Jessica Jones (Season 1)

 

If not for the existence of this show, I would have never heard of the Marvel comic character Jessica Jones. Thus, on the surface my interest in the show wasn't too high. However, I really enjoyed the Daredevil series on Netflix, and after reading a bit more about the Defenders and the reviews of the show, I decided to give it a watch. In fact, I decided to watch through the entire Defenders series of shows from Netflix (now on Disney+). I'll be publishing blog posts about each season as I progress through them. For now, however, let's focus on Jessica Jones: Season 1. I want to specifically focus on Jessica herself and the main villain, Kilgrave. 

As I mentioned above, I knew nothing about Jessica Jones prior to watching the first season. From reading a few reviews, I learned that she is a private investigator, but that was the extent of my knowledge of her. The show starts with her working as a private investigator, seemingly catching people in affairs and a bit down on her luck. She also seems to have a bit of an alcohol issue, and no apparent super powers, which makes her significantly different than any other Marvel superhero I've encountered. I kind of liked the change in pace. As the season progresses, the layers of the onion are slowly peeled away and we learn about what makes up the complicated person who is Jessica Jones. Her family died in a car wreck that may have been at least partially her fault. She was then adopted by a showbiz family who didn't treat her well. She then encountered Kilgrave, who controlled her psychologically and was the icing on the cake in terms of explaining Jessica's personality and actions. We do learn along the way that she does have some superpowers, namely the ability to jump higher than normal and she's quite strong. She's a dark, complicated character, and like I said, I enjoyed the change from the normal superhero routine that this show provided.

Kilgrave was also a new character to me. For the first few episodes, he is only mentioned but not seen. It becomes apparent that he had a major negative impact on Jessica, and his hidden visual identity adds to the mystery of the character. His super power is that he can control people's minds, and when I first heard this I thought it was pretty lame. However, when I saw his power in action I changed my tune. He can walk up to people and tell them to do anything, like stab yourself 100 times, and they will do it. It's similar to a Jedi mind trick (this is even referenced at one point of the show, like Obi-Wan but less cool), except that Kilgrave is evil. The show turns into a psychological thriller, more akin to a Stephen King novel than a Marvel comic, because Kilgrave haunts Jessica with his powers while she tries to figure out a way to stop him. One of the main issues that Jessica struggles with is how to prove that Kilgrave can control people's minds. Who would believe that? Kilgrave is probably the scariest Marvel villain I've come across. His ability is much scarier than being super strong or being able to fly. The amount of damage he can do by controlling people's minds is absurd.

The show itself starts and ends the season strong. The middle few episodes are a bit slow paced. There is something incredibly frustrating when the good guys have the bad guy trapped, and instead of just killing him they let him go, which is what happens in the middle section of the season. But beyond that frustration the first season did a good job of setting up the story and characters overall. The cast is quite amazing as well, and includes appearances by Rosario Dawson as Claire, the nurse from Daredevil, as well as Luke Cage. Kilgrave is played by Dr. Who, and Carrie-Anne Moss plays a big role as well. Rachel Taylor (seen below) plays Jessica's best friend Trish. And of course, Jessica is played by Krysten Ritter.