After the rousing success of Daredevil, Marvel Studios has finally released the second of their Netflix-exclusive series, Jessica Jones. Marvel has become a money-making powerhouse in recent years; they've captured our wallets, ingrained themselves in the public consciousness, and now have free reign to introduce projects centered around characters that have little mainstream recognition (such as Ant-Man and the upcoming Inhumans). Regardless of the quality of what the studio pumps out, it's essentially guaranteed money at this point, leaving people asking when this superhero bubble will pop. Eventually there will come a project that falls short and begins to reveal the cracks in the genre, bringing the Marvel money-making formula to a shuddering halt. It begs the question, is Jessica Jones that project? Was Daredevil merely lighting in a bottle? The answer, as I happily found out, is no on both accounts. This is a show that works just as well as Daredevil, all while establishing itself as its own unique entity, both among Marvel's Netflix lineup and the rest of the MCU.
The basic storyline of the season follows the titular Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), a hard-drinking, foul tempered, super-powered private investigator attempting to escape the demons of her past. After a seemingly ordinary case turns bad and a young woman is framed for murder, Jessica finds herself attempting to track down and capture the real perpetrator, a mysterious figure known as Kilgrave (David Tennant). Compared to Daredevil, Jessica Jones is decidedly less action-heavy; there are a good amount of fight scenes, but nothing anywhere close to the level of Daredevil's now-famous hallway fight. Underwhelming action aside, Jones more than makes up for it with a wholly compelling plot and genuinely interesting characters. Kilgrave is an antagonist with the ability to compel people to do as he says; this is a powerset much more suited to, say, The Avengers' rogue's gallery rather than a street-level bruiser and friends. His powers are just as dangerous as they sound and the show seems to revel in exploring all of the interesting ways a malcontent with such abilities would affect people in the modern day. For example, at one point in the series, several of his former playthings form a support group in which they try to readjust to life after serving as a puppet for an egotistical rapist. It's a show that pulls no punches when it comes to matters of story and subject matter.
This is also another one of those productions where the entire cast give excellent performances. Ritter is wonderfully gruff as Jessica, showing just how hard it can be to be a hero. She isn't rich, she isn't bulletproof, and she has no Avengers or SHIELD to back her up. She's strong enough to handle most of her problems, but is mostly lacking in defense, both for herself and those close to her. David Tennant seems to be having a blast as Kilgrave, channeling personified spite, desire, and greed. The best kind of villain is one that you can understand; while Kilgrave is an abhorrent human being, he represents feelings present in every single person, taken to the extreme. Everyone has always desired love or wealth or power in some way, Kilgrave is simply that raw desire given form. He's relatable in the most disquieting kind of ways, making him by far my favorite of the villains Marvel Studios has committed to screen so far.
In the supporting cast, we have Rachael Taylor as Trish "Patsy" Walker (better known to comic book readers as Hellcat), Jessica's closest (and arguably only) friend. Taylor provides an excellent, upbeat attitude to contrast against Ritter's sardonic murkiness without diverting into "irritating sidekick" territory. There's also Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth, a ruthless shark of a lawyer. While her subplot has very little to do with the overall story, I just loved watching this character on screen. She's a lying, cheating, manipulative person, yet I still wouldn't classify her as a "villain" per-say (at least not next to Kilgrave). Her scenes feel like something we'd never otherwise see in a Marvel production and Moss just gives an excellently despicable performance. There's also Jessica's various neighbors who get roped into her business by proximity and association (Eka Darville, Colby Minifie, and Kieran Mulcare); each of them is really excellent, providing interesting perspectives on metahuman conflicts (considering they themselves are normal, everyday people). Even with Minifie and Mulcare's obvious comedic relief, their characters are far from static or one-note, adding tons to the overall feeling of the show. This is a show where the only time I didn't care about a particular subplot or group of characters is because David Tennant hadn't shown up in a while; everyone here is excellent, but Tennant was easily my favorite.
That said, there was also another very significant character in the supporting cast; Power Man himself, Luke Cage (as played by Mike Coulter). Cage is the next Marvel hero scheduled to receive his own Netflix series sometime in 2016, and his appearance acted as a good introduction to the character. We know very little about him (he mentions offhand that his abilities were obtained in "an experiment"), but Coulter's performance is impressive enough to get anyone who isn't already excited for Luke Cage hooked in before the show premieres.
If I have to criticize anything about Jessica Jones, I'd probably go with the pacing. Each episode is about an hour long, but feels more like it was written and paced as two half-hour episodes instead. There's some filler here and there and some plot points are swept under the rug with little explanation. It does an incredibly good job of building up a despicable, powerful antagonist and establishing tension and anticipation when it comes to facing him, only for the finale to come off as a little lackluster. Its strongest episodes definitely lie in the middle-end of the season, as the series takes some time to set everything up and find its legs. Once Kilgrave becomes a regular player, things really pick up, considering he is arguably the most interesting character in the entire thing (thanks in no small part to the fantastic amount of gravitas his character is treated with, especially early on).
While it isn't perfect, Jessica Jones is yet another well-crafted Marvel Studios production. Despite the action being a tad lacking and episodes containing some degree of fluff, the tone, performances, and cinematography are all simply excellent and a good load of fun to witness. There are themes here which you won't find in many other superhero movies or shows and Marvel continues to grow and explore the already impressive world they've built on screen. If you're a Marvel fanatic or are just looking for a good, compelling detective-noir style program, I definitely think you owe it to yourself to give Jessica Jones a watch.
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