Article originally published as JESSICA JONES Review on Seat42F.
The following review is very light on spoilers, so please read on!
After the success of MARVEL’S DAREDEVIL
last spring, many have waited with bated breath for the next installment
in the studio’s Netflix
universe. It arrives this Friday in the form of JESSICA JONES, a noir
detective series that gets a lot darker and a lot scarier than anything
Marvel has done before. And, as one might expect, it is excellent.
JESSICA JONES begins with the titular
character (Krysten Ritter, Breaking Bad, Don’t Trust the B-) working as a
private eye in Hell’s Kitchen. As is familiar to the archetype, Jessica
is a hard-drinker, trying to escape demons from her past, while being
excellent at her job. This feels a bit like Veronica Mars, a show Ritter
did an arc in, and viewers think they know what they’re getting.
Not even a full hour in, though, JESSICA
JONES takes a twist into new territory. It isn’t that the show abandons
the early tone or style; it still infuses what comes after. But while
the series begins rooted in a genre we’ve seen before, it expands the
horizons of those bearing witness to the proceedings in short order.
Part of this is because JESSICA JONES is
kind of a horror show. Kilgrave, a.k.a. The Purple Man (David Tennant,
Doctor Who, Broadchurch), is the scariest villain I’ve ever seen in the
superhero realm, and what he does is more disturbing than the fare fans
are used to. This is not a Marvel series appropriate to watch with the
kiddos. Instead, it features what appears to be an unstoppable bad guy
who does things far worse than simple violence permits, making for a
premise that will send chills up and down and back up your spine. He is
terrifying.
Jessica also has a very rich backstory
that is barely teased in the initial episode. We know she has undergone
some trauma; that’s clear from the way she lives her life, trying to get
past something that has scarred her soul. But the more we learn about
her, the more it makes sense that she’s this screwed up. Some characters
have reasons for doing destructive things and we forgive them for it,
but for Jessica to even continue existing in the world as she does makes
her far stronger and resilient than your average person.
This means Jessica’s abilities are not
limited to the physical. Her superpowers are not the point of JESSICA
JONES, and we get them in small doses, not showy sequences. It’s not
even immediately clear what she can do, other than lift cars and jump
high. Yet, those aren’t the most impressive things about her, which is a
departure for a comic book adaptation.
Jessica isn’t alone in her world, much
as she usually acts like she wants to be. She has a sort-of boss, Jeryn
Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss, The Matrix, Vegas), an estranged friend,
Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor, Grey’s Anatomy, Crisis), and a neighbor
without boundaries, Malcolm (Eka Darville, The Originals). She also
(sort of) meets a bartender by the name of Luke Cage (Mike Colter, The
Good Wife) who is probably more compatible with her than either expects,
and who will be headlining the third Marvel Netflix series next year.
Given the pedigree of the cast, made up
almost entirely of actors I already admire and respect, it’s not a
surprise that the performances are every bit as excellent as the
production. Ritter has needed a vehicle to show her ranger for awhile,
and this is it. Tennant completely transforms into a monster
unrecognizable, and I’ll never watch him the same way again. The scenes
with Colter already have me excited for his turn in the lead. This is
high quality television period, not just for its genre or when compared
to its peers, but across the entire spectrum. I would posit it is the
pinnacle of everything Marvel has done thus far, and a promise of
continued greatness.
All thirteen episodes of JESSICA JONES’
freshman run will be live on Netflix this Friday. I recommend you watch
as many as you can this weekend, lest you be lost when your friends and
co-workers are talking about this on Monday, as they most definitely
will be.
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