'Jessica Jones' Season 2 is a bit of an uphill climb

Marvel's Jessica Jones Season 1 is one hell of an act to follow. It opened on an abrasive alcoholic and her deeply ingrained trauma, on a double homicide of parents by their daughter, and Marvel's most fearsome small screen villain, if not an all-time contender.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that Jessica Jones Season 2 feels immensely slow by comparison.

Don't get us wrong, Season 2 isn't bad – at least, not in the first five episodes screened for critics – but it drags from the get-go and it's hard to ignore. Jessica has all-but dissociated from everything with Kilgrave, and she's essentially in denial of her newfound fame and duty since The Defenders (let alone all those supernatural shenanigans). She's recognizable on the street and the phrase "superhero vigilante" is bandied about like this is Daredevil Season 1 establishing Hell's Kitchen.

The central plotline of the season, which takes several episodes to invest in, is the mysterious IGH, an organization mentioned fleetingly at the end of Season 1 and The Defenders and which is ostensibly the source of Jessica's powers. Trish (Rachael Taylor) and Jessica spend many scenes talking in circles about why Jess should stop running from the past and such. There's another early episode murder right outside Jessica's building linking IGH to even more individuals with abilities, and that's when Jess decides to get involved, even if it involves some self-reflection.

One of the things impeding Season 2's momentum is that we don't have one centralized villain. We meet an ostensible antagonist several episodes in, nor do we realize the scope of her (yes, her) ability until later. Kilgrave burst into the scene with all his cards on the table; a past with Jessica, unparalleled telepathy, and a palpable thirst for violence. This season's villain is tougher to pin down, but we meet baddies who are incredibly strong and both reckless and reclusive.

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Jessica herself is still acting out and drinking away her demons, but now questioning her own identity and purpose as she sees what IGH's victims turn out to be. Krysten Ritter is still remarkable, and that's no small achievement; Jessica's troubled detachment could grow stale in the hands of a lesser actress, but this star has only strengthened her connection to the character. Eka Darville is back as neighbor Malcolm, now sober and working for Jessica even though she fires and re-hires him almost daily.

Taylor brings sincerity to Jessica's sister-friend Trish, but her character feels more redundant than in Season 1 (where is the Matt Murdock bromance?). It might be because she's surrounded by one-dimensional characters from her conniving mother to her suspiciously put-together boyfriend. While Jess is all action and movement, Trish is looking for stability. Again, this picks up after a few episodes as we see less of the superfluous characters. By then, Trish may be heading down a path far more familiar to Jessica, one that the friends can conquer together.

There's still more going on, like Jeri Hogarth's (Carrie-Anne Moss) compelling solo spiral and J.R. Ramirez as a disconcertingly handsome superintendent who doesn't trust people with abilities (but his eyes tell a different story). All those things slow the early episodes, but could build to a promising finale if the rest of the episodes are well-plotted.

So, how do you follow up a season like Jessica Jones Season 1, a season packed with gruesome violence and shocking turns, chilling messages about manipulation and abuse? Perhaps a slower season, trying though it may be for hungry viewers, is the correct answer. Perhaps painstaking introspection is the natural followup, and if it feels a little sloppy maybe we can chalk that up to our heroine and her disdain for convention.

But Jessica knows the burden on her shoulders now that she has a name to live up to. The same goes for the show.

Jessica Jones Season 2 is now streaming.