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| Phase 1 of Netflix's Marvel Cinematic Universe |
On Friday November 20th the second series in Netflix's Marvel Super Heroes line-up debuted A.K.A. JESSICA JONES. Who? That's a Marvel super hero? Okay, a quick rundown for you: Jessica Jones a.k.a. JEWEL a.k.a. KNIGHTRESS a.k.a. POWER WOMAN first appeared in the comic book ALIAS #1 in November 2001 (making her one of the most recent Marvel creations to receive big budget film treatment). The comic book was a Marvel MAX titled which featured explicit content. Jessica Jones was created by acclaimed comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos.
Her super powers are flight, super strength, super speed, invulnerability, and she's smart. Oh yeah, and she's hot too. Basically she's just another generic comic book character. During her 15 years of existence she's almost exclusively been written by Bendis. She has married Luke Cage, given birth to their daughter, and joined the Avengers. Despite Bendis's pushing this character to the mainstream frontlines of Marvel she is still basically a D-List hero in the world of comics. In fact most of the characters purposed for Netflix's Defenders are B-List heroes at best save for Daredevil. Jessica Jones may be a D-Lister but she has received A-List treatment thanks to Netflix.
THE PLOT (spoiler alert)
Jessica Jones is a freelance private detective running her own business, ALIAS INVESTIGATIONS. She's a borderline alcoholic, lost in a sea of guilt, and trying to put her life back together. One day she receives a knock at the door. Two worried parents from Omaha, Nebraska have come to New York City to look for their wayward college student daughter, Hope. They were referenced to Jessica by a man at the local police precinct. Jessica knows no one at that precinct and has doubts about the case. Reluctantly she accepts.
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| Notice Avengers Tower in the background? |
Jessica starts uncovering clues about Hope's whereabouts and events that led up to her disappearance. The events are strikingly similar to something that happened to her 18 months earlier. A man dressed in a purple suit calling himself KILGRAVE took control of Jessica with only a word. Jessica couldn't control herself. Something about his words compelled her to do whatever he wanted. He forced her to be with him and even forced her to kill. The moment she killed she somehow broke free of his control. As she walked away from him into the street a bus rounded the corner. It overturned to avoid hitting her and hit him instead. Jessica thought Kilgrave was dead.
Now it seems that Kilgrave has returned and he's after Jessica.
THE GOOD
Gritty and Intense. The show takes a dirty noir approach to the story much like the comic book. The sex scenes are rather awkward and uncomfortable. The main set of Jessica's apartment is in a constant state of disarray. And the violence is brutal and realistic. When your lead villain is a man who can control people's minds the possibilities can be quite horrific and that's just what they are here. If he says to you, "Go stand facing the wall forever," thats exactly what you do until you muscles and legs give out, pants soaked with urine and filled with crap, stomach aching for food, your mind exhausted from not having slept. That's the horrific detail this show goes into and that's only the tip of the iceberg. Even though the "F Bomb" is never dropped, the content of the show is very R rated.
The actors. This show wouldn't be half as good as it is if not for an amazing cast. Krysten Ritter does a good job of portraying an emotionally disturbed and damaged woman trying to work out her problems. She delivers an impressive realistic performance. Supporting cast members Mike Colter and Rachael Taylor shine in their roles as Luke Cage and Patsy Walker. But the real standout performance in this show belongs to David Tennant as The Purple Man a.k.a. Kilgrave. They say a hero is only as strong as their villain. Tennant is evil in a frightening new way. He doesn't see himself as evil and even says as much. He's had the power of mind control ever since he was a kid and it's just normal life to him. He says simple things like "cut her a thousand times" and the reality is incredibly brutal.
Connectivity. Most everyone knows that Marvel Studios is creating a cinematic universe in which all the movies under their banner occur in the same world. What Netflix is doing is the small screen version of this. Not only do their shows tie in with each other but they also occur in the same universe as the big screen films. This, simply put, is awesome. There are several direct references to the events of Avengers and the Chitauri invasion. Jessica practically name drops Hulk and Cap. Then there is the appearance of Rosario Dawson's character, Claire Temple, from Netflix's Daredevil series. With all this connectivity you'd hope Marvel would one day capitalize on it all and give us a movie where the Defenders and the Avengers join forces against a common foe, 'cough' Thanos 'cough' or something. In a perfect world these characters should've been big parts of the upcoming CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR but that film has already wrapped shooting. Oh well.
THE BAD
Fight Sequences. Two of the most standout aspects of the Daredevil series were the rated R content and the fight scenes. Jessica Jones has the R rated content for sure but compared with Daredevil its fight scenes are majorly lacking. First off they're cut together rather choppy and disjointed at points. Even the sound editing for the fight scenes seems either missing or subdued. Then there's Krysten Ritter. Most of the show you only ever see her walking. When you see her run it's almost always a zoomed out shot and very short lived (and her legs fly all over the place as if she didn't really know how to run). Makes me think that Miss Ritter isn't much of a physical actress. Jessica is a physical character in that her powers are purely of the enhanced physical nature. So why on earth would you cast a "non-physical" actress? Maybe it's the fact that the Daredevil fight scenes were so mind-blowing that these fight scenes felt blah by comparison or maybe the directors chosen for the particular episodes didn't know the first thing about directing a fight scene. Your guess is as good as mine.
Who asked for these characters? Out of all of the Marvel stable of characters that have yet to see big screen or small screen appearances who of us had Jessica Jones or Hellcat on the top of their lists? Nuke? I can understand Luke Cage but Purple Man? Don't misunderstand me, all of these characters were amazingly executed in the show but who ever imagined Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) would be playing a gender swapped Jeryn Hogarth instead of a super hero herself? Jeryn Hogarth, by the way, is a long time recurring character from the IRON FIST comic book. I'm just saying that Marvel's heart may be in the right place but their priorities are a little off. I think it's great that we're getting characters like these. My question is "Why?" Why not give us an actual member of the Defenders comic team instead of a completely generic in every way character like Jessica Jones? It's like they'll give any Marvel hero a show nowadays. This gives me hope for a SLEEPWALKER film or TV series. DARKHAWK anyone?
Note: Patsy Walker a.k.a. HELLCAT was an actual member of the Defenders. Marvel would do better to rename the Defenders the HEROES FOR HIRE.
THE VERDICT
Marvel's first female centric show makes landfall and is very well done. The acting is top notch and the writing is well executed too. We're given a cast of characters that, for the most part, no one expected to see but are now glad we did. Jessica Jones's character is practically spot on correct from the comic book as is Luke Cage. Staying faithful to the comics as they did goes a long way to establishing good faith with us comic book nerds. It is character driven rather than revolving around a McGuffin (like almost every Marvel film) and it truly passes the Bechdel Test. Well done, Netflix. You're making us all believe that Netflix is the best place for Marvel.
Oh, and thanks making Kilgrave's skin flash purple (if only for an instant) when he gets the power upgrade.
Overall Ranking: 7 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 0 out of 10
(surprising given that there are a lot of uncomfortable sex scenes)
Be sure to check out Netflix's DAREDEVIL
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