From the very first beat of Gentleman Jack Season 2, it's plain to see that Anne Lister (Suranne Jones) is intent on making an entrance. In the midst of her decisive strides across a dirt road, cane in hand and top hat perched jauntily on her head, she turns to address the camera directly (in what will come to be the first of several fourth-wall breaks that the show cheekily likes to employ) and greets us as one would the return of an old friend: "Ah, there you are. Good." And with that, it's as if we were never parted from her in the first place. Even while the series (which initially premiered back in 2019) had a long road to the production of its second season, with a delay resulting from the ongoing pandemic, there's something infinitely comforting about being able to literally pick up right where we left off with the ongoing adventures of Anne Lister from creator Sally Wainwright — and this is still Anne Lister, all right, in all her outwardly assured and inwardly vulnerable glory.
Season 1, which revolved chiefly around the burgeoning romance between Anne and young, wealthy heiress Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle), jumps forward to the early days after the two women finally agreed to marry one another, albeit in a more secretive, symbolic gesture than anything that would be able to be fully recognized by the law or church. Ann Walker has agreed to move into the Lister family estate known as Shibden Hall, but it's not an immediate, overnight process; beyond the legal intricacies of their new arrangement, they've also got a lot of potential obstacles to contend with, including Ann's extended family (who believe she is being manipulated by her new "companion") and the lingering existence of Anne Lister's former flame Marianna Lawton (Lydia Leonard), who isn't convinced that this new relationship of hers is a lasting thing. Meanwhile, the Listers themselves remain eternally supportive in their own varying ways — Marian (Gemma Whelan) has given up on trying to convince her sister to pause and take a breath, while Aunt Anne (Gemma Jones) and Lister patriarch Jeremy (Timothy West) continue to be the bedrock of the family.
The places in which Gentleman Jack continues to thrive are in all the messy intricacies of romance, and what happens when two people who haven't quite worked through all of their underlying issues (or perhaps dealt with every single ghost from their past) choose to embark on something that could very well be new and, by extension, terrifying for them both. Rundle's Ann Walker proves to be even more confident in her own thinking this time around, though she continues to serve as a more introspective foil to her new partner's extroverted personality, the gentle energy that contrasts Anne's animated presence on-screen. In spite of her family's suspicions that Anne Lister is thinking for her or making decisions on her behalf, the scenes in which the two women passionately butt heads couldn't dispute that any more clearly, with Ann not only willing to make her own opinions known but freely disagreeing with Anne if she feels the need to express her thoughts. That's not to say the two of them are one argument shy of dissolving their relationship, not by a long shot, but Season 2 makes it evident that there are conversations that these women still need to be having with one another — especially when it comes to the matter of family, a subject on which they may not entirely be on the same page.
Jones once again fully disappears into the character of Anne Lister, infusing the landholder and diarist with an air of self-possession that plays out in the physicality of every moment she inhabits on-screen. Aside from the aforementioned way she boldly stalks from one place to another, Anne is also not afraid to take up space every time she seats herself on a sofa or in a chair, and there's a refreshing heedlessness she takes with regard to her own appearance, often greeting someone without taking pains to wipe off her hands after a day surveying her family's coal pits, or foregoing fashioning her hair into the trademark curls she pins up just above her ears.
Beneath that determination and outwardly limitless reserves of energy, though — for Anne always appears to be on the move, always in motion, save for those times when she's resting quietly in bed with her new wife — there is an exposure in her heart, a tender wound that has never fully healed. For all her confidence, Anne holds the fear that she will ultimately be abandoned by Ann because of what she is as well as what she cannot be, and it's a deeply-rooted anxiety that exists with all the precariousness of a guillotine, with even Anne herself uncertain about when the blade will finally fall. Over the course of Season 2, with all of its external hurdles for Ann Walker and Anne Lister to surmount as a united pair, there are bumps that exist on the road they've taken, ones that require smoothing out as they continue to move forward.
Indeed, the scenes between Gentleman Jack's two leading women are where the show continues to be its most compelling, as well as what gives the season its biggest emotional weight. There are more technical, unexciting aspects to Anne Lister and Ann Walker taking steps to merge their estates, and the level of talk about property deeds, ownership, and a promising new business venture for Lister herself is a less interesting B-plot underneath the relationship-based arc. Yet the stakes themselves, outside of Anne and Ann's sentimental and sometimes tempestuous tête-à-têtes, remain consistently and reassuringly low. It does make for an unexpectedly calming viewing experience to immerse yourself in the realm of this small English town with the knowledge that there won't be any significant upheaval to these characters' circumstances, even as the background threat of political turmoil begins to make its way to Halifax's doorstep — because ultimately, there will still be a woman, dressed head-to-toe in black, marching through it all with aplomb. Hello, Anne. It's good to see you again, too.
Rating: A-
Season 2 of Gentleman Jack airs Mondays on HBO and is available to stream on HBO Max.