Black Lightning: Grading all four seasons of the powerful CW show
By Mark Lynch
Black Lightning season 2
Grade: C
Season 2 saw the significant improvement of Jennifer Pierce (China Anne McClain). In the first season, Jennifer came across as annoying; she thought she knew everything and continued to defy her parents. Of course, this was intentional because she was a teenager doing what teenagers do.
In this season, however, Jennifer started to grow as a character. She still did foolish things, but it seemed different this time around and was much less irritating. She balanced her immaturity with solid growth and smart decisions. In all honesty, she carried this season and highlighted that there was more to Black Lightning than its titular character.
This season was also the beginning of Anissa Pierce’s transformation into her alter-ego Blackbird as she started leaving her Thunder persona behind and became Freeland’s Robin Hood – robbing gangsters and giving back to the community. She was also helping the people of the Perdi get away from the Looker and the Sange. She took the Tubman nickname and showcased why it was true.
Speaking of the Perdi, Looker (Sofia Vassilieva) was a phenomenal villain that was incredibly easy to hate. Every time she opened her mouth, you hoped that someone would shut her up. The problem, of course, was that she’s a superb fighter and powerful meta-human so it took Black Lightning and Black Bird to defeat her. She was so good that it’s quite disappointing that we didn’t get more of her until the final season.
This season also teased us with the arrival of another diabolical villain as it marked the first time we saw Agent Percy Odell.