(Among his targets is a classical musician who he forces to play for him.) But while he’s a formidable opponent for Jessica, he’s not exactly a worthy one, in the sense of being in any way admirable. This worthwhile addition to the Marvel Universe is a fresh perspective on what a superhero show can be, invoking a much darker feel than Netflix’s Daredevil series.
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This post discusses the first season of “Marvel’s Jessica Jones” in detail.
Krysten Ritter stars in “Marvel’s Jessica Jones” on Netflix. Jessica’s “squad” consists of her on-off BFF Trish, a cop, her fierce boss and the junkie neighbour.
The heart of this episode is the relationship between Trish and Jessica. Generally, of course, you have to be tried and convicted as such-it’s not like they’ll fly you out to the most expensive incarceration unit in the country instead of sending you to Riker’s for the night until your arraignment. Like the video game, the comic book has different versions of characters fans know and love taking on familiar villains while being the pawns of something bigger. While Kilgrave sexually abuses only some of his victims, his ability to take away their free will lets Jessica Jones stage interesting conversations about consent, who can lose it and what it means to have been deprived of your agency.
Jones fights as many emotional battles as hand-to-hand ones, but the show never sinks to the level of melodrama. Jessica is allowed to have flaws, so this wouldn’t bother me on its own, except that the show hasn’t bothered to develop Pam as a character in general, so Jessica’s dismissiveness isn’t really challenged. You could make the argument that she could easily be swapped with a man and it would have had no impact on the show at all outside of reducing the queer representation.
As far as the next show, Iron Fist, is concerned, it is the one that we know the least about. She’s also a private detective with a drinking problem and a traumatic past. Unlike Jeri, they’re both blondes.
It’s Friday again and if you’re not out trying to score a new big screen TV or some other deal fro Black Friday, we’ve got something for you: a new episode of The Flickcast! Wow, that’s some extensive queer representation there! “It suggests that this universe is one that values its characters as more than mere spectacle”.
Jessica herself is traumatized, but so is the city in which she lives. Even more so, this is Hell’s Kitchen. Writing multifaceted antagonists without making excuses for their behavior or exempting them of responsibility is hard, and Jessica Jones accomplishes it masterfully.
Jessica moves into her old home with Kilgrave, which he has restored into a ideal replica of the time she lived there. This isn’t a demand for more representation than we deserve. Jessica is tormented by her past and her actions towards Wendy Hogarth shows that while she strives to be a good person and do the right thing, she is aware of the repercussions of her actions and what they may do. Ritter also pointed out that one could not kick in skinny, skinny jeans. If anything, her eventual escape makes Jessica feel worse about the things that she did under Kilgrave’s influence and the fact that she wasn’t able to shake off his control over her sooner.
So not only do we have little queer representation, the representation we get drops from three characters total to two. We’re back to the comics, where Jessica CAN fly.
In general, the isolation of “Daredevil” and other Netflix/Marvel shows is a positive as it delivers a self-serving storyline that does not rely too heavily on the popularity of other creations.
It probably won’t take very long for Marvel and Netflix to announce Jessica Jones season 2. The Avengers sleep like babies thinking that they “saved the city” without any thought to all the people who become collateral damage.
To our horror, Jones obliges, cracking what may be her first smile of the series, a toothy, empty grin that reminds audiences how narrow the distance is between a smile and a grimace and introduces us instantly to the most innocuous and incisive cultural critique that Marvel television has launched to date. What’s up with that?
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Joe Corallo is a queer cisgender white guy who tries to keep his privilege in check while residing in Queens, NY.
