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Jessica Jones Season 2: AKA This Thread Has Spoilers


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16 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Yeah, I wonder if it’s because I have never had to live in fear of deportation or arrest or whatever that I didn’t recognise why he was so spooked. I didn’t have an issue with them choosing that route if they as, but I liked what they actually did better I think. I just saw the camera focus on his look after she used her powers...so I think there was at least an attempt to deliberately lead viewers to the conclusion that’s he was prejudiced against powered persons.

Yeah I agree there was at least a dummy towards it there, the look was just ambiguous and I'd read it differently. A few years ago I'd have felt similarly but I've been too immersed in seeing what happens to people that aren't from dominant power groups as I've changed which one I'm in myself and its opened my eyes on this. To a lesser extent here, but especially regarding the US. 

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On episode 9, and so far I’m just mostly bored. This season has been pretty unfocused and kinda directionless. The drama is ham-fistedly manufactured, and it all just feels a bit shallow and cheap to me.

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Agree that eps 11-13 become significantly better and more focused. Oddly, I think the weakest link in the show is Jessica, when in S1 she was by far the strongest. Her relationship with her mom is good, but it never crystalizes or becomes genuine like Trish and her mom does, and it never has the horror of Kilgrave. 

I liked that the second season is about addicts and doing anything for that hit, and how people that you love fall into these patterns and what they'll do to tell themselves that things will be okay or that they're in control. The first season was a poster on the various types of abuse and how people react to it; the second season was about addiction. That was a good overall metatheme, but it wasn't tied together very well and the plot lines simply didn't connect in good ways, even though some of the plot lines were ones that were just awesome on their own (notably Jeri's, which was fucking amazing). 

The biggest problem is that they spent a lot of time trying to make a villain out of her mom and then not, and they let Jessica chicken out of the hard choice and gave that to Trish of all people. This causes two real issues - one, it removes completely the actual 'good friends' dynamic that Jessica and Trish had, making it another story where women hate each other, and two, it makes Jessica the victim again - which really sucks, as her entire arc from s1 was about her being a survivor, and taking some semblance of control back. 

It also needed that early dialogue from Killgrave taunting her - showing us how close she was  to being on that edge, giving us the early parallels to her mom. Instead we just think she's pissed off, but the internal doubt of her being cray cray needed to be established earlier in the season. 

I enjoyed it more than Luke Cage or Defenders, but not for the reasons I thought, and it's still nowhere near as good as S1. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I know I'm late to the party, but I just finished season 2. Overall, I thought it was pretty good, with the last few episodes being much better than most of the rest of the season. The mom twist was handled in a silly way, but it was a very good idea for the main plot of the season and paid off very well. I also enjoyed Hogarth's plotline a lot, even though essentially it was its own show. Malcolm is a great supporting character. The acting is generally very well done, and special kudos to Ritter, whose performance I thought was even more powerful than in season 1. And I'm glad they found such an interesting, non-gimmicky way to bring back Kilgrave for an episode.

But the season was kind of all over the place. The first few episodes could have been condensed, but so much of the early investigation into IGH has no payoff. I like that they made the "villains" of the season quite grey and didn't set them up as real antagonists, but that also means that a lot of the early episodes' plots need to be dropped: Dr. Malus is an ageing hippie, but he also framed a mentally challenged man for murder! Which is just completely dropped. Similarly, the depiction of Alisa in her first few appearances is very different from how they show her after the reveal, even given her Hulk rage problems. And then there's the Trish plotline, which just doesn't work, despite the best efforts of the actress. They either needed to focus on her wanting to become a superhero or her addiction to Simpson's drugs, but they try to do both and so she goes from being unable to function without a hit to going cold turkey with no problems and making complex plans to get superpowers. There were a few other silly parts to the season, like the over the top prison guard plotline.

But it was a good season, and I appreciated the ambition of the showrunners in not trying to top Kilgrave with a new antagonist and trying to do something new with the superhero show genre. It's definitely nowhere near as good as Season 1, but it's definitely a hell of a lot better than Daredevil Season 2 or The Defenders. I'm looking forward to season 3!

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Even later to the party and here is a minority opinion - I really loved this season. In fact, despite Tennant's brilliance and overall potential of the themes of mind-control and means to resist/subvert/overcome it had, the first season was very much marred for me by repetitive escapes and Jessica's abilities wildly fluctuating to accomodate the plot.  It really should have either been shorter or unveiled Killgrave more gradually, with Jessica having a chance to be an actual detective solving cases that would have eventually led her to him.

I really enjoyed that in season 2 all characters, including the antagonists had understandable motivations and shades of gray, instead of being your usual charismatic sociopathic villains with neat abilities. Not sure why people are hating Trish's character now, either - sure, she has done some awful things, but isn't her desire to become a super-hero or to be finally able to protect Jessica in turn, instead of being a a convenient target for anybody who wants to blackmail her forster sister understandable and sympathetic? Ditto, to some degree, Alisa's struggle to return to her surviving child and to protect Karl, Karl's desire to save lives and stay with Alisa, etc. Not to mention the brilliant Hogarth arc - that's one lady who could become a frightening super-villain if she got respective powers or technology. I can't wait for what they'll come up for season 3 - IMHO all the important characters are now positioned for some potentially very interesting developements.

Now, I freely admit that I am not a superhero comic fan and that, in fact, a lot of tenets of the genre annoy me. Like nobody of importance staying dead, the hero hypocritically struggling with the ye olde "to kill or not to kill" the featured villain dilemma, whilst beating people up hard enough that a good portion of them should have died anyway and the  mooks are being mown down by the thousands, etc. And, of course, the  representation.

As far as I was able to glean from the internets, the original JJ comic was as much or more about Killgrave as it was about her and, in fact, once he was dealt with, the writers couldn't/wouldn't come up with anything else  for her, so they had her settle down as Cage's wife and mother of his kid. And I am very glad that the series chose to go in a different direction and had the courage to let Killgrave actually die. I  hope that he remains dead - much as I like Tennant, his ressurection as anything other than a figment of Jessica's imagination would be a deal-breaker for me. Here is to new and interesting villains and plots!

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I loved this season, too. Yeah, it's not as good as season 1 - but few TV seasons are. Season 1 was the best thing the MCU has done, IMO, but I like the fact that this season was so different. Instead of having a powerful villain to beat, it didn't even have a real villain, everyone was in shades of grey (except that serial killer prison guard who was in a couple of episodes, who was a very minor character) and it was more about exploring the main characters, showing their flaws and dark sides, having them struggle with their identity - and sometimes pit them against each other, as the season ended with friendships between Jessica, Trish and Malcolm completely broken. It was a bold choice. 
It also in a way resonated with me personally more, because of the focus on the themes of mother/daughter relationship and the struggle with your own rage and violent impulses.

It's tied with The Punisher for #3 in my rankings of Netflix Marvel seasons (with Jessica Jones season 1 and Daredevil season 1 firmly in place 1 and 2). Daredevil season 2 is #5 because it's such a mixed bag with the Hand already introduced, then Luke Cage, and then the disappointing Defenders and Iron Fist (everything to do with the Hand was just bad - I'm so glad they're gone).

 

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On 4/29/2018 at 5:42 PM, Caligula_K3 said:

I know I'm late to the party, but I just finished season 2. Overall, I thought it was pretty good, with the last few episodes being much better than most of the rest of the season. The mom twist was handled in a silly way, but it was a very good idea for the main plot of the season and paid off very well. I also enjoyed Hogarth's plotline a lot, even though essentially it was its own show. Malcolm is a great supporting character. The acting is generally very well done, and special kudos to Ritter, whose performance I thought was even more powerful than in season 1. And I'm glad they found such an interesting, non-gimmicky way to bring back Kilgrave for an episode.

But the season was kind of all over the place. The first few episodes could have been condensed, but so much of the early investigation into IGH has no payoff. I like that they made the "villains" of the season quite grey and didn't set them up as real antagonists, but that also means that a lot of the early episodes' plots need to be dropped: Dr. Malus is an ageing hippie, but he also framed a mentally challenged man for murder! Which is just completely dropped. Similarly, the depiction of Alisa in her first few appearances is very different from how they show her after the reveal, even given her Hulk rage problems. And then there's the Trish plotline, which just doesn't work, despite the best efforts of the actress. They either needed to focus on her wanting to become a superhero or her addiction to Simpson's drugs, but they try to do both and so she goes from being unable to function without a hit to going cold turkey with no problems and making complex plans to get superpowers. There were a few other silly parts to the season, like the over the top prison guard plotline.

But it was a good season, and I appreciated the ambition of the showrunners in not trying to top Kilgrave with a new antagonist and trying to do something new with the superhero show genre. It's definitely nowhere near as good as Season 1, but it's definitely a hell of a lot better than Daredevil Season 2 or The Defenders. I'm looking forward to season 3!

Refresh my memory - who did Dr Malus frame for murder?

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3 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

Refresh my memory - who did Dr Malus frame for murder?

My memory's a bit shaky itself now, but there is a mentally challenged character who was a janitor at IGH and whom Jessica interrogates in a prison (he's in a separated box). He talks about how Dr. Malus was his good friend and how he had a crush on the nurse who died in Alisa's escape attempt; he got framed for the murder and Jessica tricks him into drawing Dr. Malus.

Again, I was pretty happy that they made Dr. Malus not be an evil scientist, but this is one of those times when the second half of the season just erases the first half.

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10 minutes ago, Caligula_K3 said:

My memory's a bit shaky itself now, but there is a mentally challenged character who was a janitor at IGH and whom Jessica interrogates in a prison (he's in a separated box). He talks about how Dr. Malus was his good friend and how he had a crush on the nurse who died in Alisa's escape attempt; he got framed for the murder and Jessica tricks him into drawing Dr. Malus.

Again, I was pretty happy that they made Dr. Malus not be an evil scientist, but this is one of those times when the second half of the season just erases the first half.

Ah yes, I remember.
I don't think it erases it. Jessica still treated Karl as a bad guy. He wasn't entirely a bad guy, but he was clearly capable of doing very shady things or even bad things to protect Alisa. Most of the characters in S2 were like that, doing shady and bad things without being outright villainous. 

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4 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

Ah yes, I remember.
I don't think it erases it. Jessica still treated Karl as a bad guy. He wasn't entirely a bad guy, but he was clearly capable of doing very shady things or even bad things to protect Alisa. Most of the characters in S2 were like that, doing shady and bad things without being outright villainous. 

That's true. I just find it odd that in all those scenes when Jessica and Alisa are arguing about Dr. Malus with Alisa saying "he's a good guy! He wasn't even responsible for my murders!", Jessica never brings up the man he framed for murder to protect her.

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