Series Review: Jessica Jones


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WARNING: SPOILER ALERT. 

While DC has been churning out a large quantity of series (Arrow and others), Marvel has banded together with Netflix to create really gritty TV series such as Daredevil and Jessica Jones. The topic of discussion today is the latter.

The Premise

The show centers around Jessica Jones, a private investigator who has super strength and jumping abilites. She is haunted by her PTSD of an encounter with Killgrave, a murderous psychopathic stalking rapist with the ability to control minds, even though she seemingly killed him in a bus crash. However, she recently discovers that a case involving a "voluntarily" kidnapped girl leads to the revelation that her stalker is, in fact, alive and very pissed off.




The Plot

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of this series as it was a mainly linear plot. It was like watching a 13 hour long movie but it was a bit more satisfying. As a thriller it worked because it was extremely scary in its realism. The idea of a stalker with so much power taking interest in you sounds extremely thrilling in an absolutely terrifying way. The realism in characters such as Jessica's PTSD from her previous experience with Killgrave makes the whole story very unsettling. There are also plenty of twists and turns in the story which may make you question the motives of various characters and the story as a whole. The plot, with its extended running time, allows for a lot of development of characters in the story while not forsaking any time for actual storytelling. There is a romantic subplot but a very realistic approach is taken towards it. Basically, like most real life romances, it doesn't end very well.

The Characters



Jessica Jones is an interesting character. She is the traditional strong female lead but she is broken. Which is a very realistic take on the otherwise overdone trope. She has superpowers but those don't save her from her traumatic episodes.




Killgrave, played by David Tennant of Dr Who fame, is one of the craziest, most sadistic characters in all existing media. He is manipulative and even tries to manipulate the audiences by introducing a sop story about child abuse and experimentation when his parents were just trying to save him. He is detestable in every possible aspect because even when he 'tries' to be good, he is still bad in his own twisted way. Killgrave is just... evil. The scariest part about his character is that he is most likely the reality for many women out there in the real world (well, minus the superpowers) and that is why Tennant (who plays the role really well) scares the crap out of most audiences.



Luke Cage, a Marvel favourite, is also introduced in this series. His super power is unbreakable skin. He serves as the love interest for the titular character and frequent sex partner. However, just like most romances, it ends badly. Jessica Jones murdered Luke Cage's wife under the influence of Killgrave and this guilt eventually eats away at the relationship with its breaking point being Cage knowing that the person he was sleeping with was, in fact, the cause of a lot of his torment, his wife's killer. Killgrave eventually gains control of Mr. Cage and creates an amazing fight scene between the girl with the strength of many and the man with unbreakable skin. This is kind of similar to the concept of "An Unstoppable Force meeting an Immovable Object".

Cinematography



The filming and editing of this series was extremely well done. The director used different hues to convey various messages throughout the series, allowing for unsettling scenes to be downright disturbing at points. However, the pacing for the first few episodes can be extremely slow.


Message


There are surprisingly useful messages at play in the narrative. There was an episode where people attempt to shoot and kill Jessica Jones due of the amount of prejudice for Gifteds because of the amount of fear associated. This shows that sometimes people fear what they don't understand and the fear can manifest into rage or destruction. This sort of fear can be applied to any minority group such as the KKKs to the blacks or the "Christians" to the homosexuals.


Speaking of homosexuality, there is a very prominent homosexual relationship in the story, it is treated like a heterosexual relationship, it is just.. there. It is a very bad relationship, mainly because the people involved in the relationship are despicable but that is kind of like any heterosexual relationship. There are always good and bad.

TL;DR

Jessica Jones is one of Marvel's best properties. It is one of the scariest thrillers while working well as a superhero origin story. The characters are mostly strong, especially the villain. Although, it may be a little slow at first, it is because the story wants you to immerse yourself in the environment for a bit before hitting you with a brick. 9.8/10

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Sean Wang  
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