Jessica Jones Review

jessica-jones

When placed next to Marvel’s other Netflix series, Daredevil, Jessica Jones is a bit messy. Multiple major plotlines lead to dead ends, it’s structurally unbalanced, and characters seem to come and go on a whim. Like Jessica herself, the series doesn’t always seem to know what it’s doing, but it’s always trying to find its way.

But also unlike Daredevil, which treads a fairly well-trodden “dark super-hero” path, Jessica Jones takes on several controversial subjects in its examination on how people control each other. The key relationship in this first season is between Jessica and her ex-boyfriend, Kilgrave, who is kept in the shadows for most of the first half. Kilgrave can, and often does, control others with his voice. During Jessica’s time with him, she only had a few moments of full, conscious control over herself.

For several episodes, the series lets the audience decide for themselves how to classify this relationship, a traumatic period which still haunts Jessica. But the show eventually cuts through the bullshit and has Jessica call it what it was: rape. Kilgrave vehemently disagrees, and complains about how much he hates “that word,” but the audience understands Jessica’s pain and how her experiences have colored who she is in the modern day. There’s no question to us that Kilgrave raped Jessica, but his reaction is one that the world at large often has toward women who claim rape after-the-fact. It’s impressive that a detective-superhero show bankrolled by one of the largest corporations on the planet would take on such a subject and potentially expand the notions of its audience, but Marvel does it here, proving that they can continue to push boundaries within their universe.

Let’s talk a bit more about Kilgrave. The idea has floated around the internet that he is the best villain yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I can’t disagree. He’s a fascinating character, somebody who can inspire sympathy in one moment and vile disgust in the next. David Tennant works wonders with him, making sure that his self-pity is always just as sincere as his love for Jessica (or the idea of Jessica, perhaps), as well as his anger at most of the world. I sincerely wanted him to survive the season, just because he’s too good of a character to lose.

But Jessica herself is pretty great, too. She’s essentially a classic gumshoe but gender-swapped. She keeps strange hours, runs her office out of her own run-down apartment, drinks heavy, and casually beds men. Her previously mentioned trauma works because it runs completely counter to who she is in her daily life. This is a woman who fears nothing, who can jump several times her own height and beat down rooms full of men, but is nearly paralyzed by the mere thought of her abuser.

Luke Cage (who is getting his own Marvel series in 2016) gets his introduction here as well, but fills an interesting and unexpected role. Luke, like Jessica, is the gender-swapped version of a traditional hard-boiled archetype. He’s the typically-female beautiful bartender, who the hero/PI has a relationship with, but doesn’t want getting too involved in his dealings and subsequently hurt. Jessica even refers to Luke as a “beautiful” man who has his job because he can flirt with the local women and keep them around. And like the “innocent” woman the hard-boiled hero tries to keep away from his life, Luke has to become a target sooner or later.

Also notable behind the scenes is the involvement of showrunner Melissa Rosenberg. She’s previously most known for her work on the first four seasons of Dexter, and if you’re aware of that fact, her influence over Jessica Jones is especially apparent. Jones suffers from some of the same issues Dexter did with extraneous subplots and tertiary characters. However, it also employs a similarly effective voice-over device and and a structure that sticks very close to Dexter’s first year. Kilgrave’s shift from a looming traumatic figure into an actual character occurs right around the time the “Ice Truck Killer” is revealed on Dexter, and its transition from a somewhat episodic structure into full serialization occurs at roughly the same point. The parallels are uncanny if you look for them.

As previously mentioned, Jessica Jones isn’t perfect. I was especially irritated at a late-season diversion featuring Will Simpson right in the middle of the hunt for Kilgrave. But it does so many interesting things and features such great characters that it would be a sad series to miss. Marvel’s big-screen adventures are bound to start feeling repetitive eventually, but as long as they have the opportunity to take serious risks on the small-screen, their longevity as a brand should be assured.

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