In the opening narration for the first episode ofClone High’s newest season,Will Fortestates, “It didn’t take twenty years for the new season to come out this time. We’re getting the hang of this thing, people!“Clone Highwas canceled back in 2003 on MTV andmade its return last year on Max, with a season that unfroze all the original characters into a new high school complete with new clones. The newClone Highwas a welcome return, a reminder of just how hilarious and brilliant this show always was, but it took a while for it to get its bearings—especially finding how to mix old and new characters in a way that was as compelling as the original series.But with this second season of the revival, Forte is right: they are getting the hang of this thing.
Clone High (2023)
Historical figures who have been cloned and placed back in high school, including Abraham Lincoln, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, John F. Kennedy and more, as they face the trials of normal teenage life.
What’s Happening in ‘Clone High’s New Season?
Season Two begins soon after the entire school realized Joan of Arc (voiced byNicole Sullivan) had tried to kill them all—a damning way to start a new year in high school. Joan is now relegated to a group called the Bleacher Creatures, the outcasts of the school, including Topher Bus, aka Christopher Columbus (Neil Casey), and new clones likeJackée Harryas Jackee the Ripper. Meanwhile, Abe Lincoln (Forte) and JFK (Christopher Miller) are now best friends, the relationships between Cleo (Mitra Jouhari) and Frida (Vicci Martinez) are still going strong, and Principal Scudworth (Phil Lord) and his robot butler Mr. Butlertron (Miller) are still trying to make their evil dreams of creating a clone-based theme park called Cloney Island come true.
Season 1 of the reboothad the unenviable task of both reintroducing the clones and events from the first season, while also bringing in an entirely new group of clones, then having these two coalesce in an entertaining way. And while the show certainly pulled that off last season, it took its time in doing so. The new clones were solid, but for those who loved the original series, they weren’t quite as fleshed out as the first cast. The series got there eventually, and now, these characters all feel essential to this show, which means that Season 2 can hit the ground running, without having to worry about all the setup the first season required.
For instance, Season 2 gets us right into potential relationship problems between Confucius (Kelvin Yu) and Harriet Tubman (Ayo Edebiri), as the arrival of Toussaint Louverture (Jermaine Fowler) catches Harriet’s eye—literally. Edebiri is especially a standout this season, as the newer clones are given more to do this time around, and her voice work here is a joy, often shifting from friendly to manic and wild in a second, bringing an energy similar to what Gandhi (Michael McDonald) brought in the first season.This relationship is a key part of Season 2, and while it wouldn’t have made much of an impact in the last season, now that Confucius and Harriet are part of the core group, the audience cares just as much as if they had been part of the past the whole time.
‘Clone High’ Season 2 Embraces the Past and Looks to the Future
This new season also feels more in line with the original series than Season 1 did, complete with excellent callbacks and references to that first season twenty years ago.This season gives in more to Scudworth and Mr. B’s antics, like trying to turn Clone High into a Christian school to get tax-exempt status and the return of theTom & Jerry-like energy of Scudworth and his arch-nemesis Skunky-Poo. This new season also embraces the lack of limitations that airing on Max allows for, and curse-fueled tirades from these characters never cease to be hilarious. Again, the last season could often feel like a lot of set-up to remind the audience what they had been missing, but this new season gets right back into the energy and vibe of the original series, embracing how unhinged and weird the show originally was.
Now with this third installment,Clone Highstill manages to make this concept just as ingenious as it always was. There are so many tropes, so many ideas, and so many clone possibilities to play around with that the show has never once lost steam, a testament to its excellent writing staff. This new season tackles the over-the-top, beloved teacher with the arrival of Professor Hirsute (Paul F. Tompkins); sports films, as we dive into Scudworth’s snorkeling career; and the absurdities of dating, as virgin Abe meets a manic pixie of a girl named Mary (D’Arcy Carden). This latest season manages to embrace the inventive episodes of the past and expand them while giving us great new episodes that develop this world and these characters.
‘Clone High’ Is Still All About These Wonderful, Strange Characters
The key toClone High’s success has always been the shifting character dynamics, how these relationships change, and how the characters themselves evolve.As a parody of teen shows,Clone Highhad to embrace the way those characters shift over the course of the season, andClone Highdoes an excellent job of that this time around. Characters get together and break up, and despite these being animated iterations of famous clones, we actually care about how these relationships will end up.
There’s also plenty of evolution for the characters that have been here since the beginning, as Abe might finally lose his virginity, JFK decides to stop being such a womanizer and become born again, and Joan has to reckon with being an outsider in this group of friends. But maybe most important is howClone Highactually treats this group of characters as a tight-knit group of friends. They’re there for each other, they care for each other’s feelings, and more than ever before, they feel like one unit, as opposed to scattered characters tied together by this school. Even when secrets are being kept or relationships are hidden within this group, they’re so close to each other that no problem is too insurmountable. In this third season, it’s sort of wonderful to see how strong this group is together, asClone Highhas created one of the more delightful high school friend groups on television.
Clone Highhas always been one of the best animated shows of the 21st century, from its original iteration to last year’s reboot. But the second season of its return feels like the show finding its groove going forward. It’s a series that can fully embrace its original season from 20 years ago and play off those ideas, while also pressing forward with new characters that now feel just as integral as the original cast. Three seasons in,Clone Highis just as clever and inspired as ever. It’s a hysterical concept that only gets better with a cast that we genuinely care about. Let’s just hope we never have to wait twenty years for a new season again.
Clone High’s latest season hits the ground running, embracing the old and new characters equally for a hilarious and brilliant new batch of episodes.
Clone HighSeason 2 premieres February 2 on Max in the U.S.
