Jessica Jones Review

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR JESSICA JONES LAY IN WAIT, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!
Also, when I get to the bad section it's more like a rant.**

After Daredevil, I wasn't really looking forward to Jessica Jones. Luke Cage I was moderately interested in, but what I was (and still am) super duper psyched to watch Iron Fist. Jessica Jones was one of those comic characters that I was shocked that I a.) didn't know (and I'm a massive comic reader/fan) and b.) that they decided to pick a character that wasn't screaming for their own series to have their own series. Then the trailer hit, and I was sold.

THE GOOD:
David Tennant got my attention during his Doctor Who days, and since then I feel like I've been seeing him everywhere. He was fantastic in Broadchurch, and when I heard his voice taunting to Jessica in the teaser trailer I knew that I was going to be giving Jessica Jones my full attention. And you know what? David Tennant fans will not be disappointed.

In fact I believe that this whole show had some good acting in it, but what really fell through for me was the story. But I won't get into the pseudo-rant just yet, I want to focus on the positives right now. Just like Daredevil, Jessica Jones brings the grittiness in this Marvel-Netflix Universe. There isn't as much blood and action as Daredevil, but the show does focus on adult themes that I thought was a good risk to try. The main character, Jessica Jones, is an alcoholic dealing with rape, and PTSD basically. This is a superhero show for God's sake and we're actually going to deal with real world issues? Sign me up! Sadly that created more problems for me which I'll get to later.

One of the characters I knew that would be in it was Luke Cage, who comic fans will know as Jessica Jones' husband, but what I didn't expect was just how much of Luke Cage was in this. Mike Colter, who plays Luke Cage, is an unknown to me but once he was on screen it was instant yes for me. This dude embodied Luke Cage, and I actually think that every episode he's in the show felt like it was raised another level, and I think my favorite episodes are when he's on screen too. I initially thought he was just going to be in maybe three episodes top, but I'd say he was in a great deal of this show (as he should be to develop his relationship with Jessica). He was so effective that when the next episode didn't have him I felt like the show decreased in quality somehow. I felt like a piece was missing.

Another thing that I assumed they maybe might do, but wouldn't have the balls (hehe) to really do, is a sex scene. Boy was I wrong, because not only are there more than one sex scene in this show, but it's fast, rough, and raw. Heck you can even see some side boob action! Once Jessica and Luke realize that they don't need to hold back on their powers during sex it was like another world.

Then we have my favorite part of this whole series: Kilgrave. Like I said before, David Tennant knocks this role out of the park and can really have fun playing this slimy, twisted, sympathetic psychopath that's not exactly an open book. He stole the scene every time he was on screen, as he should, and the way he was used minimalistic in the beginning was genius so that he felt like a big threat when they finally revealed himself. A lot of people do consider mind control and telepathy as a stupid power, and I'm one of those people, but Jessica Jones was able to really dive into it and explain how terrifying mind control can be. But what makes the character great is how he thinks. He says this a lot, but it's kinda true: he's never killed anyone. He's never left a trail, and he can use his powers to practically do anything, so when he is using his powers he's super nonchalant about it. However, as the show went on, and we were starting to see that there are layers to this character, then it got really interesting. While this power can be really powerful, and he's messed a lot of people up because of it, we learn that he has to be careful with what he says. He has to make sure he doesn't say anything that can mean something else, because he can't turn off his power. Just one misphrase can kill someone, and living like that for pretty much his whole life would definitely put psychological strain on someone.

Like Daredevil, and unlike the Marvel movies, the villain is written really well and very sympathetic, for me (I know a lot of people would disagree). And just like Daredevil, I was rooting for the bad guy because he was A.) more interesting and B.) a hero of his own story. Now in Daredevil, Matt was a hero of his own story, but it just so happened that Kingpin was played and written so much better than him that I felt like Daredevil was the bad guy. In Jessica Jones, there just wasn't anything for me to feel sympathetic or interested in Jessica's story line that I prayed Kilgrave was the main character. When you have a show and you're, or maybe just me, are rooting for the bad guy to be the hero, then you know they're doing something right......but sadly like all things there are some bad shit I have to say about this, and I may get tons of hate for it.

THE BAD:
Let's start off with the characters. I know Jessica is damaged, and we're supposed to feel for her and be on her side, but daaaaamn I really didn't like her character. There was absolutely nothing about her character that made me feel sympathetic towards her.....until the second half where they actually started showing aspects about her that would have made her sympathetic. And this is what baffles me so much, they waited so fucking long to show pre-Kilgrave Jessica, pre-orphan Jessica, and little teen Jessica that was just getting her powers. All of these scenes that they show really made me feel like I could have gotten invested in her arc, but at that point in the series I just didn't give a shit about her anymore. She keeps repeating herself, and pushing people away, accusing pricks and trying to hunt down kilgrave. She spirals more and more out of control, but the problem was that we were introduced to her in the middle of this spiral. I already found her unlikable by the beginning, why did they wait so long to actually show her being happy, to actually show people just how much Kilgrave had changed her or fucked her up. We hear all this bad shit that he did to her, but the only thing we had to compare it was her post-Kilgrave Jessica. Witnessing her cheeriness and actually smiling pre-Kilgrave would have made her transformation into self loathing that much more impactful, and sadly I just thought it was too late and maybe the writers were like "Hm, we totally forgot to put this in, let's do it in the second half."

And then the side characters. So boring. After the first episode I pretty much guessed how everyone would end up, and I got all my predictions right with the exception of that really annoying incestuous girl. And I know she wasn't really having a thing with her brother, but that's all I know her by. She had no fucking arc that was relevant to the overall story, and I am appalled at how much screen time she had. Like Jessica, but worse, her character was instantly unlikable and by the end of the season I felt like there was no reason for me to feel bad that her brother died. It felt like she was glaringly only in the show to make life difficult for Jessica (and that stupid "let's raid Jessica's apartment and free Kilgrave" was one of the most stupidest scenes I've seen in a long time) and possibly to reinforce Malcolm's evolution to good. All she did was bitch and whine for the whole show, oh and cry. She started off as a third tier character, and somehow was treated as an important secondary character by the end. In fact, the episodes she was in were my least favorite ones. And don't even get me started with how she manipulated that support group, there was just no way she had any authority or reasons for them to listen to a stranger that looks like a hippy.

Her brother? Predictably gets killed, but I didn't mind because he was sending major creeper vibes toward Jessica. I seriously thought he would have laced something in the banana bread. As for Malcolm.....he started off as a pointless bland character that became somewhat interesting at the end. I do have to admit that him being Jessica's assistant and helping her out was a nice nod to how she always took care of him at the beginning, but man was he so obvious in the WTF you're working for Kilgrave scheme. Also, that was the shortest time I've ever seen a junkie go cold turkey and be like "Never Again." They could have done a really interesting subplot of him getting away from everything, trying his hardest not to go back to drug use, and yet they didn't. Just like Disney Women marrying their man to be after the first weekend, Malcolm turns from good (trusted) to bad (not trusted) to good again (trusted) in such a quick span of time.

Speaking of subplots, holy shit where did Trish's mother come from? Again, I feel like this should have been addressed earlier, because in the second half of this show it felt like the people making this were so enamored by David Tennant that they forgot about their other characters and are making up for lost time. Seriously, in the second half of this show they introduce a secret military organization, Trish's boyfriend goes rogue, we learn about Jessica's family tragedy, we are hinted at how Jessica got her powers, we learn about Trish's abusive mother, and we're still trying to capture Kilgrave only for him to escape time after time after time! I swear, they must have captured Kilgrave like three times at least and he gets away every time.

What they should have done was focus on the Trish/Jessica relationship and have Kilgrave as a secondary plot thread to it, and then have all the other plot threads under that, because when they "introduced" Trish's mother it was out of left field, and I thought they were just throwing that line in there just or "fleshing out" the character of Trish, only to see that she comes in later and has to do with a big part of the character dynamics on the show. Not only was she abusive to Trish, but she sort of was to Jessica, only seeing her as a money maker. This would have been so interesting, and an intriguing dynamic for the characters with the mother trying to reconnect with her daughter. if they did this at the beginning of the show.

I also thought that there was a lot of waiting around whenever Jessica went on her stakeouts, and while I understand that it's setting up this show as a detective/nior type of feel, I always think that they could have stopped that because it not only felt like it was dragging the show, but they had so much more stuff that they could have focused on and fleshed out instead of watching Jessica sitting on roofs.....this isn't the Daredevil movie where your main character is being angsty on raining rooftops.

And finally, it was such a huge, big, stupid idea to kill David Tennant at the end. Like......what were you thinking? He was the best part of this show and you just killed him? Like that?? He went through all that trouble to get stronger and you kill him? I'm speechless, because he was the most layered character that had so much more potential that you could do with him. For fucks sake whenever he got made his veins turned purple! He almost became the actual Purple Man!! Jessica won't get better after his death, her mental state will take a long time to be repaired, and the smarter move would be to let Kilgrave go and keep him in Marvel's pocket until the next time.

I swear, Jessica Jones was making so many stupid character decisions in the second half. Why in God's name did it make sense for Jessica to allow Trish to come along as she took care of Kilgrave? That felt totally out of character for her, and wouldn't you know it, Kilgrave got to her, surprise surprise.....

Okay, I'm done. I said what I liked about Jessica Jones, and I've said what I didn't like about it. I truly thought that this show was good to begin with, but after seeing the whole series I can only associate the story as a mess. I really do appreciate for what they were going for, and yes it was a risk, I just didn't think they nailed it. Characters were either underdeveloped, unlikable, or just plain old fodder. The second half of the show introduced so many plot threads when it should have been focusing on tying things up, and in the end the only plot thread that really is tied up is Kilgrave. Every other character's arc is still up in the air waiting for season 2 to deal with it. Jessica Jones is a series that I think had the right ideas, but didn't really know how to formulate them. It was like they had all the pieces of the puzzle, but they were just failing at connecting the bigger picture.

RATING:

Burn in Hell, Bad, Okay, Good, Must Watch