Season Two of FBI followed pretty much the same format as the first, with a story of the week, that usually involves some crime like a murder or a kidnapping in the first act before the title and main credits roll, and then the team picks up the case and has to solve it by the end of the episodes. The episodes are, for the most part, all stand-alone and there are not really any ongoing story arcs or threads that go throughout the season.
There are a couple of cast changes. At the end of Season 1, Sela Ward's character Dana indicated she was going to retire. She was replaced by Alana De La Garza, playing Isobel Castile, the new head of the division. John Boyd (probably best known for his work on the last couple of seasons of Bones) joins the cast as agent Stuart Scola and Catherine Haena Kim joins as Emily Ryder, who fills in as a field agent. Of course, anyone who is a fan of Law and Order knows that Alana De La Garza's casting creates a big continuity error as she had also played a main role in the later seasons of the original Law and Order series, which is in the same universe with all the other Wolf produced shows. This is further cemented by the fact that Tracy Spiridakos from Chicago PD (which crossed over with Law and Order: SVU multiple times) made a guest-starring appearance as detective Upton at the end of the season when Missy Peregrym went out on maternity leave. The season was also cut short due to the start of the Covid pandemic so it just has 19 episodes instead of the regular 22.
For those who prefer to get the show on DVD, it has only been released on disc in Europe, so you have to buy an imported version (which means you also need a region-2 or a region-free DVD or Blu-Ray player to watch the discs on). They are basically MOD discs, with just the episodes and no extras. Also, depending on what country your particular set was manufactured for, you may have to change the audio settings to hear the English language audio. My set defaults to playing in German. Not a big deal, just something to be aware of. The one thing that did irk me about this set is that even though there is a crossover episode with the spin-off series FBI Most Wanted, only the first half of the crossover is on the disc. Unlike the Chicago-based shows, which include all episodes of the crossovers on the DVD sets for each show, if you want to see the Most Wanted episode that finishes the storyline, you have to either get that DVD set or stream it separately.
Overall, the show continues to be well-acted and well-written. It is kind of odd that even into the second season we do not see more of the personal lives of each character to see how they are outside of work. I think for the action-based series like this one, that is less of a big deal than it is for the legal dramas, but it definitely helps with character development, which will keep the fans invested in the show. I think not showing characters outside the work setting was definitely something that tanked the show Chicago Justice, which was one of the few Wolf-produced shows that failed after one partial season. That said, the format does seem to be working well for FBI, and thankfully the show does not focus on just the two main characters to the exclusion of all others, so it balances the ensemble cast well. It is a good season that is worth watching.
There are a couple of cast changes. At the end of Season 1, Sela Ward's character Dana indicated she was going to retire. She was replaced by Alana De La Garza, playing Isobel Castile, the new head of the division. John Boyd (probably best known for his work on the last couple of seasons of Bones) joins the cast as agent Stuart Scola and Catherine Haena Kim joins as Emily Ryder, who fills in as a field agent. Of course, anyone who is a fan of Law and Order knows that Alana De La Garza's casting creates a big continuity error as she had also played a main role in the later seasons of the original Law and Order series, which is in the same universe with all the other Wolf produced shows. This is further cemented by the fact that Tracy Spiridakos from Chicago PD (which crossed over with Law and Order: SVU multiple times) made a guest-starring appearance as detective Upton at the end of the season when Missy Peregrym went out on maternity leave. The season was also cut short due to the start of the Covid pandemic so it just has 19 episodes instead of the regular 22.
For those who prefer to get the show on DVD, it has only been released on disc in Europe, so you have to buy an imported version (which means you also need a region-2 or a region-free DVD or Blu-Ray player to watch the discs on). They are basically MOD discs, with just the episodes and no extras. Also, depending on what country your particular set was manufactured for, you may have to change the audio settings to hear the English language audio. My set defaults to playing in German. Not a big deal, just something to be aware of. The one thing that did irk me about this set is that even though there is a crossover episode with the spin-off series FBI Most Wanted, only the first half of the crossover is on the disc. Unlike the Chicago-based shows, which include all episodes of the crossovers on the DVD sets for each show, if you want to see the Most Wanted episode that finishes the storyline, you have to either get that DVD set or stream it separately.
Overall, the show continues to be well-acted and well-written. It is kind of odd that even into the second season we do not see more of the personal lives of each character to see how they are outside of work. I think for the action-based series like this one, that is less of a big deal than it is for the legal dramas, but it definitely helps with character development, which will keep the fans invested in the show. I think not showing characters outside the work setting was definitely something that tanked the show Chicago Justice, which was one of the few Wolf-produced shows that failed after one partial season. That said, the format does seem to be working well for FBI, and thankfully the show does not focus on just the two main characters to the exclusion of all others, so it balances the ensemble cast well. It is a good season that is worth watching.
