'Jessica Jones' Review (Season 2)

12:59


Now I felt like Season 1 of Jessica Jones was probably my favourite of Marvel's Netflix shows. A fantastically played character in Jones by Krysten Ritter. A flawed superhuman woman who has plenty of attitude and demons to carry a strong season and plenty of relationships with other characters including her best friend/sister Trish (Rachael Taylor), and Marvel's best villain, David Tennant's Killgrave. There's more to say about it but all you need to know is that it was fantastically written and produced by everyone. So you can imagine my massive disappointment when I come to Season 2 to be welcomed with an absolute mess of a follow up. I can't really express my disappointment fully, so expect this review to be more rant like. Honestly, this was such a drag to watch. What on earth happened?

Jessica Jones returns to her PI role after the events of The Defenders but is quickly turned to investigate her origins of gaining her superhuman powers when Trish begins to pry. Jones discovers her dark origins, and also a mysterious woman from her past - and one that will change her life and the ones of the people around her.


Ok, let's get the good stuff out of the way first at least. Ritter is still great in the role, and she's still an interesting lead character, despite some writing flaws here and there. I also really enjoyed Jeri Hogarth's (Carrie Anne Moss) storyline this season. I've never been massively into the character but this season really changed my mind, showing some interesting and dark complexities in her. Malcolm  (Eka Darville) is also a pretty good character except when held back by Trish, and of course the return of Killgrave in one episode is just a delight. Episode 7 was also a highlight and a rather enjoyable episode, until the ending at least. Ok, that's it.

So where do go from here? Well this season is just a mess, as I say. In terms of writing, it's all over the place. Having different writers for different episodes can work sometimes, but here it doesn't, and so many plot-lines and characters are either wasted or their stories aren't concluded satisfyingly. Take the character of Griffin who is built up in the first few episodes and is then forgot about. Or the rival PI who's rivalry with Jessica isn't resolved and is forgotten pretty quickly. I've never seen a Marvel show do this and it feels like it's juggling so many stories and characters to fill up it's thirteen episode line-up. You know, sometimes, less is more. Right?


The show also has a pretty bad villain problem. Or, what it establishes as a villain. There are, in my eyes, three villains sort of. Alyssa is seen as the primary one, in which she plays a deadly killer with a  dark link to Jessica. But she's lazily wrote and she's so up and down. Her reason for being a threat is that she gets into rages and kills people. It feels like a very lazy scapegoat for an excuse to create a villain, and it just happens and many of the characters don't address some of the bigger deaths. Then there is Carl, a scientist who the lead characters see as a main villain... but he's not and he is completely misjudged in his actions, and as a viewer I began to have an argument in my head of if this character really was a villain. And then we have the one nobody really expected. Trish. Now she must a really good villain, because she was not only incredibly evil, manipulative and annoying, but a complete change from how she was in the last season, in which I liked her. Here I was left hating her, and to be honest that's not a good thing. Her performance is shockingly cringe to watch, and her writing is so messy I grew to hate her so much, and not in the way I should do. They really should have kept Killgrave alive eh?

There's just so many problems with the writing, which I think let's this season down. I'd get into spoilers, but in case you haven't seen it yet, it may be better for you to experience it yourselves and gain your own perspective on it. It's a shame that Marvel's best show had such a sucky second season, and for what's to come in Season 3? I don't care. Let's just hope Luke Cage Season 2 doesn't go in the same direction.

4/10

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