writers seem rather too enamoured of their villains, to the point where the good guy protagonists feel side-lined in what is supposed to be their show.
It does feel like the show reaches a potential new starting point at the end of this season, so maybe Killjoys will find its way again in season three, but for my tastes, these ten episodes go rather off-track.
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