If The Magnus Archives continues being this perfect, I wish to marry it

First of all, a quick and easy warning. This review will contain massive spoilers for the first season of The Magnus Archives (2016-2021). If you hadn't already listened to it (which I highly reccomend you do as it's oozing with absolute brilliance in pretty much every aspect) or have atleast had some prior exposure to it's storyline, universe and characters, I'd suggest avoiding it. I'll link up my review of the first season here in case you don't feel like listening to 40 episodes of content (if that's the case, shame on you, they're all around 20 minutes long and you don't know what you're missing out on), but wish to get familiarized with the world, story and characters, as I believe I had done a good enough job at exploring the rabbit hole of it's lore in a rather short and sweet manner. Or just go ahead and read the wiki, it's actually impressively comprehensive for a fan-edited and ran site. Phew, glad I got that rant out of my system? So, shall we begin?

After being throughly mesmerized by the macabre, yet captivating world, characters, stories and the exceptionally complex and addictive mystery of Jonathan Sims' hororor fiction podcast The Magnus Archives, I was oh so ready to jump into the second season, partially due to the insane cliffhanger ending of the first installment and partially because, well, The Magnus Institute quickly began feeling like home. A potentially haunted home where you constantly feel like you're being observed and that suffered an attack from a sentient single-minded swarm of murderous parasitic worms, sure, but a home nonetheless. Plus, and this happens very rarely, but, I got attached to these characters, even though (except for Jon himself), we don't get to hear much from them, but, that's just a testament to Sims' literary genious.

So, how does the second season hold up in regards to the first? What new ideas does it bring to the table? Why am I still so obssesed with it despite not having listened to too many podcasts (fiction or otherwise)? Well, to answer all of that I feel like I need to give some...

(1) In-Universe Context

So, what does the new season start us off with?

Well, way back in the first season's very first episode, we find out that Jon was newly appointed to the position of the Institute's head archivist after the suspicious dissappearence of the previous holder of this position, Gertrude Robinson. Mrs. Robinson's rotting corpse was eventually found by one of the archival assistants (and an absolute adorable darling) Martin Blackwood in the newly discovered tunnel system situated under the Institute grounds in the season finale (S1E40: Human Remains). So, great, now we know what happened to Gertrude? Cool, sweet, everybody gets to go home and the story wraps up there? I mean, the show has 5 seasons, what do you think? Gertrude's corpse is found in a sealed off chamber, with a gunshot wound to the head and surrounded by a vast number of audiotapes, with both eventually being confiscated by the police as evidence, with the cold case of the dissappearence of mrs. Robinson getting turned into an active murder investigation.

One of my favorite characters (who I totally, 100% did not have a flaming crush on, shut up), Sasha James is dead, getting killed in a very unnerving fashion by someone (or something) in the season finale. But, wait, why does everybody at the Institute act like it didn't happen? Why is there still an archival assistant named Sasha James working in the Institute? Why does her voice sound completely different? And why does everyone seem to believe it's the same person? Is it some sort off a weird continuity error? Did I hallucinate her tragic death? Did she always sound like that and yet I just didn't notice? Yeah, I'm sure I'm just imagining things.

Jane Prentiss, the afforementioned sentient swarm of parasitic worms, is dead. Apparently the CO2 in the fire extinguishers set-up by Elias Bouchard (head of the Institute) in season 1 had actually done it's intended purpose. Now she exists as a mere jar of ashes on Jon's desk, a gift from Martin intended to ease his boss' ever increasing anguish paranoia, with very little success. To quote from S2E1: Too Deep:

Jane Prentiss is dead. I know this. I have a small jar on my desk of what are supposed to be her ashes, though I don’t believe it for a second. I think Martin just gave me a jar of dust to try and calm me down. Give me something to focus on for closure. I hate to say it, but it does appear to be working. A victory for the placebo effect, it would seem. But that’s beside the point. The worms have been cleared and incinerated, the floors and walls repaired, and the archive looks remarkably like it was never attacked at all.

(Art by: collinsdrawings on Redbubble)

(2) The Writing

Yep, that's about everything you need to know about the set-up, now, let's get to the actual review. That's what the most likely small number of people who'll actually have the nerves to read this (I've been informed by some that my reviews are, quote on quote, way too long for their own good, but, I am incapable of producing a single speckle of fecal matter in regards to claims such as these, their loss, not mine) came here to see, right?

Pretty much all the praise I've given to the first season's writing can be applied here as well. It's gripping, it's tense, it's disturbing, it's very memorable, it's absolutely phenomenal in terms of both horror and human tragedy that makes the stories up and all that other jazz. Nothing really changes in that regard and (given how Sims was the sole writer and creator of the project, i can expect the same level of quality from the rest of the series).

So, what are a few of it's other qualities?

Well, one thing I absolutely love about it is how it manages to build on and expand on the core concepts established in the first season. Sure, we still get the same things we got in season one (great monsters and mysteries, mysterious connections between seemingly unrelated stories and events from various individuals and time periods, etc.), but we do get to see the introductions of a ton of interesting-sounding new elements and revelations, as well as the return of some fan favorite characters from season one, such as the vampire hunter Trevor The Tramp Herbert, serial killer Robert Montauk, haunted antiques dealer Miguel Salesa, the badass goth icon Gerard Key, the ever-so curious scholar of the occult Michael Crew, etc., as well as finding out more about the Fairchilds and the Lukases, two exceptionally wealthy families that seem to be tied to many of the cases that were featured in the first season. However, we are also introduced to several newly crafted concepts which not only expand the rather small scale of the first season, but are all equally as compelling in their own right.

First off, there's Section 31 (first appearing in S2E3, titled, and you better sit down for this, Section 31). One of it's members, Police Constable Basira Hussain (one of the best characters on the whole show if I'm honest) describes it as follows:

Section 31 of the Freedom of Information Act covers exclusions for information pertaining to law enforcement. It just means that any information that could interfere with the prevention or detection of a crime can’t be given out as part of an FOI request. So what happens is, when you stumble across something a bit… weird, then after it’s over you’re taken to one side, and told to sign a form officially declaring what you saw and experienced was directly related to a crime. Then it’s covered by Section 31 and can’t be revealed under the Freedom of Information Act. There’s a whole bunch of other NDA stuff in there as well, but it basically means you have to keep quiet about it.

In short, it's a selected group of police officers (althought Basira hints that medical workers might have something similar in their ranks) who investigate paranormal and anomalous cases and events. As somebody with a soft spot for the whole, as I call them, paranormal procedural genre in all forms of fiction, you bet I was absolutely inamoured with the concept since it was first introduced.

Second, there's The Fourteen Fears (also known as The Entities, The Powers, etc.).

Jurgen Leitner (a British-Norwegian bussinessman who has devoted his entire adult life to collecting, containing, researching and sealing away books with supernatural or anomalous properties nicknamed Leitners due to all of them containing the inscription From the Library of Jurgen Leitner) describes them as follows (quote taken from S2E40: The Librarian):

JL: Imagine, you are an ant, and you have never before seen a human. Then one day, into your colony, a huge fingernail is thrust, scraping and digging. You flee to another entrance, only to be confronted by a staring eye gazing at you. You climb to the top, trying to find escape and, above you, can see the vast dark shadow of a boot falling upon you. Would that ant be able to construct these things into the form of a single human being? Or would it believe itself to be under attack by three different, equally terrible, but very distinct assailants?

JS: So the books, the monsters, they’re part of these beings? Just extensions of them? Fingers being pushed into our world?

JL: The books are, I think, their essences in a purer form. The other things that stalk us, from what I know of them, they have varying wills of their own. All in service of the thing they’re a part of, but not directly controlled by the mind beneath them. At least, inasmuch as these entities have something we could recognise as a mind.

In short, they're 14 all powerful cosmic beings that exist just beyond the thin veil of our reality and from whom all fears (and their subsequent manifestations) stem from. Honestly, congrats Sims, H. P. Lovecraft would be exceptionally proud. A few of said entities are namedropped in this season (The Stranger, The Vast, The End and The Eye), as well as a cataclismic event called The Unknowing, althought further revelations on bith of these will take place in later seasons, so I can't speak for either of the two now (yes, I read the wiki and have an equally obssesed best friend, sue me for spoiling the story to myself and loving it).

The third element I've decided to focus on are the NotThem.

They show up in quite a few stories in both the first and second seasons and are, essentially, supernatural creatures that murder and replace an individual or a group of individuals, taking their place and managing to bend and influence reality in such a way that everybody around them (even said individual's closest circle of family and friends) starts believing them to have always been said person. Hmmm, didn't I mention something similar happening with one of the characters at the tail end of season 1? Interesting.... eh, I'm sure it's nothing.

However, their influence doesn't seem to extend towards magnetic tape and polaroids (some random individuals are, also, somehow capable of seeing through their disguise as well), which leads to one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the show and one of the most poigniant speeches of accepting loss I've heard in a long time.

Finally, there's the inclusion of the supplementals.

For the most part, the show retains the semi-anthological format of the first season and for those who got into it for that reason, good news, the season still mostly consists of those, with, again, like in it's predecessor, the exception of the last two (S2E79: Hide and Seek and S2E80: The Librarian). However, Sims makes a bold and honestly rather interesting move with the addition of supplemental segments that play every time Jon finishes giving his closing thoughts on the statement. In them we find out that his paranoia regarding Gertude's demise is, slowly but surely, growing an increasing, taking an immense toll on both his personal and proffesional life. He begins exploring and mapping out the newly discovered tunnel system underneath the Institute, trying his hardest to understand how it relates to the occult leanings of it's designer, sir Robert Smirke (an infamous real world British architect whose creations oftentimes have a nack for ending up being either haunted or cursed). As Jon tries to put the many pieces of the puzzle together into a coherent and logical narrative, more and more begin piling up and he begins to slowly loose his mind and succumb to a very realistic depiction of paranoia, beggining to suspect everyone, including people he once called his friends.

Whilst I am, personally, always more of an advocate for episodic rather than serialized storytelling when it comes to long format media such as podcasts and TV shows (yes, I'm in the clear minority, I know), however, I do like how Sims tries to mix the already enjoyable formula up a bit with a dash of a conspiracy thriller. Sure, we've seen similar stories portrayed time and time again in fiction, however, when you add such a tried and true formula to a universe where fans know is already excpetionally unsafe and where nobody can trust a thing (... not eveeen your own reeflection, oof, sorry, I had to let that tiny Madame Macabre reference out of mys system), the only thing such an addition can do is aid it in more ways then one, and, as has been made quite clear to me, most people just preffer to have a single story they can follow through each installment without much additional elements (or, as it's unfarily and judgementally reffered to as, filler content) being scattered all around it despite not having much influence on the overall plot.

All in all, yep, I can't sing the praises of Sims' writing enough and anyone with a good eye and ear can see why.

(Art by: Julia Bat on Pinterest)

(3) The Performances

So, that was it about the writing, now what about the performances?

Well, Jon Sims is still absolutely mesmerzing as his in-universe counterpart, however, we do see an entire row of fresh faces, both new and old.

The Institute staff gets more time to shine (with my personal favorite performance coming from the series director, Alexander J. Newall, as Martin), as well as a whole palette of phenomenal side characters, of which I'd like to single out two.

Frank Voss plays Basira Hussain, London Metropolitan Police Constable and opperative at Section 31. First of all, let me get this outta the way, it's dope that they decided to hire a non-binary castmember. Second, their performance is absolutely crushing it. With any other choice for it, Basira's character would have probably felt like the stereotypical, cliche over the top strict police officer, however, with Voss in her shoes, the role feels a lot more motherly and, as a result, the character comes off as a lot more motherly, sympathetic and even calculated, which is fine by me because everyone who knows me knows that I like me detective characters smart and empathetic.

The second is Distortion (a.k.a. Michael) whose best described as What would happen if you took Andrew Scott's version of Moriarty and gave him reality altering abbilities?. He's (or should I say it's) is played by Luke Booys and the man does an absolutely phenomenal job. Not only do you get a (literally) twisted psychopath with an extremely dangerous abbility, but also an exceptionally magnetic character that draws you in with his uncanny and sinister energy. He also has some of the creepiest and most memorable lines of this season (with my favorite being I am not a “who,” Archivist, I am a “what.” A “who” requires a degree of identity I can’t ever retain.). Also the guy literally sounds like he's laughing from multiple throats (and that's not even an effect), how can you not love this performance?

(Art by: xVx_CoolDude69_xVx on ArtStation)

(Art by: lamaery on Tumblr)

So what are my closing thoughts on the second season?

Overall, the second season of TMA absolutely failed to dissapoint on pretty much every level, building and adding onto the pile of qualitues that was presented to us in the first season. According to my best friend (and as suggested by the hyper-disturbing cliffhanger ending) the show gets better and better with each installment, which makes me positively giddy with excitment. I'm about three episodes into the second season and, yep, it's dark as Hell and made me shiver like an eight year old that just saw a monster in their closet, which is just what I need to unwind to lol. I'm very excited to see to which dark pits of Hell will Jonathan Sims guide me through and what traumas I will gain from stepping into them.