Jessica Jones

So December has not been nearly as productive as far as increasing my posts on here as I would have liked. However, I realize this is the case because I've been watching a lot of TV more than I have watched movies and if you're a fan of the blog, that creates for some problems as TV shows are difficult to write reviews for. However! I thought that since I did a full series review for Daredevil, I would do a full series review for Jessica Jones... and then when Luke Cage comes out, I'll do a series review for that too... and then Iron Fist... until the day I die.

On a seperate note, I have seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Twice actually. I'm not totally sure on whether or not I'm going to do a review on it. I've always had a little bit of a difficulty writing objective reviews on Star Wars movies because they are my favorite films of all time. However, The Force Awakens is definitely a different breed of Star Wars, and that's not saying its good or bad, I just feel like its different and I can now possibly review it. I'll keep you updated if I decide to review it or not. But for now, let's get to Jessica Jones.

A little bit of background. The story of Jessica Jones in the comic books started out as any other superhero would. She gets her powers, she faces trials at a young age, but she eventually becomes a superhero.

And then it takes a really... really dark turn.

The comic books took a dark turn, and it really mirrors the events of the TV series so I'll talk about that when I get to my description of the show, but in short, the subject matter is definitely not Marvel's usual MO... at least not in the movie realm.

In the Netflix realm, this makes perfect sense. I probably didn't say this in my Daredevil review, but these Marvel TV shows are gritty shows. They are the R rated Marvel superheroes that probably wouldn't fit alongside Iron Man, Thor and Captain America.

But even when I watched Daredevil, I knew it was gritty, I knew it was a little dark. But that did not prepare me enough for Jessica Jones.

The first episode of Jessica Jones floored me because it gave you a taste of what was to come and said, you had better be prepared because this is some dark shit.

Jessica Jones follows the story of the title character. Jessica is a private investigator in New York city. She also has super human strength.

The cool thing about her powers is that they don't make the center of her character, they're just a tool she uses to get what she wants. Super strength is a pretty dull power to begin with, but the show isn't centered on a superheroine, its centered on a private investigator, who just happens to have superpowers in a world where the Avengers exist.

Again, I liked how they make reference to the events of the movies but those are not pivotal to the plot.

Anyways, Jessica is somewhat of a retired superheroine who is now a private investigator. She has a little bit of a drinking problem and from the very beginning, you can tell she has a dark past.

In the first episode, Jessica is approached by a family looking for their missing daughter. The way this girl is described and her situation, Jessica is immediately haunted by her past, in particular the mention of a smooth talking British man who sounds an awful lot like someone who she thought was dead.

Jessica Jones is played by Krysten Ritter and prior to this show I really only knew Ritter as Jesse from Breaking Bad's girlfriend who OD'd on heroine. I thought she did alright in Breaking Bad, I just hadn't seen her in anything else. I really liked Jessica in this show and I thought that she was a pretty good character.

I mentioned this before but a lot of the show is riding on her as a character. She has superpowers, but they're more a tool. The show would be the same if she was crafty with tools and everything she did with her superpowers she did in a different way. She's not defined by her abilities, they're just tools. And I really like that.

I think in the end I'm not really going to hold Jessica as the best protagonist I've ever seen. I think she grows on you as the show goes on, and she really rides the line of a good person and an absolute asshole. However, I don't think it was an award winning performance, but she is an interesting character and you care about her journey and the evil that she faces in this show.

Enter David Tennant as Kilgrave. If you have read the comics, you know exactly who this character is, but if you haven't, like me, you figure out that Kilgrave has the ability to make you do whatever he wants. And its not just making you do something out of your control, its changing your will, so much that you want to do whatever he says. You don't have to have watched the show to know that this character could be an amazing, but incredibly dark villain. And that's exactly what he is.

I have to hand it to Marvel and their Netflix branch, while they've brought in some good heroes like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, they don't hold a candle to their villains.

I mentioned in my review of Daredevil that Wilson Fisk was the best Marvel villain right now. I haven't watched Daredevil in pretty much a year so I haven't seen Fisk in a while, but I'm debating whether or not Kilgrave is a better villain. David Tennant absolutely kills it as Kilgrave.

I'm a big fan of David Tennant. I actually did a whole post on him as the 10th Doctor from Doctor Who. 

And its perfect because David Tennant can be both the most charming person in the world, and he can also be deadly serious and a little bit scary at times. Its actually a little bit scary how similar this character is to the 10th Doctor and I actually think there were a lot of Doctor Who fans who took issue with that. In essence, he is the 10th Doctor if that Doctor was an absolute psychopath.

And the great part is, they delve into his origins, they delve into why he is the way he is. They don't excuse it, but the same way they explain what makes Wilson Fisk the way he is, there's a reason Kilgrave is as deranged as he is. The great part is how Kilgrave uses that origin to his advantage. At a certain point you're questioning whether or not he can be changed, whether or not he is actually a villain, and whether or not there is some kind of humanity in there.

The point is, David Tennant was by far the best part of this show. Every time he's on screen, he's just electric and you're scared about what he's going to do. And the worst part is, he's creative. He won't just tell you to kill yourself, he'll phrase it in a way that someone will kill themselves in the most brutal way there is. There's a great line in the show where he says that he needs to be cautious of everything he says because it could have disastrous results, so he's definitely a wordsmith and that's scarier than any brute strength.

The rest of the characters in this series are really great and are worth mentioning. Rachael Taylor plays Trish Walker, Jessica's adoptive sister. Carrie Ann Moss plays a ruthless lawyer that assists Jessica and gives her jobs. Eka Darville plays an addict who is Jessica's neighbor. Wil Traval plays a police officer who becomes important to the story. There are just a lot of characters who really make this story great. They all give pretty good performances, but as an ensemble, they really compliment each other very well and you can really see the results of one characters actions on another ones.

I suppose its worth mentioning that one of the supporting characters is Mike Colter who plays Luke Cage.

The reason this is important is because he is next in line to set up the Defenders, the culmination of the Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist TV shows on Netflix.

The unfortunate thing is, Luke Cage is kind of a boring character. There are a few good episodes where I enjoyed his character and what he adds to the story. But I think the main reason I cared about what happened to him was more about Jessica and her relationship with him. I feel like I was more concerned with her losing somebody she cares about, more than the person she could potentially lose.

Mike Colter doesn't do a bad job, I'm just not totally sure that he can carry his own show. He's a great supporting character in this show but I don't know if I'd want to watch an entire season with him.

I'm hoping I'm wrong and looking at Netflix's track record with these properties, I think that I will be. However, it does raise a little bit of a concern in the future.

Like I said before, a lot of the supporting characters give really good performances. It doesn't totally feel right pointing out one character over the other because I don't think there was one of them that really stood out more than the other. I thought Rachael Taylor's portrayal of Trish Walker was a good counter to Jessica Jone's sarcastic attitude, but I thought Carrie Anne Moss gave a better performance overall. Again, its hard and I think they work better as an ensemble than they do individual characters.

The main focus is on Jessica and Kilgrave and that's where it should be because those two are the strongest of the show.

But how is Jessica Jones a series as a whole? Well again, its dark. Very dark. If you're not a fan of dark controversial topics being the subject matter of TV, you may not like Jessica Jones. Its right in your face and again, its dark.

At the beginning, I wasn't sure where this show was going. I wasn't sure if it was just going to be Jessica Jones wandering about New York doing her private investigations with no continuous storyline. Its not until the 4th or 5th episode that things start to pick up and when I say pick up, they pick up.

This happens to also be the point where David Tennant starts showing up more. But I guess I didn't really understand what this show was about until I heard someone talking about it and it all made sense.

In essence, Jessica Jones is about women. Its about the shit that women have to deal with on a day to day basis and it makes it tangible for the audience. I don't think its in your face about it but the episodes do have a theme and they have to do with some of the troubles of being a woman. There's an episode about stalking. Its not in your face just saying stalking is bad, but it goes into the psychological elements of it. But at the same time, you could just see this episode as an entry in a crime serial. Its not blatant about its messages and the themes aren't contained to one episode, they're really spread over the entire series.

And in the center of it all you have Jessica. Jessica is this tough as nails, sarcastic, and a little bit of an asshole strong woman and she goes through the same things.

But the over arching theme of this show is on the characters and the struggles they go through, whether they are male or female, everyone has their own demons to face and there are different ways to go about doing that.

And man does it pick up. The first few episodes I might say were a little boring, however, once Kilgrave gets into the picture, shit gets dark, and shit gets violent.

Almost too violent.

I did a review for another Netflix original, Bloodline. I mentioned that one of the things I said about that show was the fact that it was a slow burn and there wasn't enough action in it to get you really interested until the end. I get that Jessica Jones is set in the Marvel universe so there's going to be more action and you definitely saw a lot of action in Daredevil, but there was a lot about this show that didn't seem like Marvel and in result, the action sometimes seemed like it was too frequent and happening in every episode. Every episode, Jessica is punching someone, or getting shot at, or injured pretty badly. It almost seemed over the top at times. And again, I need to remind myself that this story is based off a comic book. But a part of me doesn't see this as a comic book show.

There's also an element of unbelievability that they all get pretty injured and the next episode those injuries are totally gone, but that's nothing new in TV shows so I won't harp on it too much. It was just blatant.

Overall, Jessica Jones had a slow start that kind of made me question whether or not Netflix was still on their game when it came to Marvel properties. However, they picked up the ball pretty quickly and I think for the most part, they really make this show one of a kind.

Overall, Jessica Jones is a survivor story. Its not a superhero story. With an awesome protagonist, one of the best super villains on screen today, and a really good cast, Jessica Jones is definitely a show worth checking out.

But those are my thoughts on Jessica Jones. What about you? What did you think of it? Who do you think is better, Fisk or Kilgrave? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send your thoughts via Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as your requests for future movies and TV shows I should review on this page. If you follow me on twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews as well as live tweets sometimes when I'm watching movies I'll be reviewing to get a preview to my thoughts.

I'll leave you with this. Here's David Tennant talking about his portrayal of Kilgrave. Enjoy!