Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is a private investigator who happens to have super powers.  She is strong enough to lift a car and tough enough to get up and limp away after being hit by a truck.  Her hard-drinking and generally anti-social personality can be traced to a couple events in her life.  First, her parents and brother were killed in a car accident which she survived and she blames herself.  Second, she had an encounter with a man named Kilgrave (David Tennant) who could mind control anyone to do anything, including murder or suicide.  She was his slave for weeks or months but finally escaped him when he was hit by a bus.  However, during her time with him, she killed a woman and cannot shake the guilt she feels.  Though she is rude and abrasive, Jessica does try to do the right thing.

Jessica is given a case to find a missing girl.  It is soon clear that the girl is Kilgrave's latest involuntary companion.  Somehow, he survived the bus crash.  It becomes Jessica's mission to somehow capture and expose Kilgrave, showing that those who did criminal acts at his behest should not be held responsible.  A tall order indeed.

 

Jessica is not alone in her efforts to stop Kilgrave.  There is Luke Cage (Mike Colter), a man who has unbreakable skin and impressive strength.  Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor) is her adoptive sister and a successful radio host.  Will Simpson is a police officer who Jessica saved after he had been controlled by Kilgrave.  Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) is a lawyer who often needs her services and is roped in to the plot more than she might like.  Often, her allies proved more of a hindrance than a help.

 

The core of the story is great.  Capturing and exposing a man whose words must be obeyed is quite a challenge.  He can assemble an army of loyal followers who will die for him by just giving the command.  However, that story doesn't require a 13 episode season to tell.  Far too often, the story explores the thoughts and feelings of tangential characters who are entirely unlikable; I'm looking at you, Robyn (Colby Minifie)!  On more than one occasion, Jessica has Kilgrave in her power only to have some brainless character like Robyn release him.  Robyn was at the support group where everyone explained how Kilgrave must be obeyed.  Then she comes across Kilgrave, gagged and harmless.  What does she do?  Remove the gag!  Yes, that was a groan inducing moment.  Robyn was given virtually no positive characteristics, making her just an annoying shrew.  Do NOT bring her back for season 2.

Another facet that could have been excised was the lesbian love triangle with support character Jeri Hogarth.  Jeri is already a lawyer - a big negative to likability - and adding her effort to dump her wife for a younger woman, neither of whom is any more likable than Jeri, is mostly a distraction.  However, I did like how this subplot concluded.

 

In the comic, Jessica gains resistance to Kilgrave's commands thanks to some mental tinkering by Jean Grey - one of the great telepaths of Marvel Universe.  In the show, there is no apparent reason.  It is unexplained.

 

The casting of David Tennant as Kilgrave is brilliant.  His years as the bubbly, ever helpful Doctor Who makes him a great choice as villain.  He does a great job being truly vile and yet he is surprisingly charming and even occasionally a sympathetic character.  The brief effort to reform him was one of the best parts of the series.

 

It is made very clear that Daredevil and Jessica Jones inhabit the same Marvel Universe and there are cross-over characters.  Clair (Rosario Dawson) was a regular on Daredevil and shows up here.  Jeri Hogarth appeared in Daredevil with a job offer for Foggy Nelson.  There will be a Luke Cage series and an Ironfist series before they all get together as The Defenders.  I do like that the heroes aren't saving the world, just this part of Manhattan.

 

Not as good as Daredevil Season 1 but about comparable with Season 2.  Worth watching.