Season one is enjoyable as a package of just itself. There are some ways in which the ending could be seen as cliffhangery, in that season 2 won’t be starting from scratch and some of the characters’ arcs will be continued from what we’ve seen so far in season 1, but that doesn’t feel like a cliffhanger to me, more like natural continuation and new beginnings of sorts. That is to say that I think it’s a narratively satisfying ending that doesn’t require future seasons to be good.

I sympathise with your jadedness. I feel like a lot of Netflix shows end their seasons especially unsatisfyingly, almost as if they’re reasoning “if we wrap things up too nicely, we won’t get another season”, but then they get cancelled anyway. Regardless of season 2, I definitely think Blue Eyed Samurai is worth watching.