Siren - Leverage - Review

Hi and welcome to this attempt at a perfectly timed review to coincide with the second half of Siren’s second season which begins this Thursday on Freeform.
Previously on Siren…… well a lot of stuff has happened.

The mermaids put their civil war to one side and agreed that working altogether, including with their human counterparts, was their best chance of survival. Unfortunately whilst most of them might have been all for this, Cami daughter really couldn’t put her grievances over Xander killing her mother aside and ended up attacking him on the boat. Knowing exactly what it’s like to have your grief take over you, Xander attempted to reason with her but it was no use and the boat went up in flames, with Xander, Calvin and Cami’s fate all lying in the air.

In order to get Xander, Calvin & Ben out of prison and off charges, Ryn secretly agreed to work with Nicole and give the military her samples. It’s a deal that currently remains hidden from Ben & Maddie, but if you’ve seen any of the promos Freeform have released in the build-up to 2b? You can guess it’s not gonna stay secret for long.

Nicole continues to be a surprisingly intriguing character. It’s clear that unlike Decker, she’s not a two dimension character solely focussed on the mission. She does care for Xander, and she does want to do as right by Ryn as a military personnel can. It’ll be interesting to see how her role progresses when the show returns.

Since the show decided to give in to its fate and have the ot3 be the best ot3 that it can be, the shows been so much better. Finding any show that will attempt to do a poly relationship is rare, and it’s even more rare for a show to have all 3 sides of said relationship share an equal amount of love and affection for one another. During the shows early days Ben found himself slightly torn between his love for Maddie & his connection to Ryn. Likewise Ryn seemed much like a toddler, enamoured with the world around her, not exactly sure what to make of it and its society rules, just simply knowing she was drawn towards Ben and then Maddie. And for Maddie? Her love and affection for Ryn is just as strong as Ben’s, but she manages to be somewhat of a neutral party between the three of them? Ben’s feeling have been heightened thanks to the Siren song, but Maddie’s feelings for Ryn are all real and genuine and something that has happened as a result of the time they’ve spent together. Whilst Ben can occasionally be hotheaded and torn between directions, Maddie remains the level headed one, and it’s extremely fun to watch. In some ways Ryn still feels very much like their little mermaid daughter, and in other ways she feels exactly like an equal third loving partner in their relationship.

The first half of season 2 covered an incredible amount of ground. I still remain slightly sceptical over the extended episode count, but so far the season has felt worth it. Expanding Helen’s familial ground has given her something to do outside of the Siren stuff. She’s no longer here just to provide exposition on the Siren mythology, and guide our ot3 like a wise Yoda. Instead she has a relative she never knew she had, she’s experienced love again with Sarge even if he did die in the 2a finale, but she’s managing to do stuff outside of Ryn/Ben/Maddie and I think that’s for the best. Rena Owen has proven herself to be an extremely talented actress and when you have a cast as vast as this, they all deserve their moments to shine and have storylines expanded on and take them in new directions.
Xander is another character whose grown as the season and indeed show has progressed. He’s no longer solely fixated on avenging his father’s death or killing mermaids, but instead proving himself to be a good friend to Ben, ally to the mermaids and getting along as well with Levi as you possibly can with a mermaid who killed your father. The only one who continues to feel a bit like a spare part is Calvin. Sure he does now know the whole truth about everything, but he still doesn’t have a storyline or motivation of his own and that’s something the show needs to work on because side characters are still important characters.

With Ben going against his father’s wishes and being behind the oil rig collapsing, there’s sure to be more Pownall family drama in 2b. I’d imagine a bit of that will play into Elaine’s health, and I can only hope that an extended episode count will mean that more time can be spent fleshing out certain areas of the show to make it more compelling.

Siren returns this Thursday with the second half on season 2, and has thankfully already been renewed for a 3rd season. What are you hoping the second half of the season delivers and what did you make of the first half? Sound off with all your thoughts in the comments below!