Jessica Jones (Season 2) - A RMNT Review

After almost two years since its series premiere, Jessica Jones returns to Netflix with its long-awaited second season and I have to say this was a long and difficult watch and I don’t mean that in a negative way. The first season tackled strong themes of post-traumatic stress disorder, rape, assault, all while being a psychological noir thriller, which is what I enjoyed about the show and how Jessica’s character is portrayed and explored. I also want to comment on the brilliant idea of Marvel releasing the second season on International Women’s Day, as I feel it was honestly a right call as the series has strong female characters and genuine portrayals and makes sense when you think about it.

The show is developed by a woman, with a leading actress playing a strong and complex character, and how female directors directed the episodes of its latest season, including Liz Friedman, who previously co-created the 2016 short-lived ABC legal drama series Conviction. But while I have been enthusiastic about Jessica Jones returning with a new season, I do have major concerns, like what new challenges await Jessica and what new villain the season can muster up that could possibly top off Kilgrave, who in my opinion is the best villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? So pour yourself a glass of whiskey and let’s investigate this long-awaited new season!

Taking place after the events of its previous season and The Defenders, Jessica continues to being the strong, cynical, heavy-drinking and sharp-tongue private investigator many fans know and love, but now: the city knows of what she did to put an end to Kilgrave, now labeled by many as a vigilante killer, but she doesn’t see herself as a killer. Also in season two is Malcolm, who’s now working with Jessica as an assistant, despite her telling him multiple times that she never asked for his help, her adopted sister and best friend Trish being more committed to investigative journalism and insists that they both look into IGH, the company that gave her abilities, but Jones is not interested. While the new season’s main story arc is well-told, the major issue I have with watching it is the pacing.

The season two premiere is a good start, the few episodes afterwards feel they drag on until the sixth episode’s surprising twist that changes everything. From the seventh episode, the season gains a bit more speed and improves. Trish, Malcolm and defense attorney Jeri Hogarth go through their own arcs, but Trish’s arc is the most interesting, but the more difficult, which I will get into later… But overall, its a long binge-watch if you want to try to complete the new season in a few days, so be patient until you reach episode seven, and it’ll be worth the sit-through. The new season also takes a deep dive into themes of addiction, self-doubt, obsession and difficult consequences of actions, making this season the darkest its ever been with a strong sense of realism, for which I applaud, its just too bad that the pacing and the narrative affected the outcome.

Like the first season, Krysten Ritter’s performance as the titular character is to be praised once again, showing more layers to the character, more vulnerable moments and more complexity than before, as she continues to show why she’s one of my top favorite characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As she goes through a new arc particularly exploring her past, despite not wanting to, but things become much more complicated for her when situations escalate beyond her control such as people getting hurt, putting her in emotional overwhelming odds as she still believes that she’s no hero and feels cursed to have powers that she never asked.

The rest of the cast all deliver amazing performances, but the other shining star of the new season is Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker, which I’ve said before goes through an arc that’s interesting, but difficult to watch as she goes through a transformation from being a favorite character in the series to becoming a selfish, desperate and even a hateful person, using Malcolm for her own purposes, keeping a new addiction a secret from Jessica, and what she does in later episodes makes want to confront her yourself, but as I much as I hate what she’s done this season, its very understandable and people can do that.

This is where the portrayal of human psychology is well explored here. During season 2, Malcolm, as a character, goes through his own character arc after his recovery of drug addiction in season one, from being Jessica’s unofficial assistant to showing that he has the capabilities and resourcefulness as an investigator. Another character introduced in the previous season, Jeri Hogarth, also has her arc as she’s been diagnosed with an inoperable condition, and because of that, is threatened of losing her position in the law firm she works at, leading her to have Jessica gather dirt on her partners of the firm to use against them. As for what more happens to Jeri later on, its better to see it than to write about it. For those wondering if there is a new villain this season, I will say that it was assumed at first, but after episode seven, it does feels refreshing that for once there isn’t a villain, but instead its more about personal situations that are difficult to control and comprehend, showing more growth and depth to the characters as it happens in the last half of the season, but at same time, the main story doesn’t have the same strong drive as the previous season had.

So after completing the new season, was it worth the wait and did it surpass the previous season? Yes and its a close call. Season two delivered a strong story that explores the dark themes of addiction, obsession, and retreading past difficulties, strong performances for a wide variety of well-established characters led with Krysten Ritter’s incredible performance as Jessica Jones, interesting character arcs, but the narrative, slow pacing and particular characters moments made the season lose that edge, as I still consider the previous season the best of the series.

But despite those aforementioned flaws, Melissa Rosenberg continues to prove that she’s still a highly capable showrunner and writer for the series, and should “Jessica Jones” be renewed for a third season, I hope to see new surprises and how it’ll take it to a whole new level. But until then, I have a new announcement: I will be posting reviews for each film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, minus Black Panther and last year’s MCU films that were released last year as well as doing a Top Favorite Marvel film list as the long-awaited Avengers: Infinity War will be approaching be reaching theaters for me to review soon!

Story: 3.5 / 5

Characters: 3.5 / 5

Production: 4 / 5

Final Rating: 3.5 / 5