All right, time to throw my stone into the mix.
I, personally, did not enjoy this season at all. I will admit, there were a few things that made me smile. I liked the whole prison thing when it was revealed but then, as I started thinking more and more into it, it actually was kind of cheaply written. (As was the whole season practically.)
As others have stated, I think 12 episodes were too many. They should cut back down to 10 episodes. There was some fat this season that could have been trimmed. I think also too, there is a craft when writing twists. Twists should not be plentiful...they should be carefully strewn through out the writing and you should pick and choose.
It's like having ten great ideas but only room enough for four...yet you're stubborn and you try to cram all ten of them in. As others stated above, this season felt VERY different from the first. The first season reminded me of a modern day take on Fight Club. Granted all of those twists you saw coming a mile away and I think Esmail probably took that critique to heart.
So when this season rolled around, he made sure to present the information in a way that wouldn't have the viewer onto it. Personally, I think it's cheap. I think it's not trying hard enough to work through the writing and make it come across cohesively, organically and logically. Personally, I'm tired of the "over-the-top-everyone-is-in-on-this-plan" plot line. The Angela bit at the end rubbed me the wrong way and I don't like the direction of this "Dark Army"/"Illuminati" direction they took it in.
I understand that was alluded to in the first season but, again, the first season felt like a Fight Club. It felt practical, it felt real. To a certain extent, it felt like something that could actually potentially happen in our day and age. Now, now I'm just like...Jesus, this is getting out of hand. It's spiraling out of control and becoming bigger and bigger.
And that F.B.I. reveal...that just irritated me. As the viewer, you're seeing these people's struggles day to day in trying to piece it all together yet, magically at the end, they're like "We've known this whole time." Again, I felt that was just cheap writing. A plot line introduced to add drama and tension when in all actuality, there really wasn't any.
I'm looking forward to season 3, in hopes that Esmail pulls the reigns back a little, and really contains the story.