Tyrant Season 2 Finale: Deserves to Be Renewed

The Tyrant season 2 finale this week offered a rocky ending to a rocky, uneven season, which nonetheless had some excellent moments - the season and the finale - making me want to see the series renewed.  (There will be lots of spoilers ahead.)

The single most absurd part of this season was Barry managing to fool his brother Jamal into not recognizing him on the phone, with his voice just muffled by a head-dress.   No way Jamal wouldn't have recognized his brother's cadences through that "disguise".

But, with that subtracted from whatever episode a few weeks ago, we still got a pretty good wind-up to the season on Tuesday.  Barry's coming back to the capital as a hero was satisfying, and Jamal's stubborn refusal to abdicate, after he said he would, was completely believable.  Moran Atias, in particular, put in a sterling performance as Jamal's wife Lila, as, for that matter, did Ashraf Barhom as Jamal, Adam Rayner as Barry, and even Noah Silver as Sammy, who was not the greatest last season.

Jamal's getting shot and likely killed by his daughter-in-law was also both well-motivated and surprising.  I say "likely" because, I'm a firm believer in the principle that if you don't see a character's head blown off on television, he or she may somehow survive (and sometimes even with a shot to the head, if we're talking science fiction.)

But Tyrant has done an excellent job of portraying very real situations in this fictional country in the Middle East, a quasi-Syria in most respects.   As such, and given our world today, the series has made an important and even compelling contribution, and deserves to be renewed.

I'll certainly be reviewing it if it is.

See also: Tyrant 2.1: The Tyrant's Character ... Tyrant 2.5: The Caliphate

And see also: Tyrant: Compelling Debut ... Tyrant 1.2: The Brother's Speech and His Wife ... Tyrant 1.3: A New Leaf? ... Tyrant 1.4: Close to the Bone ...Tyrant 1.6: Don't Mess with Jamal ... Tyrant 1.7-8: Coup ... Tyrant 1.9: Tariq ... Tyrant Season 1 Finale: The Truest Tyrant

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and earlier in the Middle East ...

Tyrant Season 1 Finale: The Truest Tyrant

Well, the Tyrant season 1 finale was disappointing.   Here's why -

The whole story this season worked on the premise that Barry knew what he was doing.  Over and over again, he came out on top with his passion and savvy - including pushing the U.S. to continue supporting his coup when the U.S. wanted to pull out.  Given that Barry is such a shrewd and powerful political operator, despite his being a pediatrician, how could have failed so badly tonight?

That failure, though it was a nice twist, also shatters our suspension of disbelief about Barry - suspending the logic that an American, even if he is the son of Middle East dictator, could never really put together a successful coup against his brother.

Indeed, Jamal had shown himself crafty and even brilliant in his own right, too.  It makes perfect sense that he would be a little suspicious of his nervous in-law, who would then blurt out the whole truth. How could Barry not have seen this?

He's a neophyte at coups, ok.   But he was a neophyte at just about everything else on the series, and he succeeded at just about all of them.

I still enjoyed the season - very much, including most of tonight's episode - and I hope it comes back for another go.  Jamal, though a flawed leader, was given a stellar performance by Ashraf Barhom - who was indeed the best actor on the show, along with Moran Atias, who powerfully played his powerful wife.  Jamal and Barry's mother was given a winning performance by Alice Krige, too.   The brief scene in which she pleads with Jamal to spare Barry's life was one of the best this season.

So, yes, I want to see more of this story - including, most especially, what happens to Jamal - revealed tonight as the truest tyrant in Abuddin.

See also: Tyrant: Compelling Debut ... Tyrant 1.2: The Brother's Speech and His Wife ... Tyrant 1.3: A New Leaf? ... Tyrant 1.4: Close to the Bone ...Tyrant 1.6: Don't Mess with Jamal ... Tyrant 1.7-8: Coup ... Tyrant 1.9: Tariq

#SFWApro



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