REVIEW: ‘Fairfax’ Season 2 Is A Struggle If You Don’t Speak Its Language

Fairfax Season 2 is an animated comedy produced by Amazon Studios. For Dale, Truman, Derica, and Benny, life in Fairfax is about to get crazy. With a fashion war brewing between upstart fashion line Off-Brian and established brand Latrine in the air, Fairfax is ground zero for a fashion war. But if that wasn’t enough, each of the kids has their problems to face as they tackle questions like love, friendship, and standing up for what they believe in.

The core element of reviewing narrative entertainment is judging how the media delivers its story. Is it clear and engaging? Does it compel the viewer to continue watching, or just lull them to sleep? Sometimes though, certain stories make this determination harder to judge when they center on characters and concepts completely outside the reviewer’s frame of reference. This was my experience with Fairfax Season 2.

The two biggest spokes that turn the bulk of this season’s larger plots revolve around fashion and clout. These happen to be two concepts I have little-to-no personal experience with. From the slang and attitude to the motivations themselves, I often found myself lost in a world that’s concepts made little sense to me. And that was before some of the series’ more outlandish story beats would happen.

Despite my struggle with the series’ specific personality and focus, I did find several strong stories throughout Fairfax Season 2‘s eight episodes that transcend the particulars of its focus to themes that most audiences can understand. Friendship, young love, and being true to yourself are all concepts that get explored between clap backs and clout wars. This helps the series reach out to a wider audience, though I don’t know if there is enough of it to fully save the show for those uninterested in the larger focus.

The only other hurdle the show will pose for some is the level of outlandishness the plots sometimes go to. The show isn’t afraid to let a story devolve into the absurd. While these sequences often didn’t land for me, I can certainly see where they could hit better for others.

The animation and visual design complement the tone of the story nicely. It does its best to balance the show’s over-the-top moments with its more human sequences. For the most part, I’d say it succeeds.

Lastly, let’s talk about the voice acting in Fairfax Season 2. Much like the visuals, the voice acting does a solid job of trying to help the characters feel cohesive despite how they sometimes feel like they live in two worlds, the mundane and the zany. This is particularly true for actors Peter S. Kim (Benny) and Jaboukie Young-White (Truman). These two characters spend the most time bouncing between the show’s two elements and the actors do a commendable job of keeping them feeling like the same character no matter what emotion is being delivered, whether it’s heartbreak or maniacal glee.

So while I don’t know if Fairfax Season 2‘s exaggerated peer into the worlds of fashion and clout will be for everyone, I think there is an audience for this ruckus series that delivers zany antics lightly seasoned with a few genuinely heartfelt moments.

Fairfax Season 2 is streaming now on Amazon Prime.