If one thing is for certain it is this: Marvel and Netflix is a partnership made in heaven. Being completely free of catering for a young audience, Jessica Jones is the second Marvel show to appear on Netflix which pushes the boundaries totally and consistently. If there was one thing that Marvel was missing it was a strong show based off of a super heroine, and if Season 1 of Jessica Jones is anything to go by then we could be seeing this show return for years and years to come.
Jessica Jones tells the story of the character of the same name, a Private Investigator working in Hell's Kitchen. She's trying to rebuild her life after her previous attempt at being a super hero failed miserably until an evil figure from her past, Kilgrave, comes back into her life. This sends Jessica into a dilemma; she either continues to run away from her past and hope to God her life will gradually repair itself, or she can face her demons head on and bring down Kilgrave once and for all.
Krysten Ritter is terrific as Jessica Jones and her performances stays consistently great episode to episode. One of the biggest advantages I think Netflix Marvel has over the Marvel movies is that it has around 13 hours to flesh out and realise its characters. Unlike Daredevil, which is more of an action-packed crime drama, Jessica Jones is a more calm, meditative story. It's an intense and brilliantly effective character study concentrating on what might be one of the most intriguing characters in the MCU.
Despite the fact Jessica has extraordinary abilities, what is most extraordinary about her is her humanity, what makes her a person. She's rude, she's sarcastic but she's incredibly damaged and haunted by the events of her past from which she is trying to escape. There's a lot of internal conflict consistently raging on in her mind, and I love how Jessica Jones devotes its time to the titular character.
Netflix has also been doing a phenomenal job, unlike the majority of the movies, in creating some of the best villains the MCU has ever seen. Case in point is Kilgrave, played magnificently by the incredibly talented David Tennant who really commits to this role. He's one of the best villains in the MCU by a long stretch. He isn't a Nordic God or a Megalomaniacal robot, he's just a regular guy.
He has an incredible ability to make people do his bidding just by speaking to them. He could take over the world if he wants to, but no. He'd rather use his abilities to psychologically torment Jessica and those associated with her. He's simply a purely evil, sadistic man. But he's also a villain you can connect to and sympathize with as, like you do with Wilson Fisk in Daredevil, you learn about his backstory and find out just why he is as twisted as he is.
Mike Colter is also really good as Luke Cage and I can't wait to see him in his own series, set to be released probably around this time in 2016. He and Krysten Ritter have really organic on-screen chemistry and I love the directions this season took with their relationship. Plus, I was a huge fan of the way the show made you feel as if these 2 characters both connect with each other as they're both outsiders, but at the same time need each other to cope with the bad stuff that has occurred in their pasts.
The show does an excellent job at character building and weaving the plot to fit a 13 episode structure, almost playing out like a 13 hour movie. Even the supporting characters are great in the show. Even if it may feel like a lot of these characters aren't actually necessary to the season's overarching plot (which is Jessica finding peace with herself) they will do in later episodes. Characters which seem to have a minor role will all become relevant at some point.
This naturally brings me on to my only negative of the first season. While I like how all of the supporting cast have relevance with the story, at times in the last couple of episodes it felt like every time it would cut away from the Jessica vs. Kilrgave conflict it was wasting time and dragging out the story with characters who I really didn't want to see at that particular moment in time.
I have to admit that I definitely prefer Daredevil as a show, but I still think Jessica Jones is a great show and I really can't wait to see what they do with season 2. That's because Daredevil is more thrilling and has beautifully filmed action sequences which get my blood pumping every time they start. Jessica Jones is stylistically very different to Daredevil, showing off a more bleak sense of humour, musical choices and so on. Both shows film action very well and both shows do the basic character stuff similarly well. Jessica Jones is more character based than Daredevil is, and it's only a matter of personal preference as to why I prefer it over Jessica Jones.
Which I still think is a great show with a very strong first season. There are some really memorable scenes in this show, ranging from the nail-biting, the disgusting and the comedic. Favourite thrilling scene has got to be the scene in the police station. Most disgusting scene has to be what Kilgrave makes his mother do. The funniest being the bar fight scene in episode 2, where Luke Cage is cracking skulls and beating people up without even trying.
I am a huge fan of the Netflix format of Marvel shows. They don't hold back on the violence, the sex or the language and just go for it. Both of them so far have a great handle on what it would be like for a street level hero to fight their own, personal battles in the wider world of The Avengers. I'm really looking forward to next year, with Daredevil Season 2 and Luke Cage Season 1:
Rating - A-
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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