I completed my third rewatch of the full series during the covid shut down and Season 2 doesn't age well imo.
I used to be one of the people saying it was underrated, I always thought the politics and criminal underpinnings of the docks and longshoremen's union fascinating, but after multiple rewatches, it's a class below the rest of the series, better but adjacent to season 5.
The season's climax and the latter half of the tangential investigation that grows from the bodies discovered in the shipping container feels rushed.
I think the season's story arch and context would have been better served as a spin-off. It would have been really dope to see a deep dive into the world of illicit imports carried out over multiple seasons.
That's asking for a lot, and it's hard to criticize most of the series at all without it feeling like nitpicking, but I also don't feel the characters or their performances are as strong as other seasons, the exception of course being Frank Sobotka.
Obviously season 2 is still great television, but for me it's closer in alignment to season 5 than any of the others.
I agree with the poster who said season 3 is carried by several series defining episodes, but I don't have a problem with that at all.
Each season is so different, with 1 and 4 being the best overall. For me it's impossible to match the rawness of season 1. Season 4 is incredibly polished, but retains a lot of that rawness while also tapping into a different kind of human experience that's as hopeless as it is hopeful.
Season 5 seriously has its moments despite veering into the ridiculous. I'll always watch it again.