Hilda: Season 2 Review – “A Perfect Choice for a Cosy Binge-Watch Session”
It has been over two years since the first season of Hilda was released on Netflix, an animated adaptation of the beloved children’s book series with the same name, created by Luke Pearson. When it was first released, the British-Canadian urban fantasy series touched the hearts of many with its beautiful art style, charming characters, and enthralling world of mythical creatures. Can Season 2 of Hilda successfully build on these strongly executed elements or struggle to live up to Season 1’s outstanding reputation?
In Season 1, after Hilda’s house is destroyed in a giant-related incident, she and her mother, Johanna (Daisy Haggard), move to the city of Trollberg to start a new life. Hilda (Bella Ramsey), a girl who had lived in the wilderness all her life, eventually befriends David (Oliver Nelson) and Frida (Ameerah Falzon-Ojo) after joining the Sparrow Scouts, a local scouting group dedicated to protecting nature and helping others. Together, along with magical friends made along the way, Hilda copes with the unique challenges of city life, unearthing hidden secrets and supernatural mysteries as she engages in countless mystical and whimsical shenanigans.
Since most of the first season centralizes around Hilda exploring the city of Trollberg and establishing the series’ characters, this left desirable room for significant character development and exploration of the universe’s unique and fantastical lore. It is wonderful to see that Season 2 takes full advantage of its thirteen-episode run, fleshing out its characters in a considerably impressive manner.
From focusing on David’s struggles with fear to exploring Twig’s (Hilda’s adorable deer-fox companion) backstory, Hilda leaves no stone unturned in its quest to delve deeper into every character’s internal conflicts and disposition in its second season. This is perhaps best exemplified by Season 2’s greater focus on Hilda and her mother’s (Johanna) progressively turbulent relationship. Throughout the first half of the second season, Hilda becomes increasingly bold and reckless in her adventures, worrying Johanna as she often fails to keep promises and lies in order to join her friends or stop the latest preternatural threat. Hilda deserves immense praise for its realistic portrayal of a teenage-parent relationship through Hilda and Johanna in its second season, demonstrating how differences in mindsets and personality can clash to gradually erode intimate relationships.
While Hilda is aimed for a younger audience than other popular animated fantasy series currently, such as The Owl House and Amphibia, this does not devalue its writing or storytelling at all. In fact, the director of Hilda, Andy Coyle, and the series’ writers do an incredible job: effortlessly intertwining a sense of wonder and love into every episode while still tackling genuine moral and societal issues through emotionally-powerful supernatural story arcs. The introduction of the “antagonistic Trollberg Safety Patrol”, who want to keep the city safe but indirectly disturb the ecosystems and monsters, is also an excellent device for more complex storytelling and characters.
Hilda Season 2 just generally feels like a more mature version of the first season. While Season 1 primarily took place in the city of Trollberg, Season 2 comfortably begins implementing more variation with its characters and locations, fully embracing the imaginative and fantastical side of its universe, which is greatly appreciated. Viewers will absolutely enjoy immersing themselves in each idyllic episode, the second season retaining the familiar warm Hilda feel while executing and improving the original “monster of the week” episodic formula with much more narrative depth. Although the intensity of the action scenes and pace of the season may be lacklustre at times, one could argue that this only adds to the cosy charm of Hilda, as the series takes its time really deepening the connection and level of lore development within the Scandinavian-inspired world, making its heart-warming scenes that much more emotionally hard-hitting. The characters in this season have much stronger and charming interactions, which is extremely pleasing and fun to watch unfold. In particular, the elves and Wood Man steal the show with their impeccably timed dry humour and playful exchanges with the rest of the cast.
Hilda’s artistic style and stylized animation is nothing short of stunning either. With a unique hand-drawn, doodle-like feel to each frame of animation, watching Hilda will be a delightful breath of fresh air for any viewer looking for a more unique series this December. From the intricate interior design of Hilda’s living room to the exquisite Winter Festival decorations of Trollberg, each scene of Hilda can be screenshotted and used as a beautiful phone wallpaper; its visuals are simply breath-taking, and the creative team at Mercury Filmworks deserve prodigious credit for its work. The muted, cosy, and autumn-like colour scheme of the series also only solidifies Hilda’s quiet brilliance as one of the most emotionally-touching series this year, with each episode leaving your heart melancholically aching for Hilda’s conflicts and its hopeful world.
With that said, the conflicts of Hilda can sometimes feel relatively hollow due to the series’ loose focus on explaining character motives, mystical elements, or the reason behind a major decision. Furthermore, after a while, the threats to Hilda and her friends never really seem genuine as magical solutions often come out of nowhere to “save the day”. While this common element of the series can be interpreted as a way of Hilda further portraying the randomness and unknowns of everyday life and absorbing the viewer into the world’s fascinating mythology, it is sure to leave some viewers a bit confused or frustrated.
Moreover, while the Trollberg Safety Patrol plotline smoothly ties all of the episodes together, Hilda leaves a lot to be desired in terms of Erik Ahlberg (John Hopkins), the chief ranger of the Trollberg Safety Patrol. It is disappointing to see that his personality as a fame-focused individual who wants to live up to his family reputation, did not get developed more. His creature and environment endangering behaviour is never appropriately addressed, and Ahlberg faces no significant consequences. Similarly, I felt that Hilda and Johanna’s relationship could have been resolved more sensibly as the finale ending felt slightly rushed and underwhelming, undercutting the emotional weight of their situation.
Regardless of these issues, Hilda Season 2 remains one of the most delightful series this year. At first glance, Hilda appears to be a typical adventure series with little emotional depth. However, this is very far from the truth. The long-awaited second season of Hilda not only lives up to the high praise of the first season but also brilliantly builds on the first season’s strengths, creating a remarkable blend of adventure, emotional maturity, fantasy, and wonder into one warm and heartfelt masterpiece of a series. No matter what age you are, Hilda’s beautifully unique story and art style will likely exceed your expectations and is the perfect choice for a cosy binge-watch session this December with loved ones.
The second series of Hilda is now available on Netflix UK.