It’s been over two years since Hilda premiered on Netflix. I know. I just checked. That’s such a long time, especially by TV metrics, I sometimes thought Netflix had secretly cancelled it. Sure, Netflix might offer a wide array of original programming, but their executives’ tendencies to throw money at every idea, not to mention how the Algorithm buries their most interesting stuff under layers and layers of content, inevitably leads to many gems getting the eight and the six. Consider the shows that have debuted and concluded during this one’s hiatus.
But the folks at Silverlight have remained focused and busy. I was excited enough when the season two trailer went up. But I felt this surge of delight and charm when it appeared live on my home screen because
1.) Hilda is Back, Bay-Bee!
And it’s like having a chance to check in with your favorite niece. The one with the best stories which leap back and forth between plausible and pure fabrication.
Hilda is back with it’s sweet presentation, earthy colors, and wild imagination.
At the end of last season, Hilda, a young adventurer and explorer, established a life for herself in Trolberg. She made new friends; discovered the city held as many wonders, secrets, and spectacles as her home in the forest; and helped solve an assortment of mythical creatures’ problems. Head writer Stephanie Simpson and her team took Pearson’s comics and expanded on them, opened them, explored them in a way that’s almost impossible to achieve in a 64-page graphic album. Even at season one’s rockiest moments, it maintained the comics’ spirit and awe.
“The Troll Circle” opens with Hilda chasing a patch of sentient grass, trying to save an elf home. (This is the same opening, shot for shot, panel for panel, as “Hilda and the Stone Forest.”) She slides, leaps, dives, and bounces, not stopping for anything except —
2.) The Trolls.
Since it started, way back in “Hildafolk,” trolls have loomed large over Pearson’s mythos. We’re talking Scandanavian trolls, creatures of the earth, made of stone, covered in moss and foliage. They overrun farms. They collect their hordes. They are driven mad by ringing bells.
The trolls Hilda encounters in “The Troll Circle” are dangerous and menacing. When she first stumbles on their stone circle, they seem at peace, chill. Later, when she arrives at the same spot again, they stand in violent, threatening poses, poised to attack. There’s a two-headed troll readers of the comic know will be important later, who launches an attack on Hilda and Erik Ahlberg, leader of the Trolberg Safety Patrol.
And there are rumors more trolls are starting to appear around the mountains of Trolberg.
This, of course, leads to the presence of —
3.) The Trolberg Safety Patrol
— a militia-like unit of paramilitary troll hunters. At the head stands the Zapp Brannigan-esque Erik Ahlberg, a blowhard and a showboat. He prances around, mugs at the cameras, and makes bold declarations a “new era of security” is coming to Trolberg. Naturally, he has his Deputy by his side, a stout German woman who undoubtedly saved his life on numerous occasions.
“The Troll Circle’s” story kicks in when Hilda wins an essay contest. She accompanies the Trolberg Safety Patrol on an inspection of the city’s safety defences, going through the usual slew of bells and troll repellent. “I don’t think that stuff really works,” she says. The TSP brushes her off. It doesn’t take long for her to realize they’re one big organizational joke.
Nonetheless, the Trolberg Safety Patrol is over-funded and over-equipped. They pal around town in a zeppelin. The take to the mountains in Humvees. Ahlberg has every tool at his disposal and already you can see it going to his head. He berates and belittles the people they talk to, dismisses them when he doesn’t think they’re showing him the proper respect. He shoves his way into houses without being invited, after banging on the door and demanding people open.
Continued belowThe Trolberg Safety Patrol make claims they’re working for the public good, but deep seated prejudices and ignorant preconceptions remain their primary motivations. Even in this episode, we see them mishandle a situation, then put their best face forward when the media turns their cameras on them. Again, with the trolls being set up as “the other” in Hilda season two, we also know the Trolberg Safety Patrol, like many other enforcement organizations, are going to escalate the situation until it’s borderline irreparable.
4.) Animation is the Most Expressive Medium
Much like how Luke Pearson breaks down his pages and panels to create an exciting and sharp experience, Hilda’s reminds us how well the medium can serve the story in “The Troll Circle.” There’s some great shots, like when the trolls attack prepare to attack in the dusk light, dark blue against the night, their eyes glowing amber and horrid. There’s the way both Hilda and Ahlberg can move under a house but it never feels cramped. There’s the numerous designs the animators present, of numerous creatures and scenery.
I also got a kick out of the storm clouds who threw lightning because people were being rude.
But it’s also in the small character moments Hilda shines. When Hilda’s Mum (named Johanna here) tries to root out Hilda’s lie, or Hilda’s continual dissatisfaction with the Trolberg Safety Patrol. Or anything featuring Alfur Aldric, drawn with sticks for arms and legs. There’s a confidence and an awareness in this new season that, I don’t want to say was lacking in the first, but was still developing. Hilda presents a wide and expansive world and the series’ down-to-earth visual presentation helps make those wonders strike with more awe.
5.) The Season Ahead
The overarching plot of Hilda season two looks like it borrows from “Hilda and the Stone Forest” and “Hilda and the Mountain King” (talk about waiting a long time for a cliffhanger!). Like the first season, there will be plenty of detours and new characters and creatures along the way, but we’re going to see the troll mysteries deepen and develop. “The Troll Circle” makes for a welcome reintroduction to the show, dishing out its odd humor, its gorgeous visuals, its earthy palette, its flirtations with terror in equal measure. The Hilda world has so much potential in it and I think we’ll have a great time watching it unfold.
