Welcome to Eden Season 2 Review: Bringing Us Back to the Island of Mysteries
Cast: Amaia Aberasturi, Amaia Salamanca, Belinda Peregrín, Berta Castañé, Lola Rodríguez, Sergio Momo, Begoña Vargas, Tomy Aguilera, Guillermo Pfening, Diego Garisa, Lucía Guerrero, Carlos Soroa, Dariam Coco, Irene Dev, Carlos Torres, Nona Sobo
Creator: Joaquín Górriz, Guillermo López Sánchez
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
After watching the first four episodes of Welcome to Eden Season 2 (Bienvenidos a Edén) on Netflix only one thought comes to mind: “What a wasted potential.” But somewhere the series proved itself with some potential in terms of cliffhangers. The Spanish series that was born from the idea of making viewers reflect on the concept of happiness and personal freedom, with its second chapter seems to have taken a step backward by compromising too much with the fashions of the moment and becoming a more “trendy” story what a well thought out. The new episodes of the series directed by Denis Rovira, and specifically the first half. Over the past few years, we have witnessed several noteworthy phenomena in the world of streaming, such as the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated teen series, see Euphoria and Élite, which have invested in the genre and its audience in a wisely prudent way, earning a success that led them to dominate the international charts.
And, under the big umbrella of teen serials, some interesting products made their debut about two years ago, opting for stories in a survivalist key, picking up the cumbersome legacy of a seminal series like Lost after a long period in which the islands mysterious seemed to have disappeared from the television horizons. This is the case of The Wilds (brutally canceled after 2 seasons), of Yellowjackets, currently on the air with its second season, and of Welcome to Eden, a Spanish series that has also reached its second halfway point, after its initial success. It must be said that Spanish seriality is going through its golden age thanks to an enthusiastic response from the public (even if not from critics) which, for the moment, seems destined to continue among its laurels. So, let’s see together something more about the latest arrival at Netflix, in our review of Welcome to Eden Season 2.
Welcome to Eden Season 2 Review: The Story Plot
As the mysteries on the island thicken, the Eden Foundation welcomes two new guests, one of whom is Zoa’s younger sister. The Resistance will do everything to be able to unmask Astrid and Erick’s true intentions, but the couple will call in special reinforcements that will give further trouble to the plans of the rebel boys. At the end of Season 1, we were left hanging on a cliffhanger (as well as a pile of unsolved mysteries) that hinted that a Season 2 renewal was already on the cards. And so, it was. The protagonist of the series, Zoa (although it is an ensemble series) had finally managed to escape from Eden together with Charly, who arrived with her on the shores of the island after being lured through an invitation to a mysterious elite party for the launch of a new brand of soft drinks.
It was a cover, and the “lucky” kids chosen to participate in the event had found themselves in a paradise run by a couple, Astrid and Erick, at the head of a community promoting a new eco-sustainable lifestyle based on respect for the environment is permeated by an atmosphere of listening and welcome, where contacts with the outside world are banned in favor of face-to-face human exchange. We are in Eden: a paradise, in fact, except that any possibility of returning to one’s own life is categorically excluded, as new guests Zoa, Charly, Ibon and the influencer Africa soon discover, together with the presence of a network of rebels from the community in which they will join to implement their escape plan.
And it is precisely during this escape that the first season is interrupted, precisely when Zoe while swimming away from the island, sees that among the new guests arriving on the island, there is none other than her little sister Gabi. She then decides to return to take care of her sister and inform her of the true nature behind her idyllic facade. Even Charly, who seemed to be the only one to have succeeded in escaping, is rescued by a boat driven by a special unit in Astrid’s service.
Welcome to Eden Season 2 Review and Analysis
If one of the major weaknesses of the first season was not having dosed the narrative technique of non-disclosure, leaving the viewer with many questions and no certainty (who Astrid is, what is hidden behind the New Eden project, who and what is the role of Isaac, the child kept hidden in a module inside the volcano, etc.) in the first episodes of this season a light seems to emerge amid so much smoke, and the first answers begin to arrive. While it is true that the authors have finally decided to reveal the motivation behind the Eden Project, it is also true that the weaknesses and writing holes continue to be filled with abundant subplots of love / passionate relationships that seem to chase the hormonal moods of the protagonists in a riot of sexual scenes that struggle to integrate with the rest of the narrative, preventing the series from finding its own tone identity.
The impression is that of an unsuccessful attempt to amalgamate different genres, in which the sexual/relational component is proposed with an advertising spot aesthetic (thanks also to a rather suggestive naturalistic setting) which does not excite, and quickly tires. Considering the emotional maturity that series of the same vein have managed to return (see the aforementioned Yellowjackets, about which we wrote here, and The Wilds), it is really difficult to be satisfied with a product that focuses almost entirely on strategic cliffhangers and glossy sex. In this sense, the regions of its success are quite clear. But the hope that in a second season, a greater depth of the plot and a less superficial characterization of the characters and their relationships would be opted for has not been satisfied, and probably the most demanding palates will remain unsatisfied.
The beauty of Welcome to Eden has always been the fact that this series, through an out-of-the-ordinary story, managed to make us reflect a lot on contemporary society and on how the pursuit of happiness is too often directed towards the wrong values. If the first season managed to show youthful discomfort and push this internal dialogue in the audience, in this new chapter it seems that the profound aspect of this story is completely missing. Perhaps driven by the growing popularity of some erotic series or teen dramas, Netflix seems to have done everything to transform Welcome to Eden from a beautiful sci-fi series to a simple teen drama with a heroic background to keep up with the times rather than to tell a nice story.
After half the season there is no step forward in the story, the characters seem to regress rather than evolve. New ones are introduced which, however, do not enrich the story that much and one does not even have enough time to become attached to new faces, new stories, and new people as there is a lack of a narrative background that introduces us to the character and deepens it its nature and character. The action is missing, beyond a few small more dynamic moments, there is no emotion, it almost seems that the characters surrender to their destiny and there is no real foothold to want to go on with the vision of these episodes.
Welcome to Eden Season 2 Review: The Last Words
Welcome to Eden Season 2, which picks up from the cliffhanger with which the first ended, bringing us back to the island of mysteries, where between old and new passions the boys continue to carry out their rebellion plan. All the writing weaknesses of the first season, unfortunately, are also found in this one, which is content to be a product with no pretensions other than to give a few hours of distraction without commitment.
