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Update: November 26, 2015
Dragonlord's Review of Marvel's JESSICA JONES (Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Despite a darker theme and a more mature content, Marvel and Netflix's sophomore outing is tedious to finish with the plot going around in circles and overall poor execution.
Krysten Ritter plays the titular character who works as a private investigator and has enhanced physical abilities. She buries herself in her work and booze, trying to distance herself from her traumatic past. But when she takes on a case of a missing girl, Hope, Jessica discovers her former tormentor is still alive and more fixated in making her life miserable.
The first episode was pretty good. It establishes the main character, her PTSD, her alcoholism and her acerbic personality. We're also introduced to a variety of interesting supporting characters. The main villain Kilgrave (David Tennant) is briefly seen but his creepy, ominous presence is felt throughout. The show is also not shy of depicting risque sex scenes. The shocking ending to the first episode hooks you in with promises of greatness to come. Sadly, it never comes to fruition.
The whole series revolves around Kilgrave and makes the error of placing too much emphasis on the character. Every plot, direction and action Jessica takes is tied up to Kilgrave. This is a huge error on the show's part as the overall writing is not that strong to support the entire series. They should have thrown in 3 to 4 interesting random cases for Jessica to investigate as it would have been a nice change of pace and kept viewers from a burnout of too much Killgrave.
Jessica spends most of the series trying to capture Kilgrave and find proof of his powers to exonerate Hope for killing her parents, which also shackles the show. If you're like me, you'll quickly spot patterns of repetitiveness and retreads halfway through which makes viewing very tedious. This is most obvious when Kilgrave gets captured, escapes, and then gets captured and escapes again in the span of two episodes.
But when they killed Hope in episode 10, it just gets irritating. Hope was a frail shield used by the show to justify all the complicated hullabaloo on why Jessica just doesn't kill Kilgrave. Viewers had to endure tiresome scenarios one after another just so Kilgrave gets to live and escape. An acquitted Hope at the end was supposed to be the viewers' reward for suffering through all the drivel. Ultimately, Hope was just a flimsy plot device to drag the series to episode 11 where Jessica finally decides to kill Kilgrave if she sees him again.
Krysten Ritter gives a good dramatic performance as Jessica Jones but I felt that there are others who could have portrayed the character better (Sarah Shahi's Sameen Shaw but with a few tweaks in Person of Interest comes to mind). Not really relevant to the quality of the show but Jessica's wardrobe of leather jacket, jeans and boots gets wearisome to look at after a while. And going off topic altogether, I find Krysten to be not bad-looking but off-putting at the same time. Krysten's sleepy eyes and unappealing voice just doesn't click with me. Her beauty and cranky personality are very similar to Aubrey Plaza and Kat Dennings, which all three actresses are more suited to the snarky sidekick supporting roles.
Speaking of support, David Tennant is marvelously charismatic as Kilgrave but his character becomes increasingly pathetic as we get to learn more about him in which he is just revealed to be a manboy stalker. Rachael Taylor is solid as Jessica's best friend, Trish Walker (who is the superhero Hellcat in the comics). Carrie-Ann Moss is terrific as Attorney Jeri Hogarth, unfortunately she's underwritten and too much screen time is devoted to her divorce. Didn't really care about the junkie neighbor Malcolm.
Mike Colter looks great as Luke Cage. The show obviously (to me anyways) gave Luke a makeover to make him more of a romantic leading man, making him more soft-spoken, refined and profound. Unfortunately, his personality is a bit dull also. Though it was extremely coincidental that the cop Kilgrave ordered to kill Trish also happened to be part of a secret government program for enhanced combatants, I like Wil Traval as Will Simpson (Nuke as he is known in the comics).
The overall writing is shaky and the pacing is uneven at times but these can be overlooked or covered up if the action was good. Unfortunately, most of the action is limited to Jessica blandly shoving and tossing people around the room. The production values are good but there's just a sense of staleness when the scenery and other major action pieces keep reverting back to Jessica's office.
Overall, Marvel's Jessica Jones started out strong but falls apart midway due to the plot going around in circles and overall poor execution. If you want to see a superb Marvel female-led show, watch the criminally underrated season one of Agent Carter.
Rating: 6/10
Dragonlord's Review of Marvel's JESSICA JONES (Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Despite a darker theme and a more mature content, Marvel and Netflix's sophomore outing is tedious to finish with the plot going around in circles and overall poor execution.
Krysten Ritter plays the titular character who works as a private investigator and has enhanced physical abilities. She buries herself in her work and booze, trying to distance herself from her traumatic past. But when she takes on a case of a missing girl, Hope, Jessica discovers her former tormentor is still alive and more fixated in making her life miserable.
The first episode was pretty good. It establishes the main character, her PTSD, her alcoholism and her acerbic personality. We're also introduced to a variety of interesting supporting characters. The main villain Kilgrave (David Tennant) is briefly seen but his creepy, ominous presence is felt throughout. The show is also not shy of depicting risque sex scenes. The shocking ending to the first episode hooks you in with promises of greatness to come. Sadly, it never comes to fruition.
The whole series revolves around Kilgrave and makes the error of placing too much emphasis on the character. Every plot, direction and action Jessica takes is tied up to Kilgrave. This is a huge error on the show's part as the overall writing is not that strong to support the entire series. They should have thrown in 3 to 4 interesting random cases for Jessica to investigate as it would have been a nice change of pace and kept viewers from a burnout of too much Killgrave.
Jessica spends most of the series trying to capture Kilgrave and find proof of his powers to exonerate Hope for killing her parents, which also shackles the show. If you're like me, you'll quickly spot patterns of repetitiveness and retreads halfway through which makes viewing very tedious. This is most obvious when Kilgrave gets captured, escapes, and then gets captured and escapes again in the span of two episodes.
But when they killed Hope in episode 10, it just gets irritating. Hope was a frail shield used by the show to justify all the complicated hullabaloo on why Jessica just doesn't kill Kilgrave. Viewers had to endure tiresome scenarios one after another just so Kilgrave gets to live and escape. An acquitted Hope at the end was supposed to be the viewers' reward for suffering through all the drivel. Ultimately, Hope was just a flimsy plot device to drag the series to episode 11 where Jessica finally decides to kill Kilgrave if she sees him again.
Krysten Ritter gives a good dramatic performance as Jessica Jones but I felt that there are others who could have portrayed the character better (Sarah Shahi's Sameen Shaw but with a few tweaks in Person of Interest comes to mind). Not really relevant to the quality of the show but Jessica's wardrobe of leather jacket, jeans and boots gets wearisome to look at after a while. And going off topic altogether, I find Krysten to be not bad-looking but off-putting at the same time. Krysten's sleepy eyes and unappealing voice just doesn't click with me. Her beauty and cranky personality are very similar to Aubrey Plaza and Kat Dennings, which all three actresses are more suited to the snarky sidekick supporting roles.
Speaking of support, David Tennant is marvelously charismatic as Kilgrave but his character becomes increasingly pathetic as we get to learn more about him in which he is just revealed to be a manboy stalker. Rachael Taylor is solid as Jessica's best friend, Trish Walker (who is the superhero Hellcat in the comics). Carrie-Ann Moss is terrific as Attorney Jeri Hogarth, unfortunately she's underwritten and too much screen time is devoted to her divorce. Didn't really care about the junkie neighbor Malcolm.
Mike Colter looks great as Luke Cage. The show obviously (to me anyways) gave Luke a makeover to make him more of a romantic leading man, making him more soft-spoken, refined and profound. Unfortunately, his personality is a bit dull also. Though it was extremely coincidental that the cop Kilgrave ordered to kill Trish also happened to be part of a secret government program for enhanced combatants, I like Wil Traval as Will Simpson (Nuke as he is known in the comics).
The overall writing is shaky and the pacing is uneven at times but these can be overlooked or covered up if the action was good. Unfortunately, most of the action is limited to Jessica blandly shoving and tossing people around the room. The production values are good but there's just a sense of staleness when the scenery and other major action pieces keep reverting back to Jessica's office.
Overall, Marvel's Jessica Jones started out strong but falls apart midway due to the plot going around in circles and overall poor execution. If you want to see a superb Marvel female-led show, watch the criminally underrated season one of Agent Carter.
Rating: 6/10