Too Bad "Jessica Jones" Wasn't As Intersting As The Villain

Jessica Jones (2015)

TV-MA

Created by Melissa Rosenberg

Starring Krysten Ritter, David Tennant, Rachael Taylor, Eka Darville, Carrie-Anne Moss, Wil Traval, Mike Colter

The Story:

Jessica Jones (Ritter) is a former superhero who has hung up the costume and now uses her powers as a detective in the hopes of making ends meet. Her troubled past is never far behind, and she tries to keep those demons at bay by continually hitting the bottle, hard. However, when she learns that Kilgrave, (Tennant) the man with the power to make people do whatever he says, is back in town, Jessica vows to stop him, by any means necessary.

The latest from Marvel and their collaboration with Netflix did not disappoint many rabid fans who devoured this show immediately upon its arrival.

I'm still not the world's biggest binge watching fan, mostly because I have more important things to do with my life than power through 6, 8, 12 or more episodes of anything all at once.

I'll get to the end of the season when I'm darn good and ready, quit rushing me.

:)

I'm sure there are many fans that loved this show much more than I did.

For the record, I didn't hate it, but I was troubled by certain aspects of it.

It came across very much like the comic, Alias, that inspired this show. I gave up on that comic early in its run as well. I didn't really care for the MAX line of comics. It seemed like an odd way to shove sex, language and more graphic violence into mainstream comics.

Now, adult situations are one thing, but doing those things for the sake of pushing the envelope as a "look what we can do now" sense of storytelling, I find that boring.

And that's where I fell with most of this series.

There were some pacing issues with Daredevil, but at least things were happening and people were getting killed, so there was always a sense of moving forward with the storyline.

With Jessica Jones, this storyline could have easily been resolved in 8 episodes, 10 tops, so it began to feel padded and dragging as the storyline went along.

Another issue I had with this one is that I liked just about every character in the story...

Except the main character.

Just like in the comics, Jessica Jones comes across cold and not very likeable. Couple her with Hogarth (Moss) and you've got a tandem of the most powerful, yet unlikeable characters in the Marvel universe.

Thankfully, I was interested in the majority of the supporting cast from the series. I'm looking forward to seeing Luke Cage (Colter) get his own series, and hopefully team up with Iron Fist to make the Heroes for Hire. Then there's Trish Walker (Taylor) who I hope will be suiting up as Hellcat by the time The Defenders rolls across Netflix.

Even Malcom (Darville) was a more interesting, well rounded supporting character and I looked forward to seeing what happened to him next.

However, the very thing I praised Daredevil for doing, Jessica Jones made the cardinal mistake of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and killed the villain at the end.

Oops.

Spoiler alert.

Sorry.

:)

Tennant's Kilgrave was the best part of the show, and he could have been a force to be reckoned with (especially against the Defenders) at a later point. Maybe enough to even bridge to the cinematic universe as well.

I've often said that the hero is often only as good as their villain. In this instance, that didn't pan out.

I'd love to watch a Kilgrave series where he tried to reform (Thunderbolts?) but sometimes failed and reverted to his evil ways.

Plus, while we should have hated Kilgrave with ever fiber of our being, the show ended up painting him into a rather sympathetic corner. Really, his powers weren't his fault, and yes, knowing what he had the power to do, he could easily make his choices less gruesome and final.

But still, they lost a great character and actor that would have been fun to have pop up again.

Is it Kilgrave messing with people...or are they really making these decisions on their own.

So many possibilities.

Flushed.

I'm curious when Marvel will realize that they've only got a finite amount of characters. They keep killing them off at the end of every movie and show, eventually they'll run out.

Not the best way to run a long-term strategy with the shows/movies.

Anyway, it wasn't terrible, by any means, but it also could have been so much better.

Or shorter.

Final Grade: B-