Cloak & Dagger: “The most important superhero series on the air”

Season 2 of Cloak & Dagger, hailed by ComicBook.com as “the most important superhero series on the air,” is now available to binge, first on Showmax in South Africa.

Cloak & Dagger is the story of Tandy Bowen (Olivia Holt) and Tyrone Johnson (Aubrey Joseph) – two teenagers from very different backgrounds, who find themselves burdened and awakened to newly acquired superpowers which are mysteriously linked to one another. Tandy can emit light daggers and Tyrone has the ability to engulf others in darkness. They quickly learn they are better together than apart, but their feelings for each other make their already complicated world even more challenging.

Here are five reasons to add it to your Watchlist immediately:

1. It’s repeatedly named the best superhero show on TV

If the Comicbook.com endorsement above isn’t enough to convince you, Den of Geek similarly praised Cloak & Dagger Season 2 as “the best superhero show on television”;  Decider called it “the best Marvel show on TV;” and Shadow & Act labeled it “the best superhero series on TV.”

Cloak & Dagger currently has a 87% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it in fifth place in the critic aggregator site’s ranking of the best Marvel series of all time – with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the only higher ranked series that is still developing new seasons.

2. Both its leads are up for Teen Choice Awards

Aubrey Joseph is up for Choice Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Actor as Tyrone, while his co-star Olivia Holt is nominated for the Best Actress equivalent as Tandy at this year’s Teen Choice Awards, with the winners set to be announced on 11 August 2019.

Aubrey and Olivia have been widely praised, with The New York Times complimenting their “prickly, believable performances;” Shadow & Act suggesting Aubrey deserves to be “Hollywood’s next big thing;” and ComicBook.com comparing Olivia to big screen icons Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) and Brie Larson (Captain Marvel).

In Season 2, both actors show their versatility, as their characters essentially swap roles: Tandy, homeless for Season 1, has moved in with her mother and restarted ballet classes, while Tyrone is now the isolated one, hiding from the police in the abandoned church Tandy used to live in…

3. There’s more superhero action this season

As Indiewire put it, Season 1 of Cloak & Dagger “wisely cares more about characters than powers,” which is the polite way of saying there was less superhero action than some fans expected.

But now that we’re fully invested in Tyrone and Tandy, Season 2 is picking up the pace, as Tandy and Tyrone become the crime-fighting superheroes we’ve been waiting for, taking on drug dealers, abusive boyfriends, and an ambulance driver abducting women – and that’s just in the two-episode season premiere…

As TV Fanatic says, Season 2 is “twice the action, twice the fun…”

4. There’s more Emma Lahana, with lots of Mayhem

Emma Lahana starred in Season 1 as Detective Brigid O’Reilly, who teamed up with Tyrone against corrupt police detective James Connors. While avoiding Season 1 spoilers, let’s just say she didn’t emerge unchanged, so in Season 2 Emma also stars as Mayhem, Brigid’s vigilante doppelganger. It’s a breakthrough dual performance that has catapulted her into the IMDB Top 500 – above both her Teen Choice nominated co-stars.

As ComicBook.com says, “It’s Lahana’s take as O’Reilly that brings the excitement and thrills required to take things to the next level.”

5. It’s fun and intense at the same time

As ComicBook.com says, “There are fun, light-hearted superhero shows on TV. There are dark, intense superhero shows on TV. Cloak & Dagger is the rare project that manages to be both, without ever fitting into either of their boxes. It’s an experience all its own, full of joy, pain, wonder, and intrigue, and that’s what makes it so fantastic. Don’t let Marvel’s most important TV series pass you by; it’s too good not to enjoy right now.”

Stream Cloak & Dagger first on Showmax.