Review: Marvel continues its Netflix hot streak with ‘Jessica Jones’

Marvel’s Jessica Jones is not a superhero show. It’s barely even a Marvel show. It’s a superpower show. It’s a show about what people decide to do with what life gives them.

Jessica Jones is part of Marvel’s new collection of Netflix serials focusing on four different street-level heroes, starting with Daredevil last spring and continuing with upcoming series centered on Luke Cage and Iron Fist. All of these shows take place in the seedy New York City neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, and they share a gritty, moody tone. However, Jessica Jones tells the story of a chapter in Jessica’s superhero life rather than a superhero origin story like in Daredevil.

The series opens with Jessica (Krysten Ritter) working for her private investigation business after an end to her short career as a superhero following a period under the mind control of a mysterious man named Kilgrave (David Tennant). Jessica ends up getting involved with a missing persons case with a connection to Kilgrave, sending her on a hunt with the help of her allies Luke Cage (Mike Colter), Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor), and more characters based on the Alias and Pulse comic books. Each of these characters is so well realized it’s hard to believe the series is only 13 episodes long. They evolve as the viewer gets to know them.

The standout performance by far is David Tennant as the disturbing Kilgrave. He is truly terrifying, but Tennant’s ability to capture his essence will make you want to keep watching to see whom he mind-controls next. Kilgrave can tell you to stand in one position forever and you’ll have no choice but to do it. He can tell you to cut your own arm off and you’ll have to do it. For this reason he is the most threatening villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Tennant pulls it off perfectly. Kilgrave feeds into the show’s overall dark and gritty tone. Jessica Jones is a noir at heart, with a private-eye protagonist and a dark love interest with a mysterious past.

The show has its problems. Some of the characters, like Jessica’s neighbor Robyn (Colby Minifie), are annoying, stubborn, and serve no purpose in Jessica’s quest. The series also slows down towards the end, leaving the finale somewhat unsatisfactory. But don’t let this dissuade you from watching the series. If you follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’ll love its subtle connections to the movies and other shows. It doesn’t need to create its world because it already exists in so many forms; Jessica walks the same streets as Daredevil and the Avengers. Instead of wasting its time with world-building, the show finds out what makes its characters tick, what makes them the way that they are, and how they got to be that way.

This is a story about people getting put into dangerous situations and using whatever they’ve got to make it out. It’s a show about staying alive on our own while protecting the ones we care about.

Read more here: http://www.dailyemerald.com/2015/11/24/review-marvel-continues-its-netflix-hot-streak-with-jessica-jones/
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