Raising Dion Season 2 review: The Crooked Man is back with an army to take on Dion

3/5

Story: Two years after the events of Season 1, Dion Warren (Ja’Siah Young) and his mother Nicole (Alisha Wainwright) are thriving in Atlanta. He’s working on learning more about his powers and controlling them at BIONA, her job as a graphic designer is going great and she’s also learning boxing to be able to ‘protect’ her superpowered son. Dion is still besties with Esperanza (Sammi Haney) and Jonathan (Gavin Munn), and together they are the triangle of justice, trying to clean up their neighbourhood without alerting anyone to Dion’s powers. All’s well, until Brayden Mills (Griffin Robert Faulkner), the telepathic kid from season 1, who after the death of his father, took on the energy of the Crooked Man, comes after Dion.

Review: At its core, Raising Dion is still about a young superpowered kid coming to grips with his abilities and the dangers surrounding him, but the advantage of the second season is that it is no longer an origin story. Dion is now 10 years old and a lot more aware of his powers, including the newer ones. He wants to be the local superhero – Mind Mover – and is getting help at BIONA to get a handle on his abilities. His new trainer, Tevin (Rome Flynn), has powers, as does one of Dion’s new friends from BIONA, Janelle.

But while Dion and his friends and family are thriving, there’s danger lurking around, as Brayden Mills, the telepath who is now possessed by the Crooked Man energy, comes to town. The Crooked Man, who was feeding off the abilities of other powered people in season 1 and came after Dion through his godfather Pat (Jason Ritter), is not its former self anymore and builds an army to fight him this time.

If that isn’t overwhelming enough for Dion, it turns out that the contagion that the Crooked Man has unleashed has infected Nicole too and she’s on borrowed time. Can the little superhero get the better of his arch nemesis and save his mom too?

Season 2 of Raising Dion benefits from the fact that all the child actors have not only grown a tad older, but also show vastly improved acting chops, especially, Ja’Siah. If you were hoping to catch a glimpse of Michael B Jordan as Mark Warren, well, sadly, he’s not around this season, even though Dion’s been making videos for his father in the hope of seeing him again – ‘energy never dies’, right! All the principal cast live to see another day, so, there’s hope for future seasons, especially given the bonus scene during the end credits that points to a face-off between a future Dion and a familiar villain.

Verdict: Apart from the fact that Raising Dion is based on a comic book series of the same name, one of its biggest draws has been its lead character – Dion – an African-American kid with powers, raised by a single mother. Just as much as the show is about Dion, it is also about his mother and how important her parenting is to the kind of person he will turn out to be. This season, Dion was joined by two other powered African Americans and the series creators have hinted at the possibility of a more diverse cast, given BIONA’s interest in studying people with powers. So, if you are expecting some mind-blowing superhero action, this is the wrong show. The protagonist is still only 10 years old in a show rated 13+. It’s a decent one-time watch though, packed tightly into eight episodes.