Jessica Jones

[selenak]

Reader, I binge watched. Of course I did.

Non-spoilery summation for comic book readers familiar with Alias: matches the noir detective tone perfectly (they even kept the first person narration, which in this case I think is crucial for said tone), uses elements from the comics but remixes them plus adds new elements, so even if you've read

Comments

[kernezelda]

I'm halfway through, so won't read your review until after, but I love the show so much already. I'm impressed, and pleased, and feel more attached to it than to the equally well-done Daredevil, both of which feel grounded in realism and character building rather fight scenes as the main focus.

[selenak]

Enjoy the rest! In a being put through the emotional wrencher way. :)

[kernezelda]

I just finished. Wow. I am so impressed. There were so many women, and all of them were people, not props. Hogarth wasn't sympathetic, but she was strong and driven and could love. I really enjoyed that her falling out of love with her wife and falling in love with her secretary was the exact scenario we so often see for powerful, middle-aged men. I loved Pam, who was competent and starry-eyed at once, until she saw exactly how far Jeri was willing to go. I loved Trish, oh, I loved Trish the best of all, and that she and Jessica were sisters by adoption and family by choice. As you say, even when Jessica was being a jerk, fulfilling the narrative that a hero must walk alone/target must self-isolate to prevent harm to loved ones, which is the same complex every protagonist seems to have to go through. But that Trish didn't give up, and that Trish was a competent, strong woman who fought and overcame not a lot of physical threats, but emotional ones, is such a wonderful character element. Even Robyn, weird and unsympathetic as she was,

[selenak]

All the rich variety of women was truly a gift. Which, btw, I had no problem with Jeri's storyline at all. If Jeri had been the ONLY woman, or the only other than Jessica woman, it might have been different. But no. That's why it's so important you don't have just one or two female characters around, who then get taken as representatives of the entire gender/orientation. Whereas the women of Jessica Jones can be themselves. Jeri's a legal shark, and a middle aged about-to-be-divorced person, which makes a statement about no one else than Jeri Hogarth. And she's getting exactly the same type of storyline she'd get as a male character.

"How can we help?" and Malcolm saying it was such a great line to end the season with. (Nerdish sidenote: I seem to recall a conversation between Edith Keeler and James T. Kirk in City at the Edge of Forever where a line like this is called... hang on, I'll look up the exact quote... ah:
" Let me help." A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He

[angevin2]

I'm not usually into the MCU at all -- I came on board for David Tennant, and I wasn't disappointed. Holy hell, he can be scary when he wants to be. (Also, now I want to see him play Richard III. Now that he's been the perfect Richard II of my heart. That scene in the police station made me think of Richard III's seduction of Lady Anne, except that Kilgrave was being sincere, insofar as he could be, and also it didn't, you know, work.) What a good show this was. :D

(also, the accent disparity re: Manchester was fine, I thought -- the Thompsons were professors, after all, and academic jobs have little to do with where you're originally from!)

[selenak]

I'd seen (and heard, on audio) David Tennant play villains before, but never one like Kilgrave. Sign me on for the Richard III hope.

Good point re: academics.

[herself_nyc]

Saving this in a tab for when I've watched it, which I much look forward to.

[reverancepavane]

One of nice things about David Tennant's portrayal of Kilgrave is it shows exactly how he is really as much a victim of his own powers as anyone else. [Although the inability to make real human contact explains why he became a monster (and infatuated with the first person to resist them), it does not excuse it.]

[selenak]

I think he got across that Kilgrave is what happens if you give a child the ability to utterly control the reality and everyone around him. (And that child isn't Charles Xavier. Though btw, my suspicion that 99% of children if you gave them mind control power would turn into evil sociopaths is why in my headcanon the telepathy Charles has a child isn't as strong yet, which fits with what we see in other mutants - their powers grow as they age.) And the warped childlike nature that results from it - the whole playing house thing with Jessica very much had that aura. At the same time, the show and DT's performance also made it clear Kilgrave is 100% responsible for his actions, and that his perception of reality is utter bs. (It didn't even need the visual counterpoint of his memory vs Jessica's memory to point that out, but it underscored it. Kilgrave recalling a romantic kiss and utterly editing out he almost made her cut her ear off basically sums up the entire relationship in one event.)

[reverancepavane]

Hi behaviour is classic spoiled child. Right down to the tantrums when he can't get his way.

People simply aren't real to him. They are ephemeral.

[angevin2]

He's basically the adult version of the kid from the Twilight Zone who wishes people into the cornfield! Who is also more or less a normal kid who wants normal kid things, but that's what makes that episode so scary. And in both cases the parents are absolutely at a loss (one of the things I loved about the handling of Kilgrave's backstory was its complexity, like in the way his parents were presented, and the way his own version of his past wasn't exactly what had happened, but Tennant's performance suggested that it was how he interpreted what had happened, rather than just him being deliberately manipulative. And yet, as Selena says, the show rightly never lets him off the hook for it

[rose_griffes]

Powering through it now (close to the end! but also need sleep!), and not averse to spoilers. They're actually a bit of a cushion; I don't have any particular background trauma, but it's kinda helpful anyway to get a sense of where everything is going when so much is very grim indeed.

Hogarth's storyline has ended up being a surprise favorite of mine--I don't like her at all (which she wouldn't care about anyway), but the way her character's drive and actions tied into the events worked really well. Better than the brother-sister of Jessica's apartment building; creepy-weird with incestuous vibes isn't a requirement for being determined and angry about your brother's death; I wish they'd done something different with those two. Ah well.

[selenak]

Re. Robyn and Ruben (the twins): this seems to be a fandom majority opinion, but I disagree, in as much as it worked for me. One of the key differences in this show between villain(s) and heroes is that EVERY life counts, has worth and dignity. Yes, the twins are weird and off putting, but Ruben doesn't deserve to be murdered, and Robyn grieves just as much as a sympahetic person would. And I love that Malcolm's arc of recovery, to become the man helping people he wanted to be pre Kilgrave, happens not just via him aiding Jessica, as it would in most other shows, but very much via him being there for Robyn, who isn't likeable at all (and whose flaws aren't "cute") but who really needs help.

[angevin2]

I actually did end up kind of liking Robyn! She and her brother were clearly better off with some distance, except of course there was no healthy way for that to happen.

[rose_griffes]

Having finished, I do like Robyn's story a bit more. But I still side-eye the hints at an abusive relationship between Robyn and Ruben, since it wasn't called out as abuse, nor was Ruben ever given any offer of help. Unlike the abusive relationships that haunt the women on the show.