Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Halo’ Season 2 on Paramount+, Where Pablo Schreiber Returns As An Enhanced Future Soldier First Made Famous In Video Game Form

Halo (Paramount+) gets a new showrunner for Season 2 in David Wiener (Fear the Walking Dead, Brave New World), which could explain why the writing and pace of the sci-fi series adapted from the influential, long-running video game franchise feels more focused this time around. Pablo Schreiber stars as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, the lead product of a 26th-century program to produce human supersoldiers, alongside Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Olive Gray, Natasha McElhone, and Yerin Ha, who all return in some fashion, as well as Jen Taylor, who voices the AI program previously implanted in Master Chief’s head. Cristina Rodlo, Christina Bennington, and Joseph Morgan also join the cast of Halo, which wastes little time in teasing how those who may have seemed to perish last season might also live on. You know, like a certain mysterious human woman in league with an alien force known as the Covenant and linked with John-117 on an intrinsic, subliminal level…     

HALO – SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “John, wake up! I need you to wake up.” In a flashback, Master Chief, aka John-117 (Schreiber), is on an operating table, eyes open but not seeing. “We’re losing him! Sever the connection…”

The Gist: During the big final battle of Halo’s first season, Master Chief agreed to be fully subsumed by Cortana (Taylor), an artificial intelligence bound to his brain through the radical experiments of Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey (McElhone). Letting Cortana take the cerebral wheel was the only way to beat back an overwhelming force of the Covenant’s hulking creature-warriors and support Kai-125 (Kate Kennedy), Riz-028 (Natasha Culzac), and Vannak-134 (Bentley Kalu), his team of Spartan supersoldiers. But in doing so, John-117 also risked losing the autonomy from Halsey’s mental meddling that he’d spent most of the first season realizing. The gambit worked, though. At least mostly. As season two kicks off, Master Chief and Silver Team are back on the job, protecting colonists from another Covenant attack on an outer ring planet called Sanctuary.

“They took her, it, out, sir, so you don’t need to worry,” Master Chief tells Ackerson (Morgan), Halsey’s replacement, back at United Nations Space Command HQ on planet Reach. John actually does feel something, but he’s not gonna share it with this dude. It’s like a vestige of Cortana’s presence. Thought static. A digital murmur. And besides, Ackerson – patronizing, vaguely sinister – has more suspicions about the AI and Halsey, now a wanted fugitive, than he does the Covenant’s mounting attacks on UNSC colonies. Attacks that Master Chief asserts are representative of new tactics by the deadly alien threat. When it comes to missions against the Covenant, Silver Team – who have all joined John in removing the emotion-regulating “pellets” installed by the Spartan program – warn their comrades-in-arms to remain on high alert.

Elsewhere, on the ragtag planetary enclave known as The Rubble, Soren (Woodbine) has trouble of his own. Collecting a sizable bounty by locating Halsey would be great, because it would also be a vindication – he’s a former Spartan and no stranger to Halsey’s experiments, so they’ve got beef. But Soren’s wife Laera (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) and his young son Kessler (Tylan Bailey) would rather he give up his dangerous space pirate/mercenary lifestyle. Kessler is also in secret contact with the spiritualist revolutionary Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha), a former associate of both Soren and John-117. And in this season’s biggest unknown, lingering images of Makee (Charlie Murphy) remain with Master Chief. A human woman raised by the Covenant, Makee and John nevertheless shared a powerful connection, both to each other and to a mysterious set of ancient artifacts coveted by basically everybody in the galaxy. But Makee died at the end of Halo season one. Or did she?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Hints of wide-reaching prophecy, and meaningful goings-on out in the fringes of galactic human settlement – Halo doesn’t achieve the visual majesty of Apple TV+’s Foundation, but there is vibe sharing occurring. And that’s before Fiona O’Shaughnessy appears in an expanded role as Soren’s wife Laera. (O’Shaughnessy played Dr. Tadj, an instrumental character in the events of Foundation Season 2.) 

Our Take: It’s kind of like asking general questions about Silo after that futuristic sci-fi series first premiered. “So, like, are those people still in that Silo?” In the case of Halo, the answer is no, Master Chief/John-117 has not yet encountered the hundreds of millennia-old superweapons the series takes its title from, those species-eradicating building projects so integral to the backstory of the Halo video game. But that doesn’t mean he won’t. In season one, with a ton of world-building to establish, the series had a tendency to skim. It didn’t always provide the kind of granular detail that can make television sci-fi visually and narratively compelling. (Halo also chose to create the Makee character out of whole cloth, which ruffled some feathers in the gaming heads community.) But here in season two, things feel more defined. Master Chief’s missions for the UNSC still incorporate first-person POV action, alien creatures getting blasted by gigantic guns, and attention paid to the details of supersuits and spacecraft. But there’s a personal quotient to all of this that we can invest in, because now we really know the individual behind the laser-proof helmet-integrated viewscreen. The guy inside all of his articulated ass-kicking tech. This also goes for John’s team, Kai, Vannak, and Riz, where the chemistry is building thanks to them removing Spartan’s emotional restraining bolts. We’re invested in what Master Chief and Silver Team get up to. And if that eventually takes them to the end of the universe to confront weapons constructed by a deified race of ancient beings, then we’re on board.     

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: As it teases more threatening moves from an emboldened Covenant, Halo returns an important season one character, who wonders if what really threatens humanity was always written in the stars. “It’s very old, the monster. Older than the light. Older than this rock. Older than your God…”   

Sleeper Star: Kate Kennedy continues her fine work here as Silver Team’s Kai-125. In battle, she always has Master Chief’s back. But with the removal of the device that deadened Spartan emotions, Kennedy’s Kai is also inquisitive, empathetic, and one of the few characters in Halo regularly bringing some levity to the proceedings.  

Most Pilot-y Line: Former admiral Margaret Parangosky (Azmi) was booted from the UNSC after the Halsey scandal and resulting leadership turmoil. But just because she’s now a private citizen doesn’t mean she’s not keyed in. “No one,” she tells John in confidence, “wants to believe that this war is changing. I want you to pursue evidence of the Covenant’s activities and bring it to me.” 

Our Call: STREAM IT. Halo feels more streamlined in its second season. While still based on a video game franchise with nearly 25 daunting years of established lore, it’s leaning into the autonomy within himself that John-117 has unlocked, which could very well emerge as Master Chief and his team’s biggest asset against the Covenant and threats closer to home.   

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.