I thought it was generally an improvement from the first, better cinematography and a better case.
I have catched the second half of it (wasn't it the third episode rather than the second?). Anyway, each episode is re-broadcast on the Sunday. And yes, I have had the same impression as you. I follow the plot rather loosely as am interested in costumes and interiors much more than in the plot. Men's hats look quite amusing today. The girl in the laboratory remind me very much of Marie Curie (has the hair dressed in the same way, possibly a typical dressing of that time). Always wonder during the film show how this world of the belle époque would have developed eventually if the World War I hadn't broken it so abruptly.
Have you perhaps seen the murals and magnificent stained glass windows by Stanisław Wyspiański manufactured at the Innsbruck foundry in 1899-1904 in Kraków's Old Town St Francis of Assisi Church? They offer some real feel of the belle époque in Kraków...