The first season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is filled with memorable moments that serve as the foundation to its story, moments that make the whole season feel like a kind of brutal, heartbreaking symphony in which every thread and refrain serves a purpose, all coming together in ways that make each element resonate with more power than it ever could on its own., It’s almost as ifStudio Trigger and CD Projekt Red knew they had to hit these incredible narrative highs and worked backwards from them, ensuring that every minute detail of its 10-episode run cleanly paved the way to its most memorable setpieces.

I’m thinking of scenes like Edgerunners’ protagonist David Martinez watching his mentor Maine succumb to cyberpsychosis as Trigger depicts David’s immediate, gut-wrenching grief in the most visually disturbing way with a few seconds of detailed animation, as well as the final moments in which netrunner Lucy, having dreamt of going to the moon for her entire life, finally makes it because of her lover’s actions. These only hit because Edgerunners uses every frame of animation to earn them. I kept waiting for anything that came anywhere remotely close to those devastating highs when watching Cyberpunk Edgerunners’ new, (mostly) standalone second season, only for them to never arrive.

Edgerunners II is much more of an ensemble show throughout than its predecessor, as its many disparate threads take time to come into focus and tie together, and it’s hard to nail down if there’s really a protagonist this time around.

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