mostly positive dithering about Jessica Jones

[pocochina]

Jessica Jones is pretty good. I have some reservations about it, and a bit of discomfort with fandom fawning over it, but mostly, it is pretty good.

Comments

[obsessive_a101]

Interesting review! It's on my to-watch list (not surprising considering the Marvel fangirl that I've been since childhood), but this gives me some context for a show that mostly, I've just been spammed on tumblr about. :3

[pocochina]

Totally worth a shot, at least, from the perspective of someone who doesn't know anything about the Jessica Jones comic books. It's a little bit of a heavy watch, but it's solid.

[rose_griffes]

Good point about Kilgrave and the abusive background being... mitigated, I guess, by the illness his parents were trying to treat. Although it would be interesting to delve into it from an ethical science/medical POV, because basically NONE of what the parents were doing would be okay. There may be more room for shades of gray coming up for the parents in that storyline with the HSG? whatever those letters were? stuff that's probably coming later. Although I doubt they'll actually go in that direction (making Kevin's parents deliberately evil), but who knows? The show surprised me more than once with what they were willing to do with the narrative.

[pocochina]

it would be interesting to delve into it from an ethical science/medical POV, because basically NONE of what the parents were doing would be okay.

Oh, totally. They were abusing him regardless. Personally, I got the sense that they were exaggerating the prognosis on his condition in telling the story, in order to make themselves look good. Like, I think he probably had a rare condition which hypothetically could have killed him, and they spun that into a story which they thought justified their doing what they wanted to do anyway. But they are the characters who get the last word on his childhood, so the show lets it stand as "being abused doesn't excuse his behavior BUT ALSO he was never actually abused!" which is a dicey conflation of a few different things on which the show is otherwise very effective and clear.

[lynnenne]

I'm only halfway through the season, but I'm loving it. I really like your observation that "difficult women are acceptable, as long as we can assume they'll grow out of it." Jessica is already grown up, and she's still a mess. I love that she can be as fucked up as she is and still be the hero of the story, doing brave things even as she hurts the people around her.

[pocochina]

It's something I've kind of vaguely considered lately, but it really clicked into focus when watching Jessica Jones because I was mentally flipping though my frame of reference and realizing that I really didn't know where to put her? The Veronica Mars comparison is totally legit, but she's a teen. You could compare her to Kara Thrace, but Starbuck was one of a core of central characters, it wasn't her individual story. Or you could compare her to Faith, who is both teen and supporting character. When you move to adult female protagonists, though, they get a lot more cleaned up. Admittedly I've only watched a couple of seasons of Xena, but she comes across as pretty balanced and heroic overall. Peggy Carter, same. I feel like the comfortable stories would have been a) Trish as the protagonist or b) Jessica pre-Kilgrave as the protagonist. And it's refreshing that the show has done something a little different in this regard, giving us Jessica with all of her jagged edges.

[sunclouds33]

Cool review! I'm only halfway through S1 because I'm watching with a friend. However, I agree with basically everything you wrote. I think certain fans really like the moral clarity of One Bad Irredeemable Dude and a disproportional amount of praise that I've read for Jessica Jones is about how Kilgrave Doesn't! Get! An! Out! Bad Irredeemable Dudes are fine by me- plenty of good drama to be mined from a solo antagonist, working mainly alone (but for the people he mentally rapes) who has no extenuating circumstances that remotely soften or justify him. However, I don't make a *virtue* out of that or think it's better than a grey antagonist or broader societal concerns as the baddies

[pocochina]

Now that I'm talking around the show, I think the biggest issue is that it would have benefited from being 10 episodes instead of 13. The back half of the season isn't bad? Just the story overall could have used the tightening up.

I think certain fans really like the moral clarity of One Bad Irredeemable Dude and a disproportional amount of praise that I've read for Jessica Jones is about how Kilgrave Doesn't! Get! An! Out!

Yeah, and it ultimately leaves me uneasy, even if IMO the choice of making Kilgrave 100% despicable worked for the show.

IA about the ~vibe from Krysten Ritter. Jessica has that magnetism about her.

[pocochina]

Assuming fandom hype/rage is off-base is usually a good instinct, lbr. But fortunately this show's pretty solid. Also hello! <33