The first season was wonderful; the second season is a contrived, lumpen, unfunny mess and a waste of talent. If a demon like Crowley had sought to prove a point about greed and hubris trampling on wit and artistry, he might have devised a follow-up season like this.

Everything that worked about Season 1 - comic timing, big ideas handled with wit and style, believable characters and motivations (within context, obvs!) - is simply MIA in Season 2. It is patently a contrived and uninspired cash-in on Season 1's success. Neil Gaiman is indisputably a great writer, but there's little proof of it here.

Incidentally, there's a suspicious preponderance of glowing reviews for Season 2. Either my taste and judgement are extreme outliers, or there's an awful lot of shilling going on. I've scored the show very low to express my sincere disappointment and to try to redress a badly skewed balance.