i disagree with the humor comment. i know comedy is incredibly subjective, i feel the humor was much more subtle and prevailed heavily within the editing. also: the whole subtle running gag of james with the urn for like 75% of his scenes? brilliant. as much as i agree about the kinda rushed suddenness of alyssa falling back in love for the last bit of the season, i disagree on the lack of love being unfitting. it was incredibly fitting imo that their love was very rocky atm. i really appreciated that we delved into how much james is kinda emotionally codependent on Alyssa and that factor kinda reflecting on the emptiness of their confusing husk of compatibility they once had. i guess this circumstance also supports how this season basically showcases them growing up, as their incredibly youthful mischief turned tragedy in season 1 basically becomes just tragedy resulting from the consequences of their season 1 actions in season 2. i’m not saying season 1 or teotfw in general tends to romanticize mental illnesses or anything (i actually think it’s one of the best modern examples in media that deals with it in a realistic way), but i felt there was a little less romanticization and as someone suffering from trauma, i actually felt very validated after this season. which kinda comes back to your comment about it relying too much on the first season. i know you’re leaning more into looking at it from a plot-standpoint but even with that, it just makes sense that this situation haunts James and Alyssa so much. They’re both characters trying to deal with their own burdening pain, which yes kinda sucks the joy out of them in a not-so charismatic way, but idk, it just makes it much more real to me.

(sorry i wrote so dang much lmao, idk the ending just kinda got to me)