When Nat Geo’s Mars first hit the scene, it was praised for its successful blending of speculative fiction and documentary-style non-fiction, but it was also criticized for the imbalance between an understated story of the future and a much more interesting look at the present-day state of our Mars aspirations. Viewers may be happy to hear that when the series returns on November 12, they’ll notice a shift towards a much more dramatic tale of love and loss on the red planet, but with that change of focus comes the occasional deficiency in the illustrative examples from our own situation on Earth.

In some episodes of the new season, the non-fiction explorations perfectly mirror what’s going on in the story of the Mars colonists, now living in a much more populated and expansive Olympus Town base nearly a decade after the first landing depicted in Mars season 1. The idea of the frontier, for example, is present both in the opening episode’s introduction of the private corporation Lukrum, which seeks to mine the red planet’s resources for financial gain, and in the current exploitation of Arctic oil reserves on Earth, a vocation depicted as being as dangerous and remote as colonizing Mars, with family members separated from one another in both the fiction and non-fiction storylines.

At other times, the attempt to juxtapose our current events with a science fiction story arc don’t quite work, as with a plotline involving a somewhat far-fetched outbreak of disease. If the drama that unfolds on Mars had been on its own in this example, it would have been as effective as any sci-fi episode of the week, but the interview segments with Neil deGrasse Tyson and others seem forced to present the possibility of killer bacteria from Mars as a real concern, and the story of anthrax outbreaks in the Yamal peninsula seem to be mostly about criticizing the oil companies as in the earlier examples and about emphasizing the effects of climate change. Careful, Mars, your agenda is showing!

That being said, the story of Olympus Town and the new Lukrum colony is an enjoyable one, and the characters from season 1 have become standouts in a wonderful ensemble cast. The intimacy and heartache between the team’s chemist Javier and physician Amelie is extremely compelling, and the chemistry between the two actors, Alberto Ammann and Clementine Poidatz, is palpable. Viewers will enjoy the emotional roller coaster ride these two provide throughout the season, even leading to a climactic personal moment for the couple in the finale.