Jessica Jones Season 2 does not quite live up to its freshman year or the thrills of the titular character teaming up with other Netflix Marvel heroes in The Defenders while never going below Season 1 of Iron Fist and Season 2 of Daredevil. It looked and felt more like an episodic TV show complete with cliffhangers at the end of each episode. It was unfortunately more predictable and some of the characters made decisions that did not seem in line with his or her personality profile or experiences.
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After the first season, we were left with an organization of super soldiers, and Simpson has new supplies, which means even though Kozlov is dead, there is still an infrastructure; however I’m supposed to believe that Karl was able to not only successfully extricate himself from these people, but spirit away and marry one of his experiments. If Jessica really thought that a super powered woman was captured, she wouldn’t have gone into that basement dungeon and gotten knocked out. She isn’t dumb. I don’t mind that season 2 chose the personal route because it is in line with the show’s mission statement, but Jessica didn’t recognize her mother, not even her voice? Come on. I was psyched that her mother was still alive, and she was an excellent foil for Jessica, but I didn’t buy how we got there. Also Karl screws up an experiment, and he immediately becomes suicidal. Yes, at that moment, he realizes that maybe Jess is right about him and is filled with despair and guilt over the moral implications of his scientific behavior, but I just didn’t entirely buy it.
Jessica Jones got really lucky to snag Janet McTeer to play the mother as simultaneously better and worst adjusted than her daughter. She first caught my attention in Albert Nobbs, and her performances always stand out. I wish that I had paid closer attention to the flashback scenes of the mother from Season 1 because it felt a bit like revisionist history, but I can also buy that because Jessica was a child, and we mainly see things from her perspective, she got a lot wrong. A married woman who lives in the suburbs with two kids shouldn’t be so similar to Jessica even with brain damage, but maybe it loosened her ambitions, and she pulled a Tully in which she embraced her untamed, younger self. When Jessica said that she didn’t have friends for long as a kid, I didn’t buy that, and the idealized image that she had of her life before the accident.
I did appreciate how Jessica retroactively showed Tony Stark how immature he was in Captain America: Civil War. The biggest plot twist of the season was how Trish is now out of the closet as using Jessica and is the lowkey villain of the entire season. It was at the extreme end of the spectrum of roads that Trish could have taken, but plausible though I preferred when their relationship was less dysfunctional. It made complete sense that the only people who pegged that Trish was using again were another drug addict and her mother. Still Trish managed to show up Graviton by causing less damage in her quest to achieve her goals of glory though no less paternalistic and dangerous.
While Malcolm’s moral assessments of others was pitch perfect, his actions did not seem to line up with his desire to help people. Instead it seems as if he is auditioning for a role in How To Get Away With Murder, which is not a complaint, but an assessment of how hot he got this season. He is no longer hiding his light under a bushel.
Jeri’s story was riveting and perfect. Her storyline is literally my nightmare from soup to nuts plus I’m a lawyer, but nothing like her-no money, not perfectly coiffed and not ruthless; however I still found her completely relatable as she struggled with how she should live her life, which is the theme of the entire season. Who are you when there is no crisis, and how can you live well without self-medicating? If you don’t face your demons or the worst case scenario, the unresolved crap will bite you in the butt later. I feel as if Jeri had the happiest ending of all the characters.
I noticed a trend in Will Smith’s Concussion that I have also seen in The Gifted (the prison and suburb scenes) and Jessica Jones: making characters who are ethnic minorities into the most bigoted person. Black and brown people can be bigoted, but when you think of the most iconic faces of hate in specifically the United States, it usually doesn’t look that way, and it is a creative way to let the majority off the hook when a quick glance at any newspaper headline suggests that this psychological respite has yet to be earned. If it was set in another country, I would be fine with it, but it isn’t and particularly set in this era, it is egregious. I’m not just thinking of Oscar.
I also need all fictional television vigilantes to start wearing gloves more often especially if part of your repertoire is breaking into places. Even though I think that it could totally happen, I am tired of people telling Jessica that she can’t handle a powered person. Dude, you can’t handle a powered person. If she can’t, then you’re definitely screwed. Who are you kidding? There is one episode talking about how hot it is, and yet Jessica was wearing jeans and a leather jacket. The only thing that I don’t miss about Manhattan is the summer. Unless powers make you impervious to heat, she would look like a crazy person in that outfit. Am I the only one that wondered if the baby was going to snatch a wig? Are the fish ok? Is that guy still in the mental asylum or did he get released? How could Karl afford his lifestyle if he wasn’t gainfully employed? How is Pryce still alive after all those tranquilizers? Why is the client signing a complaint if he has a lawyer? How did this line make it to the screen, “if you go near science again.” No. Just no. Is Marilyn Toussaint alive? Will we meet her daughter one day or have we? None of these characters have passwords on their electronic devices. Some random guy on break wouldn’t know where a patient’s room is? How can you tell which window corresponds to that room from the outside of the building?
I loved the subtle tie-ins to Daredevil and Luke Cage. Even though I intellectually understand that Jessica Jones is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was surprising to hear references to Captain America and Spider-Man as her contemporaries. Was Karl digging octopus really a reference to Hydra or am I over thinking it because that mug was creepy as hell? I don’t remember how Jeri helped Turk in the past, and I only watched these shows earlier this year. Yikes!
Overall I enjoyed Jessica Jones’ sophomore year, but it was not as perfect as its first; however it may be the most approachable one for people not immersed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because my mom watched several episodes, and she hates sci-fi. Krysten Ritter is the best part of the show and even makes the weakest material work.