Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Marvel has teamed up with Netflix to create television shows with characters that are not featured in the movies. Serious and casual Marvel fans alike have fallen in love with “The Defenders,” Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and how they have been portrayed on screen. “Jessica Jones” season one was widely enjoyed, even among those who do not enjoy the superhero genre. The intricacy of the first season’s plot took many by surprise. However, with such a strong first season with perfect casting, dynamic characters and relationships and an addictive plot, the question fans had for season two was, “Could it be as good as season one?”

To put it plainly, yes, season two did live up to season one. Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter, “The Hero”) is a private investigator who lives in New York City. The token Marvel Universe twist is that she has super strength. The first season sees Jessica coping with a history of abuse, learning to trust those around her and stopping the antagonist, Kilgrave (David Tennant, “Doctor Who”). Kilgrave caused Jessica’s trauma through mind control, which is what made him hard to defeat. The first season successfully wrapped up any loose ends. However, those who watched were hungry for more. Fans of Jessica Jones were wondering how the events of the finale would affect her coping or personality in the long term.

Season two starts independent from season one, allowing the viewer to be comfortably acquainted with the characters that were met in season one, such as Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor, “Transformers”), Jessica’s childhood best friend, and Malcolm Ducasse (Eka Darville, “Mr. Pip”), a former junkie who was under Kilgrave’s control. This season focuses equally on Jessica and her issues, including more of her backstory, how she got her abilities and how she is learning to cope with her PTSD. Along with this, there is heavy focus on the side characters, which allows the audience to empathize with characters with whom they had no idea they had any reason to empathize with. The second season of “Jessica Jones” allows for grey morality, having characters be less good and bad. This is what makes this television show stand out against the other Marvel and Netflix collaborations. Jessica herself, along with most other major characters in the show, has layers beyond a hero, villain or miscellaneous role.

Superhero films, TV, comics and more all receive a reputation for being childish, carbon copies of one another. Marvel’s “Jessica Jones” contains a meaningful plot, well-executed violence and gore, and character development, making it stand out against the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The second season of “Jessica Jones” goes above and beyond what was expected, even with the dynamic character Kilgrave not being the focus. Typically, the sequel of television, movies or books are weaker than the first. “Jessica Jones” season two was an improvement from the first season primarily because it was not afraid to take a risk in the choice of plot and all of its twists. Be warned: This season has much more angst than the first.

Image from Netflix via YouTube.com