There are two main things that help this season stand out from the previous. The first is that there is a legitimate mystery to kick things off, which goes hand in hand with both Jessica's job as a private investigator and the noir aesthetic that makes the series unique compared to its sister shows. And this works with the other thing different about this season, character exploration is at the forefront, with the gore and shock moments of the previous season dialed back. The first season was more in line with a traditional superhero story, with the sides being clear of who our hero is (Jessica), and the villain they're trying to stop (Kilgrave). This season however blurs that line, with characters' moralities becoming tested. Not only are our heroes doing questionable things, but our so called "villains" have good qualities to them. Some MCU villains like Killmonger, Kingpin, or Vulture may have well meaning goals but go about reaching them in terrible ways, but this is the first story where we don't really have a true enemy. Instead of a clear battle of good and evil, this season of Jessica Jones is just a bunch of damaged people trying to figure things out.
Which brings me to my next point. Much like the previous season, the shows continues its themes of post-traumatic stress order, but even more so this time around. Last season was focused a lot on Jessica and her battle with Kilgrave, which spilled onto so many other people. This season, we see that Jessica deals with a lot more than just her battle with Kilgrave, an example being her feeling responsible for her late family's car accident. In addition, we get little more insight into backgrounds of Trish Walker, Malcolm Ducasse, and Jeri Hogarth. While her past as a child star and her battle with addiction was touched upon last season, they go into a lot more detail about Trish's life here and how her past troubles coincide with her internal conflicts this season. Episode seven of the season is a flashback story about Jessica and Trish, which is one of the best of the season and overall series. With Malcolm, we get a small glimpse of his life before Kilgrave got him hooked on drugs and how after that, he tries to fill that hole without falling off the wagon. He and Trish have similar backgrounds and stories this season, but dealing with their problems in parallel ways. Jeri Hogarth is a lot better this season than last. Without spoiling anything about her story, she still does things underhandedly but a lot of her good qualities show through here, to the point where you'll feel sorry for her and rooting for her (one instance in kind of a morbid way) at different points by the end of the season.
Something prominent to note this season is a growing prejudice against people with powers. Last season, we had the woman whose mother was killed during the Chitauri invasion, blamed the Avengers, and tried to kill Jessica just because she also had powers. This season, we see people and police using terms like "your kind" and saying that having powers means they don't have the same rights as regular people. We even see precautions and treatments powered people have while being incarcerated, including multiple mentions of the Raft prison that was seen in Civil War. Considering this series is one of the only places that has connections to Civil War, particularly how civilians feel about and treat powered people, there's a lot of interesting areas to explore here.
Of all the new characters introduced this season, the only one I'd like to talk about (since there would be lots of spoilers if I talked about others) is Oscar Arocho, the new superintendent of Jessica and Malcolm's apartment building. He initially doesn't like Jessica because of her powers but the two become closer and eventually begin a relationship. Considering how Jessica's life is, she's obviously hesitant about letting another person into her circle. But with everything that happens to her this season, Oscar's really the only bright spot in her life, and they have great chemistry with each other. While I'm still in the ship that her and Luke Cage should be together like the comics, Oscar's a good fit for her, much like Claire is for Luke.
So overall, season two of Jessica Jones is able to be great in its own way, setting it apart from the previous one. You could say that in terms of live action, this is the first superhero tragedy, so don't go in expecting a clear cut happy ending.
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