Your Honor (Season 2) review: Jimmy Sheirgill shines in this crispier, more engaging crime thriller

The first season of Your Honor saw how the upright and strict district court judge Bishan Khosla (Jimmy Sheirgill) is compelled to break every law in the book to save his son, 18-year-old Abeer (Pulkit Makol), after he runs down a gangster with his car. The season ended with Khosla gunning down that gangster and Abeer surrendering to the police.

In the second season, Khosla has to deal with multiple threats. Hot-headed gangster Harman (Kunj Anand) has teamed up with nightclub owner Gurjot (Gulshan Grover) who runs an empire of crime. They blackmail Khosla to pay a heavy ransom and influence his decisions as a judge.

Khosla is also worried about the safety of his son in jail. On the other hand, his sister-like figure Indu (Richa Pallod) is abducted and forcibly married to gangster Jagda (Zeishan Quadri). And his old enemy, inspector Kiran Sekhon (Mita Vashisht) is back on duty. With his back to the wall, Khosla's world slowly seems to be falling apart.

The show begins on a slow note, even though it has some interesting moments. It uses the initial three or four episodes to establish various subplots, some of which are used intelligently to add more drama and tension to the story while others are abandoned abruptly.

New entrant Jagda plays an important role in the initial episodes, but halfway through the series his story gets relegated to the background, never to be brought back again. One wonders, after writing such a compelling character, why would you make him disappear halfway through the show?

There is another subplot of a budding friendship between Indu and her new sister-in-law Latika (Bhumika Dubey) that ends abruptly without justification. This had happened in the first season too, when an interesting subplot was cut short mid-season without justification. If you are going to just abruptly end an intriguing subplot, why bother introducing it in the first place?

The second season has more players, which means less time for character development. But writers Ishan Trivedi and Neeraj Pandey make up for the lack of character development by introducing some fascinating new subplots, such as Abeer's involvement in drug dealing in jail, Indu's desperation to get out of Jagda's house, and Harman's changing tactics to keep control over his father's business. There are also more twists and turns and double-crossing in this season, which make the show more engaging.

To keep the proceedings fresh, the writers and director E Niwas have brought in a handful of new characters and, for the most part, this works in the show's favour. But because of these new entrants, Kiran Sekhon, who played an important role in the first season, doesn't have much to do this time around, particularly in the first few episodes. Despite the shortened length of the character, Vashisht delivers another powerful performance. It is amazing how she can express so much without doing anything.

Although there is a lot more going on this time, at its core, the show is about a person's fight against his own morals. And despite the densely plotted and fast-paced storyline, the show never lets you forget about Khosla's struggle with his own morals. His conflict with his conscience, the underworld, and the police are always at the centre stage.

Sheirgill again delivers a solid performance as a helpless man caught between his duties as a father and his responsibilities as a judge. In spite of his many questionable actions, we still sympathize with him and the credit for that must go to the actor's understated performance.

The other stand-out performance comes from Kunj Anand. His character gets a lot more screentime this time and Kunj grabs the opportunity with both hands. He beautifully shows the progression of his character from an impulsive gangster to a calculative mastermind. Makol also improves upon his lacklustre performance in the first season. Grover and Mahie Gill provide able support.

it's clear that the new season isn't just playing the old favourites note for note. It's a darker reprise that is as surprising as it is familiar. It's also more thoughtful and more twisted than the first season.

SonyLIV is now streaming Your Honor (Season 2).