Yeah. I liked Collider's review, which was a little more positive. But they had a specific paragraph about the pacing. They said better than some, but still a problem, with picking up the pace towards the end. It could mean about average (e.g., Punisher) or it sounds like exactly Iron Fist. It's just a question of degree.
I tend to ignore complaints of "pacing problems" because people like to throw around that phrase like it's not something that every TV show ever made has had. The Netflix MCU shows focus on character and inner conflict, which strangely is what theyre usually praised for. Fleshing out the characters and giving them depth requires some more low-key character driven episodes which gives weight so that the more action packed stuff later have satisfactory payoff.
Jessica Jones season 1 actually had a lot of action in its second half, so why is it just now getting criticized for "pacing issues"? There seems to have been a shift because, prior to
The Punisher,
Jessica Jones was widely considered the best of the Netflix MCU shows, but despite
The Punisher being criticized for also having "pacing problems", that is the main critique now being levied at
Jessica Jones.
Its inevitable that whenever the next great thing comes out the previous great thing will start getting trashed, but people are now picking on
Jessica Jones for having the same "issues" (which I dont see as issues at all) that every single show in this canon has been picked on for.
As I see it, pacing problems is the universal go-to complaint for when people mean I didnt find every episode 100% exciting. It's up there with "[x and y] have no chemistry", the go-to catchphrase that shippers love to use to discredit any romantic pairing that challenges theirs. It results in this weird hyporcrisy where reviewers praise the shows for being character-driven superhero stories that flesh out the characters so they're more relatable to the audience than any of the movie characters, then one breath later criticize the show for having that depth because it means that we have some slow episodes, which every other TV show ever made has had.
