Season Review: Clone High Season Two

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Historical figures have been cloned and placed back in high school, including Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte), Cleopatra (Mitra Jouhari), Joan of Arc (Nicole Sullivan), John F. Kennedy (Chris Miller), and more, and face the trials of normal teenage life.

Our Take:

Before they brought animation glory through food weather, talking Legos, and spider-people, filmmaking duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller made their first mark with one of history’s strangest yet surprisingly brilliant adult animated shows. I’m referring to Clone High, a short-lived animated version of every corny teen drama series ever. The series, which ran for 13 episodes on Teletoon and then MTV, depicts the clones of well-known historical figures attending high school and the pressures of teen adolescence. Teenage mishaps follow, with the clones facing “life lessons” in the weirdest and most inventive way possible. Despite initially receiving mixed reviews and falling into obscurity due to its cancellation, it earned lots of praise for its characters, plots, and parody of teen dramas years later.

This then leads us to the long-awaited second season of Clone High. Consisting of ten episodes, season two takes place twenty years after the season one finale, which concluded with the teenage clones frozen in a meat locker. We see Dr. Cinnamon J. Scudworth (Phil Lord) and the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures thawing the clones for them to attend their new year at Clone High alongside a new generation of clones. The new clones joining the ride include Harriet Tubman (Ayo Edebiri) and Topher Bus (Neil Casey), the clone of Christopher Columbus. As the clones navigate the new normal in the 2020s, the Secret Board and Scudworth’s cold-hearted superior, Candide Sampson (Christa Miller), plot to use them for the mysterious Operation Spread Eagle.

If you’ve watched the first season of Clone High, which debuted in 2002, you’ll immediately recognize its adult tone in season two. For those who haven’t, Clone High is a parodical outlook of teen dramas like Dawson’s Creek that follows and satirizes the genre cliches, historical figures, and social issues in a ridiculously clever manner. One example is that each episode is introduced as a “very special” episode, even though most aren’t as special as others. Another example is the second season’s third episode, “Anxious Times at Clone High”. That episode follows the characters facing stress through their private issues and the school’s mascot, the Heebie-Jeebie, during Pre-Midterms. With the original creators, Lord, Miller, and Bill Lawrence, back in charge, the Clone High revival manifests the nostalgia of watching teenage versions of historical figures experiencing many bizarre scenarios while dealing with the usual high school drama we’ve seen before. But does it make the revival a great return to the animated cult classic?

While the concept remains the same in season two, the series made many noticeable changes to coincide with the current norm, which is part of its brand of humor. One of them is the characters Abe and Joan and their love triangles. Season one has Joan attempting to win Abe’s heart despite Abe being only interested in Cleo. This resulted in Abe competing with JFK to win Cleo’s affection. Season two switches the characters’ roles, with Abe now trying to confess his feelings to Joan, but he still has to compete with JFK, who’s now Joan’s boyfriend. But, of course, that doesn’t stop Joan’s affection for Abe. With this role reversal, the show keeps these arcs from becoming “outdated”, but that doesn’t make it less derivative regarding the structure.

Another change we immediately noticed is the absence of the show’s comic relief Gandhi, the party animal version of Mahatma Gandhi. The protest of the series’ depiction of Gandhi from the Parliament of India resulted in the creators removing him for the revival season. However, he makes a cameo appearance in the second season, where he’s still frozen in the meat locker. It might not be enough to appease Gandhi’s fans, but it is necessary to bring peace to India. As a result, the revival season attempts to fill that void with its group of new clones. Harriet Tubman (Ayo Edebiri) and Frida Kahlo (Vicci Martinez) don’t count since they’re separate clones from their background counterparts. The only clones new to the season are Confucius (Kelvin Yu), who’s obsessed with social media, and Topher Bus (Neil Casey), a mischievous clone of Christopher Columbus and Abe’s new rival for Joan’s affection. The new clones struggle to fill Gandhi’s shoes regarding the show’s humor. However, the characters’ appearances and talent from the new actors, including Ayo Edebiri as Harriet, are enough to maintain the show’s charm, like how we maintain our good grades.

Despite these changes, Clone High retains the usual kooky and amusing elements to keep up with its grades, even if some of them don’t match the comedic heights of season one. The second season started great with its first two episodes, especially “Let’s Try This Again”, where the clones adjust to the new norms, including cancel culture. However, as the season progresses, it slowly loses steam in its arc regarding the plots but retains the enjoyability of its satirical humor and narratives. The season’s weakest episode is the halfway point, “Some Talking but Mostly Songs”, involving the students organizing Harriet’s production based on the game “Twister”. Despite its satiric take on the musical format, that episode is a mildly enjoyable yet by-the-numbers narrative involving two friends fighting over creative differences.

Following the sixth episode, the season improved slightly to provide a solid but abrupt conclusion to the show’s revival season regarding its amusing but brief character arcs. Mr. Besley Butlertron (Christopher Miller) offers his long-awaited arc in its penultimate episode, “For Your Consideration”. That second-to-last episode answers the questions regarding Mr. B’s origins while effectively satirizing the “award-worthy drama” trope. Not only that, but it’s also a solid change of pace from the season’s clone-focused episodes.

The voice cast retains the usual charismatic energy and talent with their vocal performances, including Will Forte and Nicole Sullivan as Abe and Joan of Arc, respectively. Christopher Miller’s performance as JFK has some humorous moments that are often overshadowed by his womanizing personality from the show’s first season. However, it compensates with how JFK handles the breakup with Joan at the end of “Sexy Ed”. The highlights of the cast belong to Scudworth and Mr. B, voiced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, respectively, as they were in season one. Christa Miller’s Candide Sampson was a fine addition to the show’s villain team, but she wasn’t enough to overshadow the humorous Looney Tunes-like escapades of the mad scientist and his robot companion.

Overall, the second season of Clone High has enough good grades to graduate its long-awaited second year of the bizarre clone-filled school. Understandably, it periodically struggled to reach the cleverly impactful heights of the first season that debuted 20 years ago. However, the season delivered enough moments in its voice cast, humor, and characters to keep itself from flunking out of class. As for the animation, the folks from ShadowMachine did a decent job recapturing the limited and stylized presentation from season one while improving its color palettes for HD quality. Like Beavis and Butt-Head and The Proud Family, the Clone High revival is a welcoming return of a popular series that justifies its existence, which is enough to get me ecstatic for its potential third season. Considering how the season ended with Joan possibly becoming public enemy number one, let’s hope our wait doesn’t last for another twenty years.