It’s no secret that I really enjoy superhero movies
and Tv shows and I do agree there is an abundance of them currently but I
feel Netflix truly have the best of the bunch currently as well as the best format. Jessica Jones
is the second of four Marvel characters to get
their own original series which first began with Daredevil in early 2015, this
will be followed by Luke Cage later this year and eventually Iron fist
which will then bring them all together in their own Avengers style show called The Defenders.
Jessica Jones follows the title character, a sometimes hero sometimes Private Detective after a tragedy struck her early on during her superhero career, Jessica attempts to rebuild her life but is drawn into something much bigger when an old acquaintance shows up in Hells Kitchen New York. The show was put on Netflix in Late 2015 and followed the same release schedule as most of their original series in that all the episodes of the season were put online at the same time.
Jessica Jones follows the title character, a sometimes hero sometimes Private Detective after a tragedy struck her early on during her superhero career, Jessica attempts to rebuild her life but is drawn into something much bigger when an old acquaintance shows up in Hells Kitchen New York. The show was put on Netflix in Late 2015 and followed the same release schedule as most of their original series in that all the episodes of the season were put online at the same time.
What I like about Jessica is that although her
power set is something you’d probably consider to be overpowered at
times with super strength and ‘flight’, in this show it’s pretty
grounded. She doesn’t really show off her leaping much which
is fine and although she is physically strong It is not so much that
she can just beat anyone super easy like Superman, she generally
struggles when there are quite a few people against her at once. Whether
this was done just to create actual threats towards
her I don’t know but I felt it worked well, I wouldn’t want her to be
overpowered and just wrecking shit all over, at that point put her in
the Avengers or something.
Saying that though there were a few examples
where she seemed to be utterly incapable against some people which felt
odd considering it was one on one at the time, While she has a more
grounded power set its not an excuse to make the minimal
combat scenes lack in the way they do, I feel the focus of the show was more on her Detective work which was fine and I enjoyed that but if you’re dealing
with characters with these kind of powers then don’t treat the audience
like idiots.
I felt she was a good example of a female
‘superhero’, yes the focus was on her past issues and ongoing problems
but that made her a much more real character with a lot of substance,
this goes for Daredevil too actually. There was no reliance
on her just being some 10/10 super sexy hero who can ‘do stuff just as
good as the boys can’. She’s her own kind of ‘hero’, a lone wolf type
who isn’t really sure she even wants to be a hero. She doesn’t like to
compare herself to the Avengers or better known
heroes, she tries to live a much more normal life.
With that though I do find Jessica Jones feels
the most far removed from the MCU, this is not a bad thing in anyway
though. It is a very different show from even Daredevil and I did
struggle at times to imagine them running into each other,
if not for Claire (the Nurse from DD) showing up I would honestly believe there was no
connection at all other than a few references here and there. I feel as
the shows continue and they do eventually cross over they will alleviate
that feeling for me but at times I hope they
really keep them away from any of the movies, the Netflix series just
always seems so much more ‘grounded’ in reality which is not something
everyone wants from a superhero piece of media but I feel it works.
I liked that there was no real origin story for a
change, there were super brief scenes of her as a teen first finding
her powers and an off hand comment and lead about how she may have
originally got them in the first place but other than
that there was nothing really, it was oddly refreshing to just be
thrown in at the deep end.
Although I said the show was grounded there were
some really 'Comic booky' moments like the Cop taking a bunch of pills to
gain super strength and shit, like that’s something to me that belongs in Agents of shield or the proper MCU, it just
felt really out of place at the time when we’re dealing with all this
serious shit this dude just pops a few pills and goes all semi Hulk mode.
Moving on I have to say the casting was really good! David Tennant was perfect
for the role he played as I’ll discuss later and Krysten Ritter as Jessica fit really
well too! I’m not familiar with the character too much but I felt she is
great at coming across as a dry and sarcastic
person but also having the range to become super emotional and
supportive of her friends throughout the show, you can tell just by the
way she portrays the character without her saying so that she is an
individual who has been through a lot and continues to
punish herself for the mistakes of the past.
The supporting cast were some of the best parts
of the show though, Jessica's crazy acquaintances in the apartment
were really comical at times, especially the Sister as she just wouldn’t
leave Jessica alone and always came out with bizarre statements about Jessica and her own Brother. She began just as a
sort of background character but as the show progressed she became a lot
more important to the central plot and played that off really well,
especially her more emotional scenes when talking
about her deceased Brother.
I think my favourite side character was Jessica's
friend Malcolm played by Eka Darville. He started off as just some Junkie we would see laying out
across the hallways who wasn’t really all there but was always helped by
Jessica no matter what. Even when he was like this
he was always a friend to her and her to him, but as the plot continues
we find out he’s actually been working for Kilgrave to spy on Jessica
for him, the worst part being he is doing it due to his addiction and is
in no way under the control of Kilgrave at
this point. He does eventually go clean as a means to repent and at that
point becomes a much better character all around, someone who feels
helpless as he has no powers but is able to use his gift of helping
others to bring victims together as a means of closure.
I don’t want to say much about Luke Cage as he
will have his own show soon but I liked him, he wasn’t overused so there
is much to see when he gets his own show but he was certainly a welcome
edition, you still don’t know much about him
at this point which is great, using this show as his introduction and
prologue to a degree was a wise choice especially considering the links
between him and Jessica. Mike Colter was a great match and generally looks
like the character too!.
Trish was an alright addition I didn’t dislike
her or particularly enjoy her too much she was just kind of there but
she brought enough to the show to warrant her being such a large part of the plot, she was a
good support for Jessica and did not just stand by
and let Jessica handle everything she actually helped in a lot of
circumstances.
As I said with Fisk in Daredevil the Netflix
shows so far have way more compelling villains than anything the movies
have ever thrown at us, Kilgrave is no exception, I feel Tennant was the
right choice for this character and the changes
they made to him compared to the comics worked very well, I really
think having him have pure purple skin would be laughable and make the
serious subjects dealt with in the show seem almost trivial at times.
Netflix seems to know that the audience needs to
see why a villain considers themselves to be in the right, we need to
see their motives and aspirations rather than just have them as a threat
to the world for reason X Y and Z.
Tennant really is the strongest point of the
show, although he’s a really horrible human being in it he also comes
across as so likeable. He essentially plays a man that always gets his
own way thanks to his powers obviously, but when he
doesn’t get his way he acts like a petulant child. It’s quite funny to
see but shows the extent of Kilgraves powers, mentality and overall grip
he wishes to have on others. I think it was good to have a villain with
some form of power set this time around,
he felt like a true threat to someone with super strength rather than
someone who could match her physically.
I did enjoy when he was being used by Jessica in
a total role reversal with him using his powers to aid others. Although
he enjoyed it and got a true rush from it he only did it to please
Jessica and that really did not last long but it
made for a number of great scenes. I was surprised how ruthless he
could be when he wanted to though, the way he would take out anyone
without question if he needed to, being so bold as to just go into a
police station and make them all put a gun to their
own heads.
This was a truly great villain all the way
through, the only disappointment being he kind of died like it was no
big deal, it just happened in a second, of course it was building up to
it but I just felt perhaps it was too soon to kill
off such a great character, perhaps have him in prison and return a few
seasons later, but at least he will not be shoehorned in later I suppose.
The support group aspect was great, to
see all these people come together because they were used by Kilgrave
and showing the mental effect that actually had on people was cool, you
never really see people deal with the aftermath
of attacks or incidents with super villains or even super heroes,
exploring that was a nice touch I thought. More so because it showed
just how serious or trivial some of these victims were to Kilgrave but
how it still effected them none the less. Jessica
shunning away from this group overall was good too, it showed her focus
on trying to bring him to justice rather than dwell on the past and
stay a victim.
I had never heard of Jessica Jones until this
series, I was vaguely familiar with Luke Cage and I have no idea who
Iron Fist really is but I’m really happy this focus on lesser known
characters is happening, I hope after these initial series
we will see the adaptation of more, especially if Netflix is in charge.
It may even be worth Netflix doing a series on Black Widow or Hawkeye,
they are both characters I have little interest in but I feel these
shows could make them as compelling as Matt Murdock
and Jessica easily.
I feel that a lot of people did not give this show a chance, it’s not as good as Daredevil by any means but it is still worth a watch for sure, I did feel that it had a poor start as it just did not seem to really go anywhere almost like we were dawdling before Kilgrave shows up, I think this is a point that a lot of people chose not to go to because the start was so poor, which is a shame… I’d say if this was you please continue at least until Kilgraves in it more and then decide if you want to continue on.
I feel like the show ended just as it really got
going, it really did start slow and turned into a really captivating
story once Tennant was featured more heavily, I loved the direction it
went in towards the end and hope it can be replicated
in season 2 and when Jones joins the Defenders but I worry it will not.
Truthfully I still do not know much about the character and her story
or villains save for a few things I've read online about pre-existing
characters so hopefully a second season will
have the same sort of tone and talent as this one.
Overall I’d say Jessica Jones is worth a watch
if you enjoyed what Netflix did with Daredevil, you have to remember
this is a different show with a different theme and feel it will not be
just like Daredevil it is it’s own thing. It does
have a poor start but if you can get past it you are in for a real
treat, especially with Tenants performance. I feel this was a decent
season overall and a second has been confirmed, I do wonder where they
will go with it but I’m excited to see that, I
hope they have a few more crossovers before the defenders comes around
even if they are brief, having Claire from Daredevil become a character
that is appearing all over is a great start to this.