Yeah, it's a bummer this show isn't generating more interest. I guess that's what happens when the show starts out a bit slow. :(
I thought Part 2 improved a bit on Part 1, especially with the timing and pacing of the episodes. The pacing of individual scenes in Part 1 felt a little odd sometimes, like there were a few extra seconds in each scenes or too many transitions. Part 2 felt snappier from scene to scene, they really cut out some of that dead space. I notice the Part 2 episodes are a bit shorter than the Part 1 episodes, so am not sure if they did a re-edit or what.
I really liked the follow-up on the Queen Dagmar stuff in Part 1, although was a bit disappointed they didn't really give King Zog anything to do. It was especially puzzling that they went out of the way to spare Prince Derek at the end of Part 1 and didn't even do anything with him during that part. Although to be fair, Prince Derek is probably one of the biggest bright spots of Part 2, so maybe they didn't want to overuse him.
In planning for Season 2, I really hope the writers put a lot of work into Elfo. I was an apologist for his character after Part 1, but after seeing Part 2, I think they need to decide what they want to do with him. They're trying to go for the "fish out of water" archetype like Fry from Futurama, but it's not quite working for him. Fry had certain street smarts about him and came from a time and place that the audience is always going to inherently relate to. Whereas Elfo's quirks have a tendency to come off as intentionally annoying to the audience, we don't come from a world of elves where we it feels observational or relatable. Given his backstory, Elfo should be a very very relatable character, arguably one of the most relatable characters, but he isn't written sympathetically enough for us to truly care about him. Especially for a character who was done really dirty in Part 1, and has every right to feel bitter or feel dead inside. You definitely see a lot of that bitterness in Part 2. It's just conveyed very clumsily and inconsistently. It feels like the writers are fighting over how idealistic and cynical Elfo should be, and are not finding the right balance yet.
Looking forward to Season 2. Feels like they setup a lot of interesting stuff and places for the characters to go, am genuinely curious to see what they picked.