Tai Freligh reviews the first five episodes of Jessica Jones Season 2…
When Netflix offered up the first five episodes of Jessica Jones Season 2 for media review, I jumped on the chance. I’m a sucker for all the Marvel shows on Netflix and have watched every single one (and yes, that includes the much maligned Iron Fist). Jessica Jones was not the first superhero show that Marvel aired on Netflix, but it was close (second only to Daredevil). It was a different beast. All the Marvel heroes are reluctant to some extent, but Jessica took it to a whole new level of indifference. Dark and brooding, angry and alcoholic, Jessica Jones tried to stay in the shadows, running her little detective agency, Alias. The events of the first season and the very public and brutal killing of Kilgrave, the main villain (played brilliantly by David Tenant) at the end of the season, thrust her into the spotlight as a “powered” person…a vigilante superhero. With her private demons cast out before the whole world, she was thrust into the spotlight and that’s where we pick up in the beginning of season 2.
The Jessica Jones we know is in full force, drinking herself silly, avoiding her problems, trying to avoid the spotlight in general, but it’s not working. People view her differently now and treat her differently. Even worse, her friend Trish is digging into her past and stirring up painful and forgotten memories that will either destroy her or maker her stronger, depending on if she faces her past to make way for the future.
If the majority of the premiere episode feels like a retread, it’s because it is. We know what makes Jessica Jones Jessica Jones. We know she has psychological issues and that she’s even more messed up now that she’s snapped somebody’s neck and found it was too easy to do. Things don’t start heating up until almost the end of the first episode, and even then, it’s still a slow burn.
All our familiar old characters are here again. Next door neighbor Malcolm (Eka Darville) trying to keep Jessica on her feet, literally. Childhood friend Trish (Rachael Taylor) struggling to stay relevant and up in ratings, and Hogarth (Carrie Ann-Moss) seemingly back on top and scheming even while dealing with personal issues of her own. We know from the first official still from season 2, released by Netflix last December, that Kilgrave is back again, not physically, but mentally and still in Jessica’s head.
While there are some intriguing strings being pulled in these first five episodes, the show takes its sweet time pulling on them and by the time we get to the end of these preview episodes, we still don’t have a clear villain. I hope that Jessica Jones season 2 doesn’t suffer from what the first season of Iron Fist did – taking the majority of episodes to get to the action. Most people would not stick around that long to see if a show got better, so I hope that things start to heat up in episode 6 through the second half of the season.
Enough interesting plot lines and characters were introduced in the beginning to get me intrigued for how this will all play out and I hope the payoff comes in the second half, especially in the scenes involving Kilgrave and how Jessica continues to struggle with and deal with the demons in her head and accepting who she is as a powered person. It’s definitely a slow burn, but an intriguing one that I hope will start to heat up the further into the season we get.
New York City private investigator Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is beginning to put her life back together after murdering her tormenter, Kilgrave. Now known throughout the city as a super-powered killer, a new case makes her reluctantly confront who she really is while digging deeper into her past to explore the reasons why.
The second season of Jessica Jones arrives on Netflix on March 8th and will see the return of Krysten Ritter as the hard-drinking super-powered private eye, along with Rachael Taylor (Trish Walker), Carrie-Anne Moss (Jeri Hogarth), Eka Darville (Malcolm Ducasse) and new cast members Janet McTeer and J.R. Ramirez. David Tennant is also confirmed as reprising the role of Kilgrave for one episode.
Tai Freligh is a Los Angeles-based writer and can be found on Twitter.
