If ever there was a superhero for the #MeToo cultural moment, it was Jessica Jones. From the word “go” the character and her show (and her comics before that) have served as a vehicle to explore issues surrounding abuse (physical, sexual, and psychological), recovery, and PTSD. The first season of ‘Jessica Jones’ was widely praised for exactly that and the second season certainly isn’t shying away from continuing along that path.
Sometimes, however, that manifests in surprising ways. Case in point, within the first few episodes of the new season, a storyline is introduced that deals with a filmmaker who has a history of abusing women. That, of course, is a depressingly familiar story in a post-#MeToo world. But okay, the show’s being topical. Given the issues the first season dealt with, that’s hardly unexpected, right? Well, yes and no. The subject matter itself isn’t the surprising part. What is surprising is the timing of it. As series’ star Krysten Ritter explains:
“We finished shooting before the #MeToo movement, and we were all kind of like, “Wow.” It’s a completely crazy coincidence. When all of that started coming out, we were all texting each other: “Holy shit. We’re doing this on our show!” The #MeToo movement started in October, I believe, and we finished shooting on October 1st.”
The inciting incident for the #MeToo movement was the publication of the first substantial allegations of Harvey Weinstein’s long history of sexual misconduct, which were leveled in a ‘New York Times’ article by Jodi Kanto and Megan Twohey that was published on October 5th. A subsequent piece by Ronan Farrow was published in ‘The New Yorker’ on October 10th. By this time, the floodgates were wide open, and more than eighty women have since come forward to publicly accuse Weinstein of harassment, assault, and in some cases rape. And of course, Weinstein was just the tip of the iceberg.
Ritter continues:
“It’s pretty intense and uncanny, but also it’s cool and exciting to have a show that can express the anger that a lot of people are feeling. I love ‘Jessica Jones’ because of the work I get to do and the material as an actress. But obviously, the fact that we participate in a huge social conversation? It’s amazing. It doesn’t happen every day that you’re on a show you love doing and acting in that also inspires a lot of social conversations.”
‘Jessica Jones’ features returning stars Krysten Ritter, Rachael Taylor, Carrie-Ann Moss, and Eka Darville alongside newcomers Janet McTeer and J.R. Ramirez. The second season of the acclaimed superhero drama will be available to stream on Netflix beginning on March 8, 2018.