Marvel's Jessica Jones

I will come clean up front here. Marvel's Jessica Jones is based on one of the very few comic book superheroes in the Marvel family that I have exactly zero knowledge of. Up until this show hit the "coming soon" radar, I'd never even heard of her. In most cases, even if I'm not well versed in a character's lore, I'm usually at least passingly familiar with any character with enough of a following to be a viable big or small screen project. Not this time.

Once I'd learned that this project was in the works, I truly believed that it would be Marvel's first big flop. If I'm not at all aware of the character, being the comic book geek I am, what were the odds that the general public would have any interest in her? I was, however, hoping that Marvel's first ever lady-led live action (Spider-Woman was the very first, albeit animated) superhero television show would be great so as to lead to more female fronted superhero shows down the road. As with all ground breaking moments, it's important that the first be successful or it jeopardizes what might come after.

So how fares the first?

I'd give it a solid B+. It flows well, is generally well written and acted and held my attention for a one day, 13 episode binge. If a show isn't engaging, I often find myself wandering away from a long session like this one but I didn't hit the web much or wander away from the tv without pausing it over the course of the day. Always a good sign.

For those (like me) who come to the show with no knowledge of Jessica Jones here are the crib notes.

Jessica Jones got moderate level superhero powers after her parents died in a car wreck. How or why would be telling. She's Captain America level strong, bullet resistant-ish (maybe) and can jump pretty high and far but can't always stick the landing. Think Buzz Lightyear's "Falling...with style!" but potentially more painful at the end.

She was headed down the superhero route but got side tracked (again, that'd be telling) and we meet her as she retools her life in a new incarnation as a private detective in New York's Hell's Kitchen.

She shares a reality in the comics and the Netflix series that includes Daredevil and at least peripherally, the Avengers.

She doesn't advertise her superpowers but she doesn't wear a costume and doesn't make any great effort to hide them. When folks see her do something extraordinary, she covers with a quip or semi-plausible explanation, usually followed by a quick exit.

What I likes:

The actors. Krysten Ritter and the rest of the cast are uniformly solid. Mike Colter is an excellent choice for Luke Cage and I cannot wait for his series to hit next year. David Tennant is a suitably creepy choice as the villain, Kilgrave, known in the comics as The Purple Man.

The set up. This one has a nice smattering of potential spin off characters like the obvious Luke Cage and the less obvious Nuke, White Tiger and Hellcat. I'd kill for a Hellcat/White Tiger show or at least to see 'em in costume in the Luke Cage show.

The tie ins. Many bits of this show tie nicely to the Daredevil series and even a bit of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. The characters interact with the same cops in the same precinct and some of the same medical staff at the same hospital. These details likely only matter to the geeks like myself but it's nice to know someone cares about our feelings.

The fights. I particularly enjoyed the first time we see Luke Cage engage. Every fight was well done but that one was gold. Sweet Christmas!

What I didn't likes:

The drag. These Netflix shows have been touted as 13 episode shows and produced as such. The story this show told was great but would have been better served over 9 or 10 episodes. Padding the show with the best friend's back story held the narrative back. I hope that Netflix figures out what British drama shows have known for years: Don't try to fit the story to the number of episodes, fit the number of episodes to the story. I'd much rather see a tight 10 episode season of (insert superhero here) than a dragging 13 episode version of that same story. Conversely, if you have a narrative that needs 17 episodes to tell properly, don't jam it into 13.

The friend. I loved the actress playing Patsy Walker and if she ever gets to be Hellcat I'm all over it. The unnecessary addition of the story of the Patsy's childhood stardom and her demon-spawn mother annoyed me as much for its content as the drag on the show's pace.

The villain. David Tennant is incredibly good as Kilgrave. That's the problem. I didn't really dig the fact that the villain's modus operandi (mind control, total and unbreakable) is figuratively and quite often literally rape. While they never show that sort of act on screen (they don't shy away from the consensual type of sex though!), the underlying ugly of the victimization is quite a drain on the psyche of the viewer over the course of 13 episodes. It's not a show for the sensitive among us, despite not being terribly gory or excessively violent for the genre. Mind control sounds trite but seeing its effect repeatedly (compelled suicides, murders, child abandonment and more) on screen is wearing and more than a little depressing. This show will never make a "top ten most uplifting" list.

Overall, a solid outing for a Marvel super-ish hero.

I'd love to give it an A or an A+ given how much I'm rooting (routing?) for Marvel to hit their first female lead show out of the park but I'd be dishonest if I said I was over the moon for it. It's good. Not great. To be fair though, I can't think of a single superhero show that was great in it's first season. The Flash rose to "very good" in season one but even it wasn't "great" at the outset.

Jessica Jones is solid and the noir-esque storytelling sensibility definitely sets it apart from the rest of Marvel's efforts thus far, in a good way. It's a nice puzzle piece fit with the Daredevil show and I have hope that as this corner of the Marvel Universe gets built, we'll see a second, better season of Jessica Jones.