After killing Kilgrave (David Tennant) and rescuing New York from the clutches of The Hand alongside Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Danny Rand (Finn Jones), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) continues her day-to-day life as a private investigator for her own agency, Alias Investigations. Despite her reclusive nature, Jessica now has her neighbor Malcolm Ducasse (Eka Darville) as her assistant in dealing with new cases around Hell’s Kitchen.
This time around, Jessica tackles a case that has personal implications regarding her past. Through her latest journey, she slowly uncovers some shocking truths from not just her own repressed memories, but from other misfits who may have been blessed (or better yet, cursed) with special abilities. Thankfully, with the help of Malcolm and her best friend Patricia “Trish” Walker (Rachael Taylor), Jessica doesn’t have to face her newest journey alone.
In its first five episodes, Jessica Jones season 2 is mostly a slow-burn that could sometimes test the patience of viewers. In particular, the first two episodes plant the seeds necessary in setting up the story’s main conflicts with the main cast. Thankfully, by the time the second episode ends, the pacing improves and the intriguing mysteries that lie ahead become all-the-more exciting thanks to the palpable tension and terrific cast.
Jessica Jones season 2 excels in its more intimate interactions between characters. Thankfully, the returning cast slide back into their roles with ease. As per usual, Ritter’s nuanced performance as the troubled heroine never missed a beat since we last saw her and she particularly excels when Jessica is alongside Malcolm and Trish.
In regards to Malcolm, he has since been sober and has found new inspiration from working with Jessica at Alias Investigations. Despite their new professional relationship, Jessica treats Malcolm like a younger brother and even jokingly “fires” him if he doesn’t complete a task to her liking. Right off the bat, we see that Ritter and Darville have a great back-and-forth through their more serious interactions, humorous exchanges or a mix of both.
As for Trish, she is shown to be quite focused on advancing her career as a radio host to the next level. Along with her new ambitions, Trish also has a new boyfriend who works as a prominent cable news personality. But despite her relative busy life, she still remains supremely loyal to Jessica as she works closely with her in cracking her newest case. Taylor once again plays Trish with such charm and particularly stands out in an emotionally-charged scene where she confronts her past as a child actress.
Season 2 also sees the return of Jeri Hogarth (Carrie Anne-Moss), who is experiencing major turmoil in her life as a result of troubles in her career and her health. It is quite fascinating to see Hogarth at her most vulnerable, especially given her cold-hearted nature.
Along with the returning cast, we also see the addition of a few new characters to the primary ensemble. For the most part, the new additions do a good-enough job performance wise, but the mystery behind a certain character leaves a bit to be desired.
One of the newest characters is Oscar (J.R. Ramirez), the new superintendent of Jessica’s building. There is a bit of tension between the two early on after Oscar witnesses a tragic situation that triggers some of his fears due to his recent past. From the first few episodes already, Ramirez plays Oscar with a certain earnestness that is easily likable; a dynamic that is welcome within the dark, grimy world of Hell’s Kitchen.
We also meet Pryce Cheng (Terry Chen), who is also a private investigator and a new competitive rival to Jessica. Rounding up the new roster of characters is the street-smart nurse Inez (Leah Gibson) and the season’s newest antagonist played by Janet McTeer.
In regards to the three new characters mentioned in the paragraph above, Chen, Gibson and McTeer all give fine performances given the five-episode sample size Netflix has permitted for press to review. But McTeer’s character still leaves a bit to be desired. Granted, not much is entirely known about her role as an antagonist despite a few hints and connections to Jessica’s past sprinkled in here-and-there, but the character lacks the intimidation factor that Tennant’s Kilgrave had from his onscreen presence alone.
Similar to the remarkable first season, the first five episodes of this second season thrives with how the scripts tackle its adult themes with such maturity – especially given the show’s established coexistence in the otherwise family-friendly Marvel Cinematic Universe canon. In fact, no moment encapsulates the fascinating dichotomy between the child-friendly nature of the MCU films and the more grown-up streets of Netflix’s Hell’s Kitchen shows than when Jessica interacts with Oscar’s superhero-obsessed son. In fact, the wide-eyed boy is so drawn by colorful heroes that he even has an action figure of his favorite Avenger.
Among the numerous mature themes, season 2 continues to explore the depths of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that Jessica continues to deal with as we see more hints of her past as well as how she may have received her special abilities. Also, one of the serious topics explored in this new season feels quite timely given the current climate in the entertainment industry today as a result of the wrongdoings of certain men in power.
Jessica Jones season 2 is a bit rocky at first with its first episodes. Because it is the least action-oriented of Marvel’s Netflix series, some may find the more dialogue-heavy nature of the show to be a bit too slow – especially when it focuses on setting up the conflicts and mysteries that will be resolved later in the season. Also, from these first five episodes alone we continue to see why Marvel and Netflix shouldn’t drag the stories for 13 episodes given that a good two or three come off as filler. For some of the criticisms to be made from the over-simplicity of The Defenders, at least it was a brisk eight episodes to binge.
But even with its faults in pacing and its new antagonist, Jessica Jones still usurps its fellow Defenders’ standalone shows when it comes to tackling its mature themes. That, coupled with exciting new character development, showcases that this new season still shows promise through its slow and steady approach.
Score: 7.5/10
All episodes of Marvel’s Jessica Jones season 2 will be available to stream exclusively on Netflix on March 8, 2018.
10 The Defenders/Marvel Cinematic Universe Crossovers We Want To See
After three long years, the Marvel Netflix universe is finally coming together for the epic crossover event series The Defenders, where Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist will team up to fight to save New York from a massive army of deadly ninjas known as The Hand. However, that is not the only crossover that Marvel and Defenders fans are longing for. Ever since these shows were announced, fans have been wondering when we might be able to see these characters appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper or when we might see a movie character appear on one of the shows.
Currently, though, there seems to be a divide between Marvel Television and Marvel Studios. They always like to say “it’s all connected,” but the most we get in the Netflix world is the occasional reference to “magic hammers” or “the green guy” or “the incident.” Marvel’s ABC shows have been given a bit more love, with characters like Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, Colbie Smulders’ Maria Hill or Jaimie Alexander’s Lady Sif showing up from time to time on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but we still haven’t seen much crossover in the way of actual Avengers appearing on the show or characters like Daisy Johnson/Quake (Chloe Bennet) appearing in a Marvel film.
Who knows if we’ll ever actually see these two worlds clash in a way that is satisfying to both fans of the films and fans of the shows, but it sure is a heck of a lot of fun to dream. With these worlds so populated by superheroes, the possibilities are endless, but there are quite a few crossovers that we already know we would love to see.
Before we begin with this list, I would like to note that this article may feature spoilers for some of the Marvel Netflix series up until this point, including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. However, I have not seen any episodes of The Defenders yet, so there will be no intentional spoilers for that show.
So, without further adieu, here are the ten crossovers between Netflix’s The Defenders and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that we want to see. Hit the next button below to begin!
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