Movies & TV / Reviews
Marvel’s Jessica Jones (Season 2) 2.1-2.5 Review
Loading...Author’s Note: This is a spoiler-free review based on screeners for the first five episodes of Jessica Jones Season 2 that were provided by Netflix.
After a bit of a prolonged wait, Jessica Jones finally returns for its second season, taking fans back to the grimy underbelly of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Krysten Ritter made her long-awaited return as the super-powered private detective for last summer’s miniseries event, The Defenders, which saw Jones team up with other street-level vigilantes in New York, including Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
The new season of Jessica Jones refocuses events back on Jones (Krysten Ritter) and her supporting players. The show’s second season is slated to launch in full on March 8 on Netflix to coincide with International Women’s Day.
The first season of the series featured Jones confronting an old tormentor in the form of Kilgrave (David Tennant). [his specter still looms over her throughout the early episodes] Jessica Jones featured outstanding performances and a villain who was psychologically horrifying, considering Kilgrave could force his victims to do any awful thing he wanted, with nothing but a whisper. The show started very strong, but the plot started to run out of steam in its second half and lost a lot of its early energy. Multiple Netflix seasons have suffered from this issue. The stories tend to start really strong and fast out of the gate. However, midway through, there will be a huge plot twist or development, and the story then struggles to make adjustments. Not to mention, the loss of certain characters so early into the runs of the shows’ first seasons seemed like misguided choices. Sometimes, it appears that shock value comes at the cost of a stronger narrative.
Season 2 of Jessica Jones picks up some time after The Defenders. Jessica Jones has resettled back into her life as a gumshoe, running her own private detective business, Alias Investigations. Recovering addict, Malcom Ducasse (Eka Darville), is now her eager new assistant, who often contrasts Jessica’s brusque, grumpy manner. Jessica may have vanquished Kilgrave, but the psychological scars he left on her still run deep. While Jessica has a penchant for drinking and running away from her problems, she’s soon drawn into a conflict to confront some demons of her past whom she’d rather not face.
Meanwhile, Jessica’s best friend, the former child TV star-turned-radio host Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor), is also at a crossroads in her life. Trish Walker has grown complacent as the corporately backed puff-piece radio talking head. She wants more out of her life, and that includes furthering her involvement with Jessica’s business. Jessica finds that difficult to deal with as she’s always desperate to protect Trish, even if it means keeping her at arm’s length. For her part, Trish is no longer willing to sit out on the sidelines. What’s exciting about this is that Trish’s character arc has some rather interesting implications for fans who are familiar with the character’s Marvel Comics background.
Ritter is unquestionably outstanding as Jessica Jones. She walks a fine line the with her snarky attitude, making the character almost unlikable. However, that’s juxtaposed by Ritter not being afraid to show Jessica’s more vulnerable moments. Jessica is still a tortured soul, looking for answers and trying to make sense of her abilities and their purpose. At the same time, there’s an undeniable charm to Jones’ confidence and unfiltered attitude. She doesn’t care what you think about how she runs her life, and she doesn’t care if you didn’t ask for her opinion.
Without giving too much away, the first season was definitely bolstered by the presence of David Tennant as the madman known as Kilgrave. His absence is clearly felt in the first five episodes. The pacing of the first five episodes is a much slower burn this time around. It seems to be the reverse of the first season, in which the earlier episodes started out a lot faster, and seemed to move a lot slower in the back half. There’s definitely a sense of a greater build this season, and hopefully that pays off.
This season does address one particular flaw with Jessica Jones and her rather rough manner of dealing with people. There is some good development addressing the way Jessica tends to alienate her personal relationships, especially with Malcom, who becomes a much stronger character this season.
Carrie-Anne Moss also has a very intriguing subplot that looks like it will be among one of the more interesting developments this season. Additionally, it appears the subplots for the show’s supporting cast are a lot tighter and more focused this time around. The first season got a bit too crowded with its supporting characters, and a lot of time was spent on some head-scratching tertiary background characters and subplots. That came in the form of Jessica Jones’ creepy twin neighbors last season. That issue doesn’t seem to be as prominent in Season 2.
The biggest flaw in terms of storytelling this season is that writers tend to favor the bait-and-hook switch. In the first five episodes, it’s a trick that’s used a few too many times before the season is even at its halfway point. Without giving away too many details, it’s a device that gets overused a few too many times.
Overall, Jessica Jones Season 2 is off to a decent start. Compared to the first five episodes of the first season, it’s not quite as strong due to the lack of a really strong central villain in comparison to Kilgrave. However, there’s a good central mystery at work, and the writers appear to be presenting a slow build that will hopefully have a great payoff. The series also plays as more socially relevant than ever, and Krysten Ritter’s performance as Jessica Jones is fried gold dynamite.
