Episode Guide
Tiempo de leyenda (Time of legend) El tiempo en sus manos (The time on his hands) Tiempo de hidalgos (Time of hidalgos) El Monasterio del Tiempo (The monastery of time) Un virus de otro tiempo (A virus from another time) Tiempo de magia (Time of magic) Tiempo de valientes I (Time of the braves – part one) Tiempo de valientes II (Time of the braves – part two) Óleo sobre tiempo (Oil painting over time) Separadas en el tiempo (Separated by time) Tiempo de lo oculto (Time of the Occult) Hasta que el tiempo os separe (Until time do you part) Cambio de tiempo (Change of time) Following its surprisingly original take on time travelling last year, The Ministry Of Time returns for a more ambitious season featuring a longer run time and more time travelling than ever before. Although the second season lacks a powerful overarching story linking the entire series together, there’s a good array of episodic content here that more than makes up for this. From tackling an outbreak of Spanish Flu in the Ministry to stopping Philip II from changing history to allow the Spanish to win the Armada, the 13 well written episodes are full of memorable moments throughout. At times, the humour does overpower some of the tension built but for the most part, Ministry Of Time builds on its success from last year to produce another excellent season of time-travelling shenanigans. With the characters still reeling from the events that transpired last season, Julián (Rodolfo Sancho) suffers consequences for his actions and sees his place in the Ministry under jeopardy. For vast periods of the first half of this season, Julián is replaced by the charismatic Pacino (Hugo Silva), a cop from the 1980s who stumbles upon the Ministry in one of this season’s best episodes. As he settles into his role alongside Alonso (Nacho Fresneda) and Amelia (Aura Garrido), Pacino does a solid job filling the boots of empathetic Julián and together the three agents jump through different periods in Spanish history to stop the course of time from being forever changed. With the core set of characters already established, there’s a lot more focus on growing the supporting cast this year. Ernesto (Juan Gea), Angustias (Francesca Piñón) and Velázquez (Julián Villagrán) are all given a surprisingly generous amount of screen time and their personas are fleshed out far more than the first season allowed, helping to give them some real character development. Instead of one over-arching plot this year, the second season of The Ministry Of Time sees several running disparately to one another through the episodes. Between the episodic format, the second season sees Salvador suffer a demotion with a new leader taking over for several episodes, the private company organising time travelling trips known simply as Darrow see their storyline draw to an end and the main quartet of protagonists find themselves entangled in several romance angles this year too. Whilst this sounds like a lot to cram into 13 episodes, the 70+ minute run time for each returns, helping to give some much needed breathing room for these various story lines. There’s a surprising amount of historical accuracy here too, albeit with a few inconsistencies and anachronisms along the way, but each episode sheds light on different periods of history. The authentic costume design, character names, world building and dialogue all help to really accentuate this too and each episode is considerably different both in tone and time period helping to keep the excitement high for where the characters will wind up next. As a nitpick, there’s a slight exaggeration with the editing between scenes with far too many distracting swipes, clock sound effects and fade in and outs making the camera work a lot more more noticeable than it should be. Thankfully, there are shining moments in this season that overshadow the slightly heavy handed approach with some beautiful juxtaposition shots and cinematography that make it easy to ignore any inconsistency with the editing. If you enjoyed the first season, The Ministry Of Time delivers another solid 13 episodes of time travelling entertainment. With a much longer run time this year, there’s far more emphasis on fleshing out the supporting cast and producing some really interesting and cleverly written stories. From meeting Houdini in New York to being caught in the middle of the Siege Of Baler in the Philippines, the historically accurate time periods are brimming with realism and aside from a couple of inconsistencies with anachronisms. The Ministry Of Time is a highly imaginative and enjoyable show that manages to keep the core feel of the show the same whilst taking some bold steps forward. After the consistently good work done this year, it’ll be interesting to see where the third season takes our characters but based on the excellent work done these past 2 seasons, we’ll certainly make time for another season with this one.
