Jessica Jones is something of an usual entry in a superhero catalog,
in that the fact that the character has super powers is incidental;
there is no secret identity, no costume - none of the usual trappings
we've come to associate with the concept. Casual audiences may be
forgiven for not being familiar with the protagonist...she's a comparatively new arrival to the comics.. Essentially, she received
super-strength and flight as a teenager, but her super-activities as
"Jewel" were curtailed by the rather gross manipulation at the hands of a villain called The
Purple Man. After recovering, she re-invented herself as a private
investigator, dealing more with the 'Marvel Knights' street-level types
than the traditional super-villain caste, and became partner and spouse
to Luke Cage.
The show features Krysten
Ritter as the sardonic, hard-drinking title character, with Mike Colter
as Luke Cage and 'Tenth Doctor' David Tennant as the Purple Man, who here
goes by his alias Kilgrave. Rachael Taylor appears as Patsy "Trish"
Walker, Jones' best friend, well known to older comics audiences as not
only the star of Silver Age teen comic books, but also as the
superhero and card-carrying Avengers member Hellcat. Wil Traval
appears as 'Simpson', a police officer who in the comics takes on the
identity of unstable antagonist Nuke, and Carrie-Ann Moss of the Matrix
fame appears as Jery Hogarth, a lawyer associate of Jones'...the gender
of the role was changed for the series. Eka Darville and Erin Moriarty
also appear in sizable roles as additional victims of Kilgrave's.
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| Don't trust the J in New York...um, Cit-A? |
This is an extremely solid series. Although it's part of the broader MCU,
it's much closer artistically to the preceding Netflix series Daredevil than
anything else. Even so, it has a tone and style all its own, with a
modern noir sensibility that blends a classic Chandler-esque flavor with
modern New York. The characters are convincing and sincere, and
there's a vitality to the series which conveys both dry humor and intense drama. The show is dark without being oppressively so; it's not
quite as grimly relentless as Daredevil was, which is interesting given
the serious and often frightening subject matter.
This is a series about control, who has it, and
who doesn't. Kilgrave is an insidious threat because he
can make anyone do anything at all, simply by speaking, and he uses that
power for selfish, often petty ends. He enjoys manipulating and controlling women in
particular, enslaving innocent women as unwilling concubines, raping and
otherwise terrifying them. Jessica Jones herself represents the object
of Kilgrave's primary obsession, as she was the one woman able to
escape him.
From the opening of the
series forward, we're exposed to the consequences facing Kilgrave's victims. Reality bends and blurs as Jessica relives moments of her
captivity, and her own nightmares come flaring back to life as she
encounters the latest in a long line of abused women. The show does not shy away from
depicting the trauma inflicted on those who have crossed Kilgrave's path
- the ones who weren't flat out killed in horrific ways were violated
and humiliated, and live in constant fear of his return, and/or some
future recurrence of this loss of control.
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| Her whole demeanor just says "Welcome to Alias Investigations", doesn't it? |
It makes for an incredibly compelling story. It's all the more so when
you factor in the implications of a series with two strong female leads,
where the men are either attractive sidekicks or dangerously unstable or evil. There's an interesting reversal here from what we've been
seeing lately from Marvel. Jessica is an engaging protagonist, and the show
is all hers. I was worried at a few points that the show was going to contrive a scenario wherein Luke Cage would have to rescue her, but the show does a fantastic job keeping the
focus on Jones, making her intelligent, competent and able to solve her
own problems, at great personal sacrifice as needed, even when she's feeling overwhelmed. This has been
something of a rarity in the superhero genre, so it's nice to finally
see.
Another aspect of the show I have to
applaud is the use of Kilgrave. I've been on record multiple times
about the appalling dearth of well-written villains in the MCU.
Kilgrave follows in the footsteps of Kingpin as a compelling and
genuinely scary foe as well as being a fascinating character in his own right - so
whatever governance applies to these Netflix series, the rest of Marvel
needs to take note. The writing on Kilgrave is interesting - every so
often the show teases out a bit of what could make him likable, only to
remind the audience exactly how vicious and small he can be. He's a
clear and present danger to Jones and the other characters, but he is
not without a disturbing charisma. I wouldn't say that he engenders
sympathy per se, but he's got clear motives and goals, a solid
backstory, and is far more complex and nuanced than most of his
contemporary MCU peers. For a character who's 'gifted' with a
mind-controlling pheromone power, he's realistic if deeply unsettling.
While the writing can be somewhat predictable, it's reliably solid and
consistent. The characters are all fleshed out, distinct, and
interesting. The show is appropriately serious given the subject
matter, but still injects levity along with the occasional easter egg.
Best of all, the show is not married to the overall MCU, so it doesn't
feel like a giant commercial for upcoming product Disney wants to
shill. All of the attention is focused on these characters, and while
there is some connection to Daredevil in the final episode, it's casual
and unforced. The creators of this show put all their attention on this
project, and it pays off.
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| I suspect he and the Joker share a tailor. |
A lot of credit
has to go to Ritter and Tennant, in particular. This is by far the best
performance I've ever seen Ritter give...it's a meaty part, to be sure,
but she handles it beautifully, with absolute sincerity, and moments of
guarded fragility seeping out through a bitter exterior. She manages
to make even Jones' snarkier moments avoid being fatuous or glib, and
presents a character worth rooting for. Tennant, for his part, channels
much of that incredible energy he's known for, and gives every line
personality. There are times Kilgrave resembles some of Tennant's more
avuncular roles, and then, in an instant (Don't blink!), the monster appears. What's
particularly enjoyable is that Kilgrave is remarkably genuine for all
his psychosis; even as a master manipulator, his anger, hope, pain and
desire are all laid bare for Jones to see. The show doesn't really
develop Kilgrave much until the second half of the series, but makes up
for lost time once he does start getting significant screen time. The
whole cast is very solid, but Ritter and Tennant are far and away the anchors.
The only real issue I took with the show was the pacing. There are a
few episodes where the story lags, and towards the end of the series it
felt like the show was being padded. There's also some superfluity
going on - there's a whole subplot involving Hogarth's pending divorce
which takes up a lot of time, and has a very limited and predictable
payoff. There's also too much focus on some of Kilgrave's other
incidental victims; after a while, the thread involving them begins to feel
repetitive and distracting. I suspect this may be a drawback to to the
format of the show - I felt Daredevil suffered from the same problem.
Both series could have been a little bit shorter - I think Jessica Jones
could have been tighter as a ten-episode series, rather than thirteen.
That's a minor quibble, though, since the show does manage to remain
more or less consistently interesting throughout. The ending is a
little bit anticlimactic, but on the other hand, did have a certain
inevitability to it. There are also a few doors left open at the end of
the series for what will no doubt be a second season, or possible
inclusion in the Luke Cage series currently filming for next year's
release.
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| "Sing once again with me our strange duet...." |
All told, it's a very worthwhile
show dealing with a credible female lead, a well-crafted villain, with
scripts that focus more on sincere character development instead of
witty banter and a plot addressing serious topics with tangible
consequences, all of which have been lacking in the MCU. It's not only
a wonderful step forward in those regards, but is also an enjoyable,
stylish production in its own right. It seems clear to me that the
Netflix arm of the MCU knows what it's doing - so far we've been getting
far more quality out of that end of the business than anywhere else.
Jessica Jones represents a step forward, and definitely a show to watch.
FINAL RATING: 8 PAWS (OUT OF 10):
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