After the tragic events in Paris last
week, I felt doing Deadshot’s Villain Profile would be in poor taste. So he’s
going to be shelved for a few weeks, until things die down a bit. The question,
then, was what to do next? Imagine my shock when I learned that Jessica Jones premiered last night. I
honestly thought I had until the 25th do to the Jessica Jones Theme
Week. How silly of me. Since I can’t do a buildup hype week, I decided to try
something a little different, and try doing a V-Log, in a sense. By V-Log, I
mean a Viewer Log, an episode-by-episode summary of the series, and my thoughts
on it. Why am I not doing an actual, Video Log? Because I don’t really have the
video editing equipment for it, and I find I’m better on the page than in
person. If this goes well, I may do others but we’ll see.
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| Simple but effective. |
I’ve never done a V-Log style post
before, so please bear with me as I figure out the formula. First, a short
episode summary. We open with Jessica Jones beginning a PI. She follows folks
taking incriminating pictures of their illicit acts, delivers subpoenas, gets
paid, gets stiffed, and narrates her own life. You know, usual PI stuff. We see
her working on three cases in the first episode, delivering a subpoena on
behalf of a law firm, taking pictures of a man we later learn is Luke Cage, and
then is hired by the Shlottmens who are looking for their daughter, Hope.
Subpoena case ends with Jessica lifting the back of the guy’s car off its
wheels and threatening him with her non-existent laser eyes. The Cage case is
still open, but Jessica makes some headway and “gets to know” the guy she’s
kind of stalking. Bow chika wow wow. The Shlottmen case is significantly more
complex, as Jessica learns that her former abuser Kilgrave is involved. She gets
Hope out of the same room in the same hotel that she used to stay in with
Kilgrave, he’s a creature of habit, but things only get more complicated from
there.
Jessica
Jones is an interesting look at the life of superhumans in the Marvel
Universe. We see Jessica, not in a spandex costume fighting equally oddly clad
villains, but someone trying very hard to avoid that life and even using her
powers. Largely. There’s a pretty good bit where she uses her Super Strength
and her heel to get her upstairs neighbors to shut up. Jessica, portrayed by
Krysten Ritter, is a sort of sarcastic, pretends-to-hate-everyone sort of character.
One of the better character moments is when she’s continually forced to help
out her neighbor, Malcom, who is usually so high that it’s amazing he’s can
find his way back to the right floor of their apartment complex. She is also
clearly suffering from a form of PTSD, and is self-medicating with a LOT of
booze. Which leads us into the villain
of the season, Kilgrave.
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| She's really, really, really paranoid. |
Kilgrave, portrayed by David
Tennant, makes only a few small appearances in this first episode, in
flashbacks as Jessica rebuilds Hope’s last few weeks, and in Jessica’s PTSD flashbacks.
In the comics, Kilgrave is also known as the Purple Man. His skin was permanently
dyed when he was in the accident that gave him his mind-control powers. Tennant
is not purple in the show, but whenever Jessica remembers him using his powers
on her, or in a room clearly associated with Kilgrave, the cinematographer uses
a lot of purples and blues in the lighting. And while Kilgrave only appears
sparingly, you do get a sense of what a sick twisted SOB he is. One flashback
has Jessica remembering Kilgrave licking her face, gross, and when we’re
introduced to Hope Shlottmen, she’s lying on her bed in the hotel staring at
the clock because Kilgrave told her not to move until he returned. It’s a
simple, but dark moment.
The ensemble cast is also really
good. Mike Colter is excellent as Luke Cage. The character is only briefly
shown, but Colter and Ritter have a great chemistry. Colter’s Cage is a bit
more reserved than the character I know from other Marvel franchises, but it
doesn’t really detract from the character. We also spend a bit of time with
Jessica’s oldest and only friend, Patricia “Trish” Walker portrayed by Rachel
Taylor. Trish is a radio talk show host. We really only see her long enough to
know that she’s pretty well off, knows Jessica had a very terrible experience
with Kilgrave, and knows Jessica well enough to loan her a lot of money without
asking questions. While only shown briefly in this first episode, the two
clearly have a semi-sisterly bond that works really well.
Overall, this episode was an
excellent start to Jessica Jones. I
wouldn’t say it’s as good as the first Daredevil
episode, but good enough that I want to watch the second episode and see
where the story’s going. Like Daredevil,
this show looks like it’s going to be very gritty and semi-realistic. You know,
as realistic as a world with the Hulk, Iron-Man and Captain America can be.
Jessica is clearly a character that is picking up the pieces of her life and
trying to figure out what the heck she wants. It should make for an interesting
series.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/Jessica_Jones_Netflix.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/01/Krysten_Ritter_as_Jessica_Jones.jpg
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