I loved season one of Haunted: The Audio Drama and so was excited when I heard it was going to continue into a second season. I wondered how a second season would fare, as the core plotline of season one; investigating a signal that had the ability to send homicidally mad anyone who hears it was such a cool thing. I feared that like many subsequent seasons of shows, that the focus would fall onto exploring the hidden backstory of one of the cast. This is exactly what did happen, but it was more engaging than I gave it credit for. While the overarching story this season wasn't as good as last time around, this was still a wonderful show that I only had a few complaints about. Unavoidable spoilers for the first season to follow.
This season is split over thirty eight episodes that take place over nine interlinked but separate stories. After the events involving the signal, paranormal enthusiast Abigail Corbin (voiced by Isabella Barbieri) has gone on a road trip with jaded alcoholic paranormal investigator James Hunter (Jamie Evans) and police officer Dan Cowell (Luke Hunter). Their aim is to locate James' former partner Karl Trevino and stop whatever evil plan he has came up with. They soon learn that the man aims to destroy the shady organisation who him and James had been captured by as children. Along the way James discovers revelations about his past that causes an ever growing rift between him and his partners, as well as what the true intentions of the organisation really are.
I needn't have worried about how they would come up with ideas for a second season, even if at times they seem to be be heavily influenced by Resident Evil. There are several lines taken from that game and used like Easter Eggs, at one point someone says the iconic line "Blood! I hope this is not Chris' blood", in the 'The Cry of the Abyss', the story here is basically Resident Evil 4 but set on a mysterious island, with a character questioning at one point if the relentless villagers who suddenly call off their attack have all gone to bingo, much like Leon Kennedy questioned in that game.
The idea of a time loop was played with before, and here you instead have time travel with 'Presque Vu' that finds Abigail back in time during a haunted pub crawl. The idea of pocket dimensions is introduced, and these were always fun episodes. The highlight of the pocket dimension ones being mid-season finale 'Darkness Falls' that sees our heroes discovering an apartment block full of vampires hidden away in an abandoned town.
Variation to the formula creates some different feeling episodes. Two-parter 'What the Spirit Saw' was guest written by Marc Smith. Perhaps the weakest of the stories here, but at least it was only two episodes. I thought 'Triptych' had a great idea to it, with Abigail and James relegated to background characters, with Dan brought to the forefront. I really didn't expect Dan to be that great an addition to the main cast, but I enjoyed his growth over the season. Having him interact with a mysterious woman, Eliza Wu, whose motives appear unknown over the course of the season was fun and gave his character more to do than just arguing with James and Abigail. I can't say I really liked the ultimate path his character took, with him getting duped painfully easily towards the end of the season in penultimate story 'Divergence'.
The season seemed to be leading up to revelations about James' lost past, but while there were indeed revelations, these were very heavily signposted, and so didn't land with as much impact as they could have. It culminates in season finale 'The Children of Little Hope', while this wasn't as dramatic and action packed as the season one finale, it still left on enough of a cliff-hanger that again I am intrigued to see where the show goes next.
For people who haven't listened to season one, this isn't going to be a good point to drop in. Many of the stories fed into each other, but I thought the show could be at its best with its more stand-alone moments. My favourite story of the who season was one of these, 'The Dark Menagerie' which had the protagonists under attack from a possessed doll that was basically Annabelle from The Conjuring universe, with versions of Ed and Lorraine Warren also appearing here to give a neat twist on what you would expect out of this.
I loved listening to this continuing story each week, and while some of the voice actors were not as good as others, for the most part the voice work is excellent, and the stories told wonderfully, so that it is easy to picture the events that are taking place. With two more seasons to come, I am excited for the future of Haunted: The Audio Drama.
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