So with Marvel's upcoming Luke Cage series that'll be debuting on Netflix this week, over the last few days I finally got the chance to sit down and watch Jessica Jones for the very first time in anticipation. As a pretty huge Marvel fan who had already watched the first two seasons of Daredevil beforehand, it's something I'd planned on doing for the longest time, only to keep getting distracted. But after starting the first episode a couple of days ago, I basically binge-watched the entire series, having only just finished the season finale yesterday.
In terms of first impressions, I feel there's a lot to like about Jessica Jones, both in regards to the show as a whole and its titular character. Much like with Daredevil, through the television format...the show gets to tell a much more mature and nuanced story in comparison to Marvel's usual, much flashier fare...with the story mostly revolving around Jessica trying to make a living as a private detective in the much grimier districts of Hell's Kitchen, whilst at the same time trying to come to terms with the traumas of her past, most of which revolves around the show's primary antagonist, the ever elusive Kilgrave, a super-powered being with the ability to control the minds of everyone around him in the most unsettling of ways.
Focusing first on the positives....I felt Krysten Ritter was fantastic in the role of Jessica and proved to be a great bit of casting, bringing the right kind of sardonic, low-key to the character, investing her with just the right balance of strength and underlying vulnerability. Additionally, I felt that David Tennant did a decent job as the series primary antagonist, with Kilgrave in my opinion easily being the most creepiest and generally most well-rounded villain to grace the Marvel Universe to date. There's so much in regards to what Kilgrave can do with his powers that makes him so unnerving and terrifying, with the character such a unique challenge in a superhero world, and for the most part, I felt he proved to be a fascinating villain, even if at points I felt like the show could have utilized his powers a little more creatively outside of
Although I enjoyed the first few episodes of the show however, I couldn't help but feel that the show really lost its focus at around the mid-point of the season, suffering from some really lethargic pacing and muddled plotting. Perhaps in an effort to stretch out it's 13 episode run, the main plot seemed to come to a lot of abrupt starts and stops, whilst juggling a wide variety of different subplots, some of which didn't really work for me and some of which just seemed to get abruptly dropped and quickly ignored. (SPOILERS)
A lot of the time, the show reminded me of a group of theatre actors having to quickly improvise dialogue to keep their audience entertained whilst the set is getting quietly re-arranged in the background just behind them. Indeed, sometimes the show felt like it was almost stalling, which became a little frustrating to me as a viewer and was the point where I found myself losing a bit of my interest in the overall story.
Additionally, for me as a viewer, I felt one of the main failings of the show was in the weakness of its supporting cast, because although I cared about Jessica, I didn't really find myself caring about the people who happened to surround her. Take for example Hogarth, who's character basically consists of Carrie-Anne Moss seeming to stand around boardroom-like settings and reciting her lines in as monotone a fashion as humanely possible. Why are we spending so much time following this character and her upcoming divorce? Why should I care? To a lesser extent, I felt the same way about Trish and Malcom, never finding myself particularly invested in their individual stories. Even Luke Cage, who appears here for the first time as a means of setting up his own show, didn't really seem to get used in the story in a particularly compelling fashion. All in all, I felt the other characters and their individual subplots left a lot to be desired.
Still, I enjoyed my time with Jessica Jones....certainly more than I hoped, given some of the negative impressions I'd been reading for the show online. With certain characters out of the way by the time of its final episode, I wonder how the show will continue forward for Season 2, but with any luck the show will only manage to improve over time. If you haven't watched the show yet, as a first time watcher, I would certainly recommend checking it out, if at least for the first few episodes before things seem to dip a little downhill.
I'm really interested in what other people thought of the show, now that it's been almost a year since its debut. How did you guys find it? Feel free to share your thoughts!
In terms of first impressions, I feel there's a lot to like about Jessica Jones, both in regards to the show as a whole and its titular character. Much like with Daredevil, through the television format...the show gets to tell a much more mature and nuanced story in comparison to Marvel's usual, much flashier fare...with the story mostly revolving around Jessica trying to make a living as a private detective in the much grimier districts of Hell's Kitchen, whilst at the same time trying to come to terms with the traumas of her past, most of which revolves around the show's primary antagonist, the ever elusive Kilgrave, a super-powered being with the ability to control the minds of everyone around him in the most unsettling of ways.
Focusing first on the positives....I felt Krysten Ritter was fantastic in the role of Jessica and proved to be a great bit of casting, bringing the right kind of sardonic, low-key to the character, investing her with just the right balance of strength and underlying vulnerability. Additionally, I felt that David Tennant did a decent job as the series primary antagonist, with Kilgrave in my opinion easily being the most creepiest and generally most well-rounded villain to grace the Marvel Universe to date. There's so much in regards to what Kilgrave can do with his powers that makes him so unnerving and terrifying, with the character such a unique challenge in a superhero world, and for the most part, I felt he proved to be a fascinating villain, even if at points I felt like the show could have utilized his powers a little more creatively outside of
Kilgrave constantly asking people to kill themselves to distract Jessica whenever the going got tough so he could make his escape.
Although I enjoyed the first few episodes of the show however, I couldn't help but feel that the show really lost its focus at around the mid-point of the season, suffering from some really lethargic pacing and muddled plotting. Perhaps in an effort to stretch out it's 13 episode run, the main plot seemed to come to a lot of abrupt starts and stops, whilst juggling a wide variety of different subplots, some of which didn't really work for me and some of which just seemed to get abruptly dropped and quickly ignored. (SPOILERS)
What happened to Jessica vowing to find dirt on Hogarth's ex for her upcoming divorce settlement? What happened to Simpson and his pill-popping conspiracy group? What happened to slowly building a legal case against the Purple Man (ie. the main plotline of the season?
Additionally, for me as a viewer, I felt one of the main failings of the show was in the weakness of its supporting cast, because although I cared about Jessica, I didn't really find myself caring about the people who happened to surround her. Take for example Hogarth, who's character basically consists of Carrie-Anne Moss seeming to stand around boardroom-like settings and reciting her lines in as monotone a fashion as humanely possible. Why are we spending so much time following this character and her upcoming divorce? Why should I care? To a lesser extent, I felt the same way about Trish and Malcom, never finding myself particularly invested in their individual stories. Even Luke Cage, who appears here for the first time as a means of setting up his own show, didn't really seem to get used in the story in a particularly compelling fashion. All in all, I felt the other characters and their individual subplots left a lot to be desired.
Still, I enjoyed my time with Jessica Jones....certainly more than I hoped, given some of the negative impressions I'd been reading for the show online. With certain characters out of the way by the time of its final episode, I wonder how the show will continue forward for Season 2, but with any luck the show will only manage to improve over time. If you haven't watched the show yet, as a first time watcher, I would certainly recommend checking it out, if at least for the first few episodes before things seem to dip a little downhill.
I'm really interested in what other people thought of the show, now that it's been almost a year since its debut. How did you guys find it? Feel free to share your thoughts!
Also getting reeeeeeal sick of never seeing Avengers tower in the New York City skyline in these Netflix shows, Marvel.
