Jessica Jones' season two has been called slow, sluggish, boring, awkwardly long, and countless other mediocre adjectives. Despite critical reviews, I actually found the second season of Marvel's Netflix show to be better than the first.
Everyone said that season two was missing Kilgrave - that it was not the same without David Tennant. And this is true - it is better without Kilgrave. After a few encounters with Kilgrave, the character quickly became old. Especially after he purchased Jessica's childhood home and lived with her there - his character felt old and forced and tired. How many failed plans and propositions from Kilgrave did the first season run through? How many excuses did Jessica give as to why she couldn't kill him? It felt like every episode presented a new excuse in order to prolong the season.
I'm not bagging on the series or its first season, but I do need to exaggerate in order to build my unpopular case.
Enter season two. The villain is less obviously the villain (post plot twist.) She was hard to root for but also hard to root against. We knew why she did what she did - who she wanted to protect and why. Kilgrave's motives were that of a typical comic book villain - control, power. Season two's main bad guy digs a bit deeper into what made her a killer. Whereas in season one Jessica had to constantly have an excuse for keeping Kilgrave alive and the season rolling - our hero in the second installment had a very obvious and constant reason to keep the antagonist without a snapped neck.
Another reason that I found season two to be better than the first is the characters. A longer season provided more opportunities to explore the characters that we loved or hated from the first season. I loved seeing Malcom learning the ways of a PI and coming into his own. I loved watching Jessica struggle not to just do what she wants and be with her apartment buildings suspiciously handsome super. I never thought I would come to hate Trish as much as I did, and never thought I would be rooting for Jeri Hogarth to manipulate someone into murder. What I am saying is that any character who seemed to be one dimensional and cliche (Hogarth), was given new depth and and a compelling story line that somehow was interesting.
Perhaps my favorite thing about season two was the flashback to Jessica's past and her super cute bartender boyfriend, Stirling. After seeing her in the same worn leather jacket every episode, we find out how she came across it! After hearing "I'll meet you at Alias" fifty times a minute, we learn how her PI firm got its name! Small Easter eggs like this are the best in my nerdy opinion. The show effortlessly presents to us the importance of this part of Jessica's life without going out of character - because Jess herself would never open up about her past. That would be far too convenient. Instead we get glimpses into how Jess works on the inside - how she feels and how she thinks.
Basically, I think Jessica Jones got better, and I'm super excited for Jess and Hellcat to blow me away in season 3.
