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Spy x Family was based on a silly premise – a spy, an assassin, and an esper all coming together as a weirdly-constructed fake family, and each having their own reasons for wanting to keep up the charade. A part of the show’s initial allure wasn’t just from the premise alone, but from the sheer oddness of how all these disparate parts managed to come together. Even at times when I wasn’t laughing, I enjoyed myself. There was a kind of bizarre spontaneity to the series that made forming the family and establishing the universe they reside in quirkily fun, and each new element that was thrown in seemed to add another sweet and charming layer to a gradually-misshapen cake (with peanuts on top, because Anya). The whole thing plays itself off similarly to the old Get Smart or The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, so questioning the logistics of the whole matter is a bit of a fool’s errand.

If the first cour of the show had been to gather the cast and crystallize the relationships and status quo, the second cour naturally would follow suit to see the characters in their day-to-day life, trying to make the most of their crazy situations and frequently getting in and out of trouble. The notion itself is perfectly fine; this is a world where there are essentially three stories moving in parallel – Operation Strix being carried out by Loid, Anya’s adventures at school to get good grades and into Damian’s good graces, and Yor’s attempting / failing to become a better housewife while maintaining her double-life as an assassin. Each one presents its own scenarios that feel at home with the cross between spy thriller and comedy that the show managed to pull off beforehand.

But therein lies the problem – the keyword that I had used to describe the first cour was “spontaneity,” and that is what feels like it is sorely missing this second time around the block. The sheer collision of the absurd and crazy was a part of Spy x Family’s adrenaline. In trying to so often fit square pegs into round holes through its dynamics and interactions, the series had an off-kilter swagger that impacted both the scenarios, setpieces, and the characters within them. That swagger is absent, however. Because the series has now reoriented itself into a new norm, the scenarios feel less crazed and more trite. They’ve more or less settled into a routine, robbing the series of a sense of forward momentum.

Most typically, there are two ways to express forward momentum from a storytelling standpoint. One is the way we generally tend to associate with stories: have the plot itself move from point A to point B and so on until you get to the end. The other way tends to lend itself better to episodic content like Spy x Family – rather than focus on the overarching encompassing conflict and eventual resolution, have the focus be geared more towards the largely self-contained episodes and get by through whatever the stylistic vibe the show is going for. The focus is less geared towards the resolution of the whole and more towards the resolution of the moment.

This series adopts the latter approach, and on some level, this makes perfect sense. The franchise is structured like a sitcom through its idea of “mission of the week” and putting larger-scale conflicts on hold, delaying the sense of a finale until the mangaka Endou Tatsuya feels that the time for it has arrived. However, there is a misalignment between where Spy x Family’s strength ultimately lies versus where this cour thinks it does, at least in regards to its material – the charade of maintaining the family life and focusing the attention on the Forger family as a unit tends to work far more effectively. Operation Strix is not where the appeal is kept because that is not what the series has been about, at least as I have watched. The Operation being carried out may have been what gathered the ensemble, both from within and from without the Forger household, but that mostly served as a means to an end and a backdrop rather than being the main glue that kept me coming back initially.

It’s within the comedic moments of Yor trying to become a better cook, Loid realizing that his marriage might possibly be in jeopardy, and Anya snarkily commenting on the various goings-on between everyone that gives the series its funky color. The grander overarching story of Operation Strix has far less appeal both comedically and dramaturgically than the everyday life of the Forgers and the natural problems that arise because, well, families experience problems, especially considering that everyone in this particular family has secrets that they MUST keep from one another. Spy x Family part two places too much emphasis on the drama with the comedy somewhat forcing itself in rather than the comedy taking the reins from the start.

That’s not to say that the series is not trying to make Operation Strix work, because it is. There are remnants of that off-kilter variety there, such as from the first scenario of being threatened with the trained terrorist dogs, and needing to break into a secured area in order to change some test answers. The addition of Nightfall, another spy that has worked with Loid, is among the better aspects of the second cour, mostly because of her interactions with the show’s inner structure. She introduces a direct counter to both the spy and the Yor storyline by trying to prove herself worthy of being Loid’s new wife. Aside from the juxtaposition of a cold-on-the-outside, head-over-heels-in-love-on-the-inside facet of her character, she presents a threat disconnected to the East vs. West cold war that hangs over Loid’s mission. Her main concern is not the success of Operation Strix, but with proving herself to be a far-better housewife and marriage partner than Yor.

By having her character written in this fashion, she manages to weave herself into the Operation Strix scenario anyway, which makes the connection between Loid’s home life and Loid’s work “marry” wonderfully. What this illustrates is that Spy x Family tends to be at its best when it’s examining the characters of the Forger household, with the other storylines moving as companion pieces alongside. The strength is in playing off the incongruities of both the people and the storylines that comprise it, yet tying them together in unexpected ways. The family thread acts as the real heart of the tapestry, the real cypher that makes everything fall into its proper place.

With a film and a second season on the horizon (both slated for 2023 release), I do not know whether my misgiving about this cour result from the material not being as inherently funny as the first cour, or if I no longer find the premise as alluring as I once did. Only time will tell for sure. I do not believe the cour itself is bad, but rather that it is not nearly as entertaining as it once was. Spy x Family is a series that made me laugh more than I assumed it would when I first saw it, and I truly hope that future installments can make that happen for me yet again.