Jessica Jones continues to excel at an unimaginable sense of astounding mediocrity. The steadily declining enjoyability of Marvel’s Netflix output ever since Defenders is deeply disappointing. After the stellar first and second season of Daredevil the MNU certainly dipped a bit with Luke Cage and Iron Fist once the much-anticipated team-up it became a deep plunge, landing here at rock bottom as we trudge through an undeservedly unenjoyable sendoff for Jess. As always, beware of spoilers and here are five thoughts on “A.K.A. You’re Welcome.”
1. Patsy?
“A.K.A. You’re Welcome” turns back the clock and follows the events that led to Trish and Jessica’s encounter in the previous episode. As Trish learns she has some residual powers from last year’s experimental procedure that nearly kills her we’re treated to a montage. And when I see “treated” I mean “subjected to.” And when I say “a montage” I mean multiple ones.
Trish trains in a park. Trish trains in a gym. Trish trains with a trainer. It’s all quite tedious and plays for much longer than it should. After two seasons of nods and winks, the audience does not need to be led by the hand on Trish’s journey to becoming Hellcat. We’re all quite aware of where the character is heading and this episode feels like it spends more time on unnecessary filler than on progressing the story.
2. Oh, Hell No
Speaking of montages, how many times in the last decade have we seen budding superheroes trying on outfits? The scene of Trish in the costume shop feels absurd, and not in a fun way. As the character tries on masks and clothing items that no competent person would even consider picking up, let alone putting on. It is yet another moment of these players acting out of character in this season and quite frankly, it is insulting to the viewers.
3. I Got You
Speaking of behaving wildly out of turn, what has happened to Malcolm? His journey from being a victim of the Purple Man to putting himself back together was a highlight of the first two seasons of this show. Given a great deal of charisma and gravitas by the performance Eka Darville, Malcolm was a character that was easy to sympathize with and brought a lot of heart to the production. This season, however, has turned him into a hired thug.
Much like the scene between Jess and Hogarth last episode Malcolm recounting his pressuring of a mugger and threatening to destroy his personal life is jarring. Some of these characters feel like they’re not even from the same planet, let alone the same series. This is especially disheartening in regards to Darville, who really deserves to be given more to work with.
4. Seeing the Toilet Bowl Half Full
One of the weirdly more lovable performances actually comes from Rebecca De Mornay’s Dorothy Walker. I suppose lovably-hateable might be more accurate but it’s a delight any time Dorothy is on-screen aggravating her two daughters, and much of her dialogue almost seems like an intentional nod to the train wreck that this season is starting out with.
This oven is a wreck, but Dorothy can still scrub some grime and gives me cause to see this toilet bowl as being half full.
5. I Don’t Need You to Be a Hero
Seeing Trish finally become her Hellcat persona should be the culmination of the character development that has come previously on Jessica Jones, but what should be an organic change feels forced and dragged out. If this third season hopes to end the Marvel Netflix Universe on a high note it’s going to need to do a lot more with these next eleven episodes than these first two have.
We’ll keep with it, week to week, praying to be saved from the crushing boredom of episodes like “A.K.A. You’re Welcome.”
