TV SHOW REVIEW
Marvel’s Jessica Jones redefines female superhero tropes with ease
Decoding the nonconventional character Jessica in understanding evolving superhero/superhuman female characters
If you are a fan of Marvel TV shows you know about Jessica Jones already, it is one of Marvel’s famous superhero shows on Netflix where the protagonist is of the same name. The show is quite action-packed, it has 3 seasons of which this article will be a critical gaze and deconstruction of season 1 of the show.
Jessica Jones is a good show despite some very visible flaws we see in how the show has been put together with its rough edits, and bad transitions in displaying Jessica’s qualities. Despite a few oddities, the show’s problems in displaying the external abilities of Jessica are compensated for by the stellar display of internal attributes of the character. She is projected as dark, introverted, brazen, just, interrogative, and a booze-loving superlady.
The good, bad, and the ugly
Jessica Jones ‘A character behind a journey’
Just like any other show this piece of Marvel content has its winning moments, moments of defeat, and also moments of loss. But I need to say that the show might not have the charm of Daredevil, or complexity or gore like The Punisher; it has power, and action, albeit toned down but still, it's there. Jessica here, played by Kristen Ritter justifies this role eloquently in catching the grain of the Marvel Comics character of Jessica Jones, she is shown as a vulnerable, often pessimist in most cases, straightforward or forefronting character here; but also balances her attributes of vulnerability, her quest for love, her inkling to have parents, and her wanting companion and friends.
The arc of Jessica is so well done, she is built in this solid base of nonconformism where she does not initially even maintain contact with her sister Trish Walker. Jessica was Trish’s adoptee sister. Trish is a Radio Jockey who has a show called ‘Trish Talk’. Jessica was having trouble with a villain Kigrave who has the power to convince people to do anything. For instance, he could order a person he does not like to shoot themselves and they will. The complex relationship between her and Kilgrave gets established the moment she checks in to a restaurant for an investigation on a case. Jessica did Personal Investigator (PI) work, and the company that she operated from her home was called ‘Alias Investigations’.
The flashbacks give us a glimpse of Jessica having a loving relationship with him but it turns out not so, and Kilgrave was using her power for his selfish motives. Jessica while searching for a missing girl named Hope had her doubts affirmed, pushing her down the drain and path of despair, as her flashbacks with Kilgrave came back flooding inside her consciousness. She knew that moment Hope was with Kilgrave and he was manipulating Hope.
Jessica, at first, in bouts of fear, tried to warn Hope’s parents to run from New York, and she went to Trish to arrange money for her to move to a desolate city far away from Kilgrave, but instead, she chose to stay. She initially found Hope in a hotel and she forcibly picked her up to bring back to her parents against her will as Hope was still under Kilgrave’s spell. At first, Hope appeared apologetic about her actions, and Jessica thought she was genuine with her apologies, and out of Kilgrave’s mind manipulation trap. The minute she went inside with her parents in the elevator while leaving Jessica’s residence she started shooting her parents. When Jessica hears gunshots she runs downstairs and sees Hope crying on one side and her parents soaked in blood dead on the other side as the elevator opens. Hope becomes a guiding force for Jessica to take down Kilgrave at the end of the show. Hope was taken to jail by the police where she was charged with murder for killing her parents. The cementing relationship with Trish Jessica has, and the way she attaches value to better Hope’s life and gives her justice paints a fragile and sensitive facet of strong Jessica’s personality.
Jessica and Luke Cage
Jessica parted ways with Kilgrave after his last mind-manipulation tactic with her where he orders her to kill a woman who turns out to be Luke Cage’s wife, she killed her. Jessica develops feelings for Luke and often shows her vulnerable side to him, and she loves him because she committed the crime of killing his wife. However, their relationship could not flourish after Luke finds it was Jessica who killed his wife. After following an alleged killer presuming him to have killed his wife when trying to kill him Luke got stopped by Jessica, and she confessed that she was the one who killed his wife.
They however meet and reunite again, after Luke gets a taste of Kilgrave’s powers. But then Luke was again manipulated and Jessica saved herself by firing at Luke’s skull with a shotgun. Luke was also a Marvel superhero, he is strong, bullets can’t penetrate him and his skin does not get affected by anything. These different dimensions of what Jessica was, and her realistic interwoven personality sparkling on the screen, and adding to her dark and dry humor, her brazenness added texture to her personality and smooth tonality to her character enriched the show.
The interconnected Marvel TV SHOW Universe
Just like we saw Jessica Jones’s references come up on Marvel’s Daredevil TV show, we also saw the appearance of Foggy aka Franklin Nelson in Jessica Jones, who was a subordinate of Jeri. Jeri herself was an accomplished popular lawyer, who gave Jessica detective work to do. It was Jeri who was representing Hope, and Jessica convinced her to represent Hope. The entire events that were unfurling occurred in Hell’s Kitchen which was again a common spot for all Marvel universes. Daredevil was there to fight Wilson Fisk, Jessica was there to fight Kilgrave, and Frank aka the Punisher went there to kill criminals, yet all of them did not know each other. The interspersal attributes of Marvel’s TV shows become conveniently ignorant about this integration process of narratives when it matters. There was no mention of Frank, nor Matt Murdock aka ‘Daredevil’s’ presence.
Jessica Jones’s problematic edits and scene transitions
The show Jessica Jones has great character acting, impressioning the archetype of Jessica on Krysten, but it somehow does a lousy work of displaying Jessica’s qualities, unlike Luke Cage, another superhero/superhuman character where we can see every bit of frame when he attacks and throws people around. Apart from a few instances, Jessica Jones does a bad work of making Krysten convincing on the screen for her physical prowess. The cutting of shots, and the use of jumping shots to show Jessica flew stay true to the Marvel comics character of Jessica Jones, but if they could not show her flying they should not have included that trait or should have shown her fly. Some rough cutting of frames tells you that the action-oriented parts are badly done, and also improperly put together.
Jessica Jones vs Trish Walker
Despite all the love Jessica has for Trish, Trish’s quest for attaining power in 2nd season paved the way for a 1 on 1 conflict between both sisters in 3rd season, Trish also started becoming Hell Cat another Marvel’s superhero character. It is in sharp contrast with how the 1st season ended, how Trish and Jessica together with their combined mental tactics, lured Kilgrave to reveal himself to Jessica and Jessica snapped his neck in seconds, killing him.
Jessica Jones in the list of Marvel’s best TV shows
Jessica Jones S1 is packed with drama, chaos, murder, deceit, science experiments, etc. Jessica and Luke’s action-packed episodes keep you sticking your eyes to the screens. But it lacks finesse in certain areas, it looks very untidily put together sometimes, but the protagonist and her sister’s acting helps in the story’s progression.
Jeri Hogarth, Jessica’s powerful lawyer friend shows a sinister side and helps Kilgrave escape the first time Jessica captures him inside a glass box showing him footage of his childhood when his parents performed experiments on him. She does that after Jessica fails to collect leverage on her wife who was blackmailing Jeri at that point regarding her law practice and in demand asked for 70% of their collective assets.
Jeri’s lack of empathy when her extramarital sexual partner gets to jail for saving her from her separated wife who tried to kill her with 100 cuts just because Kilgrave said so, her extramarital partner killed Jeri’s separated wife seeing her trying to cut Jeri 100 times, which the partner did to save her, was left out to dry by Jeri. Malcolm the drug addict which Kilgrave used to get Jessica’s photos, and him fighting the battle of drugs with Jessica’s help packs another layer. All the characters and their interspersal with Jessica Jones on her show, project her convincing personality of being able to relate to a diverse range of personalities and offer them help in tough times.
Final say
On the whole, I feel Jessica Jones, is quintessentially a different female superhero-centric show where the character gets built on a strong footing but also makes comfort happen for herself. She navigates life like a human facing everything a normal person faces, and also comparing it to other shows has its problems considering Jessica’s intents and wants are very different from that of Frank aka The Punisher, and Matt aka Daredevil.
Jessica’s intent of being the helping hand is not the same as Frank's wanting to kill every criminal in the world or Daredevil acting as protector of Hell’s Kitchen. She does what she does because she has a guilt that she lost her biological parents because of her own mistake, in season 2 Alysa Jones, another superhuman, mother of Jessica reiterated that wasn’t the case.
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