Season two of Oxen arrives with the confidence of a series that knows exactly what it is: a brooding, tightly coiled thriller about power, corruption and the cost of resisting both. It wastes no time reorienting viewers, instead plunging straight back into the aftermath of season one’s cliffhanger (so a quick re-watch might be to ensure you’re up to speed with who is chasing whom and why). 

Picking up exactly where season one left off, with the fallout from the confrontation at the docks still reverberating through every character’s life. There’s no time jump, no easing-in; the first episode opens on the same night, with the same breathless tension and the same sense that the walls are closing in.

From there, the narrative widens. The threat posed by Danehof, once a shadowy presence operating in upper-class residences, becomes the season’s central plot. Season two underlines how deeply their machinations have penetrated the country’s institutions – police, courts and even government ministries. The show handles this expansion with a careful balance of realism and dread, showing how corruption spreads not through grand conspiracies but through favours, leverage and fear.

Oxen (Jacob Lohmann), Frigg (Ellen Hillingsø) and Margrethe (Josephine Park) – still reeling from the events of season one – find themselves caught between survival and resistance. Their attempts to expose Danehof’s reach are met with escalating retaliation, with the season’s middle stretch becoming a cat-and-mouse game where every victory feels pyrrhic and every setback potentially fatal.

Violence in Oxen has always been purposeful as well as gratuitous, and season two continues that approach. When it erupts, it’s fast, brutal and somewhat disorientating. Moreover, the tension is relentless. Much of it comes from the sense that Danehof is always one step ahead, always watching, always tightening its grip.

Indeed, the camera often hovers precariously before darting to the side, making you feel as if you’re watching events unfold from shadowy corners. The show excels at making viewers feel the same pressure the characters do: the uncertainty of who can be trusted, the fear that every conversation is being recorded, the knowledge that a single mistake could be fatal. This pervasive unease is one of the season’s greatest strengths. It transforms even the quieter episodes into exercises in suspense. 

The score remains one of Oxen’s most distinctive elements. Season two leans even further into its minimalist, percussive soundscape – low, pulsing motifs that mirror the characters’ anxiety and the story’s tightening noose. Strings are used sparingly but effectively, often swelling at moments of revelation or emotional fracture.

The lead performances are uniformly strong, but two stand out. Jacob Lohmann delivers a performance that is more brittle and haunted than in season one. The character’s moral certainty erodes as the season progresses, and Lohmann captures this unravelling with remarkable restraint – small gestures, hollowed-out silences, and flashes of anger that feel earned rather than theatrical.

Birgitte Hjort Sørensen’s Kajsa is now more visible and politically connected, with Sørensen bringing a chilling calm to the role. She is everywhere – completely unafraid to get her hands dirty. Her ruthless ambition genuinely feels unstoppable throughout the series and is no match for the rest of the characters – even Oxen himself.

Season two’s pacing is deliberate but never sluggish. The early episodes are dense with fallout and repositioning, while the middle arc accelerates into a series of escalating confrontations. The final episodes are breathless, weaving together political intrigue, personal sacrifice and the looming threat of Danehof’s full power. The show’s willingness to let paranoia simmer makes the climactic moments hit harder. 

Season two of Oxen is tight and atmospheric. It deepens the world, raises the stakes and pushes its characters into darker, more morally fraught territory. The new run builds confidently on the foundations of season one, expanding its political intrigue and emotional intensity while maintaining the show’s signature blend of slow-burn tension and sudden, shocking violence. And since it ends on yet another cliffhanger, we can only hope that Walter Presents brings it back to us soon. 

“Season two of Oxen is tight and atmospheric. It deepens the world, raises the stakes and pushes its characters into darker, more morally fraught territory“

Oxen returns to Channel 4 via Walter Presents on Friday, March 6