“Jessica Jones” made her long-awaited return to Netflix on Thursday, March 8, and, like her counterpart “Daredevil,” had a stellar sophomore season.

The crime drama follows a troubled Jessica (Krysten Ritter) as she is forced to face her past alongside her best friend and sister Trish (Rachel Taylor) and the unwanted assistant Malcolm (Eka Darville). The show also features season one alum Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) continue her quest for power over the business society of New York. New to the Marvel-verse are Oscar Arocho (J.R. Ramirez), Jessica’s new superintendent, Pryce Chang (Terry Chen), a rival investigator, and Griffin Sinclair (Hal Ozsan), a journalist who has been dating Trish.

The show follows in the standard Marvel Netflix mold, with 13 episodes that each run about an hour long. This makes it a pain to watch all at once, but it is without a doubt worth the loss of sleep.

This spectacular sequel is almost entirely character driven, rather than having to rely on intense action sequences to keep audiences engaged. The characters are developed excellently, and none benefit from this development more so than Malcolm. While all of the other characters are developed quite well in their own regards, Malcolm was essentially given his own series here. He grew from a junkie to a fan favorite character.

The primary conflict of this season was man-versus-self, rather than the man-versus-man (or in the case of The Punisher, man-versus-many men) conflict that takes center stage in every other one of Marvel’s Netflix properties. Although this might bore some news outlets, it will be quite the watch for almost anyone else.

As is the case with any entertainment property in this day and age, Jessica Jones is faced with political subtones. Rather than let them be just that, the showrunners made the brilliant choice to make them key parts of the show. The plot addresses campaigns such as the #MeToo movement and the ALS awareness movement.

The show also features several homosexual characters, no doubt in an attempt to let the community members know they are supported, but nearly half of the characters introduced are homosexual. On top of that, all of them are antagonists, to the point where the suspension of disbelief cannot take yet another one-off bad guy being secretly gay. While this was a noble attempt to do something great, it was over done.

Through the efforts of showrunner Melissa Rosenberg, “Jessica Jones” continues the beautiful filmography that Marvel has been known for. Voice lines were mixed and layered flawlessly. Scenes which no doubt required multiple takes and various cuts were sewn together perfectly, on the level of editing that is put into most movies of the current age. Creative camera angles were used, including filming through fences and car windows to create a feeling of someone watching Jessica or Trish or whoever the focus of the shot was.

Due to it being a Marvel property, the show is filled with plenty of references to Marvel Comics, other TV shows and the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. The super-prison known as “The Raft,” last seen being broken out of by Steve Rogers and crew at the end of “Captain America: Civil War,” is mentioned many times. There is even a TV segment shown of a reporter talking about the fight in Syria, which Captain Rogers was said to be fighting terror in the “Infinity War Prelude” comic.

As was the case with “Daredevil,” the second season of “Jessica Jones” was leagues ahead of its predecessor. The characters were relatable, the conflicts deep, and the effects of this season will be felt with every appearance Jessica makes in the future. The show didn’t spend too much time dealing with clean up from “The Defenders,” as one might expect from the show immediately following the team-up, and got right down to the snarky, sassy, amazing private investigator that fans fell in love with in season one. “Jessica Jones” season two redefined the standards of what a Netflix show can be, thus earning it a 12/10.