Netflix ‘Unseen’ Season 2 Review - A Cleaner’s Comeback That’s Grimy, Gritty, and Occasionally Glorious

If you’ve ever watched a show and thought, “This is just a bit too clean,” Unseen Season 2 is here to smudge the glass. It’s messy, raw, and refuses to polish the grime off its characters—and that’s exactly what makes it work.

Season 2 picks up right where Season 1 slammed the brakes. Zenzi Mwale, our soft-spoken protagonist with a knack for survival and a growing pile of bodies in her wake, survives the rooftop cliffhanger that closed the first season. Yes, she lives. No, the drama does not slow down for even a second. Instead, it shifts gears into something darker, more political, and way more personal.

Zenzi is no longer a passive victim stumbling through bad luck. She's actively hunting the people who ruined her life—and she's not sending polite calendar invites. The second season is all about escalation. The stakes are higher, the enemies are meaner, and Zenzi is done playing nice. Her quest for justice pulls her deeper into Cape Town’s criminal ecosystem, where power is traded like currency and loyalty is about as stable as a paper umbrella in a thunderstorm.

One of the biggest strengths of this season is how it leans into its own tone. The series knows it’s not here to make you feel comfortable. The lighting stays intentionally shadowy, giving off the constant sense that something is about to go terribly wrong (spoiler: it usually does). The color palette hasn’t changed much since Season 1—still cool-toned and washed out, like even the weather is over everyone’s nonsense—but this time there’s more chaos, more fire, more blood. It’s a noir crime drama with zero apologies.

Gail Mabalane as Zenzi continues to be the engine of this show. She doesn't chew scenery; she simmers through it. Her ability to convey heartbreak, exhaustion, and rage all in one look deserves every award there is, plus a few that don’t exist yet. She plays Zenzi as someone who’s trying very hard not to lose the last scrap of her humanity, even as she’s forced to do increasingly inhumane things. The best part? You root for her anyway.

The show also introduces a few new characters this time—some shady, some helpful, all of them walking question marks. There’s a persistent feeling that everyone is lying, and nobody can be trusted. This adds a delicious unease to every conversation, especially when Zenzi has to play politics with people who’d throw her under a bus faster than they’d blink. The writing does a decent job of balancing personal moments with plot-forward tension, though it occasionally bites off more than it can chew.

Which brings us to the not-so-polished bits. While the pacing is mostly solid, there are a few mid-season episodes that feel bloated. There’s a tendency to stretch a scene just a few minutes too long or rehash information we already got in the previous episode. The villains, too, could’ve used a bit more flavor. Some of them feel straight out of the evil businessman starter pack. They scowl, they scheme, and they explain their plans out loud like they forgot they’re in a visual medium.

Another slight misstep is the show’s approach to symbolism and theme. While Season 1 handled the idea of invisibility with nuance—Zenzi was literally overlooked by society, and underestimated at every turn—Season 2 occasionally throws subtlety out the window and starts waving signs. There are monologues that feel like they belong in a stage play rather than a gritty thriller. The points are important, yes, but the delivery could use a little restraint.

Still, for every heavy-handed moment, there’s an absolute gem of a scene that makes you sit up and re-check your moral compass. Zenzi’s confrontation with a corrupt official in Episode 4? Brilliant. A silent chase sequence in a hotel kitchen? Chef’s kiss. The show knows when to tighten the screws and when to let things breathe—most of the time.

What makes Unseen so watchable, even in its uneven moments, is that it never pretends to be something it’s not. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t rely on big-name stars or ridiculous action sequences to keep you hooked. It’s grounded in the idea that ordinary people, especially women, especially invisible ones, are capable of extraordinary things when pushed to the brink.

Season 2 isn't here to give Zenzi closure. If anything, it drags her further into the moral grey swamp she barely escaped in Season 1. But it does give her agency. She’s no longer cleaning up other people’s messes—she’s burning down the rooms they made them in.

So no, it’s not perfect. A few scenes could use editing, some characters don’t get the development they deserve, and not every plot thread ties up neatly. But this season does what good sequels should: it raises the stakes, deepens the world, and gives its lead even more room to shine—or smolder, as Zenzi prefers.

Unseen Season 2 is a gritty slow-burning with just enough spark to light the whole thing on fire. And it’s worth watching every minute of it. Even if you need a shower afterward.

Final Score- [8/10]
Reviewed by - Anjali Sharma
Follow @AnjaliS54769166 on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times