'Time' Season 2 is Damn Near Painful Perfection

The gripping BBC prison drama Time drew critical acclaim for its first season in 2021. Eight months and two BAFTAs later, the show was renewed for a second season despite originally being planned as a close-ended miniseries. Despite the promise of an anthology series and series creator Jimmy McGovern’s (Moving On, Broken) commitment to the principle of showing life behind bars as honestly as possible, could a second season capture the buzz and profundity of the first?

The answer is a resounding yes. Time’s second season follows an entirely different storyline with an all-new cast (with one exception), taking place at a women’s prison and starring Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who), Tamara Lawrence (The Long Song), and Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us). All three play women who arrive in prison on the same day, each with a unique relationship to motherhood that complicates her time in the criminal justice system. Their stories are not only unique in the world of the show — they’re unique in the landscape of television and media as a whole.

Season 2 portrays womanhood, motherhood, and incarceration with a refreshing nuance and lack of stigma or sensationalism. McGovern has hit it out of the park again, in no small part thanks to the co-writer he brought on for this season, Helen Black (Death in Paradise, Grantchester), who authentically captures the specific struggle, humiliation, community, and joy that women can experience in prison.