Three episodes in and no Stan Lee cameo. Are you sure this is Marvel?
Oh, and DT. Does that man never shave?
He’s got a bit of a weak chin, and guys with those see facial hair as their friend.
I like the show. I really liked the relationship between Trish and Jessica, which is similar to the one on Supergirl without all the sappiness. CarrieMoss’ character was wonderfully slimy, but it would have been a total cliche played by a straight guy. Tennant was great as Kilgrave, and I liked the character and the way the Netflix Marvel universe exist, with villains not so much diabolical as just damaged people with a bit of power abusing it to get what the want (ironically love, for both Kilgrave and the Kingpin).
I also liked the slightly hostile ambivalence of people to those with superpowers, like the client who lost her mother during Avengers I or the people at the hospital, the support group for Kilgrave’s victims. In a world like the Marvelverse, anyone with powers is bad news. The villains might kill you or your loved ones, destroy your home, office, neighborhood, city, who knows, but the good guys leave destruction in their wake as well. As Jessica herself says: “People like us don’t make good renters.” Her brutalized apartment is almost a character in itself.
One minor gripe, similar to other shows: the verbal gymnastics used to avoid name-dropping other heroes in thr Marvel universe. Someone knows Daredevil but never says Daredevil, the Avengers as “that green guy or the flag guy.” Jessica is asked how she got her powers with no mention of the possibility she’s a mutant. It gets silly.
Looking foreward to Luke Cage.
Agreed, although I haven’t watched SG to see how it handles relationships between women. I like that Trish and Jessica are both very strong women who are working out issues within their context of being good friends.
Between the complexity of Carrie-Anne Moss’ Hogarth - her sliminess and her relationship plots, etc. - and the relationships between JJ, Trish, Trish’s mother, etc. - there is a very rich set of women’s perspectives that are obviously not merely set-ups for male characters. It is notable in how they all just play out and move the plot forward in a sort of unremarkable sort of way.
Actually, although she referred to Banner as “the green guy”, she referred to Captain America as “the flag waver” which I found much funnier than “flag guy” and actually tellingly dismissive/belittling.
It may be verbal gymnastics on the part of the writers but I think it’s done in a genuine attempt to figure out how real life superheroes might be referred to in their world by regular everyday people.
On Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. they from time to time refer to the individual Avengers by name and it just sounds …sanctimonious (which, I think is character appropriate for those particular characters). They almost sound like fans, almost like their palms would get sweaty if they had the chance to meet Bruce Banner, that they’d ask Tony Stark for his autograph. The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters almost sound like this, and it’s established that there are plenty of people who actually cross the line to being fans who exalt these heroes. In the very first episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s established that only months after the “Battle of New York” there is already a line of toy action figures.
For people who do not exalt the Avengers, I see it as perfectly realistic that they’d use phrases that knock them down a few notches. Compare how people who respect a particular President might say “The President” or “President Bush”/“President Obama” whereas someone who does not hold him in high esteem might say “Bush”/“Obama”. Fans might say “Jennifer Lawrence is going to be on The Tonight Show tonight,” whereas someone else might say “The chick from Hunger Games” is going to be on The Tonight Show tonight."
The problem with any of your ideas is that Jessica’s main goal until late in the season was to get Kilgrave to show his powers and confess to controlling Hope on video or in front of a credible witness, so they could help Hope avoid spending the rest of her life in jail for murdering her parents. That would be impossible if you broke Kilgrave’s jaw or ripped out his larynx.
No such thing as a mutant in the MCU.
And if she were an Inhuman (which they seem to be using in place of mutants on AoS) she’d remember going into a fucking stone cocoon and coming out superstrong.
They’re also keeping the shows pretty compartmentalized. I don’t think we’ll be hearing too much about Inhumans outside of AoS until the movie.
And really, the general feeling they’re giving with MCU is that there’s lot of people with powers coming out of the woodwork these days, not just Inhumans. Cap offhandedly mentions they’ve fought other “enhanced” people near the beginning of Age of Ultron.
Quoting myself prior to seeing any episodes. I feel like this is true: the show is willing to do very heavy scenes and violence - Kilgrave is childishly evil as he makes people do violence against themselves and others - but I am not losing the sense that ultimately, the Good Guys Win. It is heavy, but isn’t trying to get Christopher Nolan-style lofty, literate and dark. We’ll see.
Anyone else see more episodes? It is getting very positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes - is that a credible source for rating these full-release series?
I personally don’t consider Rotten Tomatoes useful except as the most general of guides, but if you’re interested the AV Club did a binge-watch-and-short-review of every episode ( they’re also doing a longer, more leisurely set of reviews as well ). Overall I’ve seen specific criticisms, but no generally bad reviews anywhere.
Having finished the series my main complaints are hyper-focus ( too much Kilgrave, too early ) and not enough material to really fill 13 episodes - there was some drag and narrative stretching. I’ve seen those same complaints echoed elsewhere. Nonetheless it is really well done. The relationship between Jessica and Trish alone is worth the price of admission. Not only does the friendship seem unforced and very real, it’s nice to see the supporting non-super be such a fully realized character. I heartily enjoyed the series and hope they bring it back.
Thanks: Here’s the link to the root article for the AVClub Binge Watch - it seems to have links to each per-episode entry: http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/were-binge-watching-marvels-jessica-jones-228685
Well, he doesn’t really need to talk to be able to confess. In fact, if he could talk during his confession, there probably wouldn’t be any confession.
And regarding the credible witness thing, in episode 7 (pause to wait for people to stop reading that aren’t as far and don’t want some minor spoiler), he holds up an entire police station. It’s been established that people remember what happens during their being controlled—hence, the support group. So there’s witnesses galore.
That said, I’ve just watched episode 8, and I think it’s the best so far. Really good writing, giving Kilgrave some at least plausible trajectory to explain how he got to where, and who, he is, while all the while not falling into the trap of making him sympathetic. He’s clearly a monster, and yet you can kinda see why. Plus the moral dilemma of using somebody evil to do good. I’ve been complaining about too much artificial drama in other shows; well, this one is delivering real drama in spades.
I think a more realistic take (and a more fun one) would be to do an analog to minor celebrities. “You’ve got superpowers, huh? Hey, you know Iron Man? What’s he really like? No, huh? What about Spider-Man? Saw him once, you know. He was swinging over midtown. i was taking the kids to see…”
I thought it was pretty silly for Pam to be in trouble over killing Wendy, that was as open and shut as it gets. I doubt she would have even been arrested.
I agree. I think they are trying to give you the impression that she is so pissed that she ended up going to jail because she accepted inadequate legal counsel… But that’s kinda thin. That whole storyline ended up being a bit unsatisfying. So did the Trish and Simpson storyline, which sort of exploded then fizzled. Otherwise though I really loved the show. I just finished it last night and I found it to be really rock solid overall.
Hate to dump on the guy, but the actor playing Simpson really seemed like he was not up to the level of the rest of the main cast. Either that or his direction was awful ( his character didn’t really have sterling writing for sure ). It’s a plot that could have worked and I think the Trish character carried it fairly well, but…fizzle indeed.
Did anyone else find it annoying that it didn’t occur to the characters until the last episode to approach Kilgrave while wearing earphones?
Well, also that in the “18 seconds” that Jessica was free of Kilgrave on that balcony, why she didn’t immediately throw him over the ledge?
I have to say that after Jessica said Trish had “unbreakable will” in the last (or second to last) episode, I was watching the scene where they took out Kilgrave and expecting it to turn out that he COULD control Jessica… but not Trish. And Trish would take him out.
18 seconds isn’t that long. She was basically in shock and fantasizing about escaping. Her thoughts were probably largely “wait… I’m… I’m free? Can I escape? Is… is this real?” She just couldn’t process it after being under control for so long.
I didn’t mind the Simpson storyline fizzling out since I figure they’re just introducing him so that audiences will feel some kind of history with the character when he’s brought back with his own supervillain plot in a later season.
I was really on the edge of my seat wishing and hoping at the end of the final Simpson fight, after Trish had joined in the fight, I really thought there was an opportunity to give Jessica a line, completely naturally, to say something to the effect of “Wow, you’re really quite the Hellcat, aren’t you!” But, alas, it was not meant to be.
I knew to expect a Rosario Dawson cameo but that was way more than a cameo! That was a full-on major guest star role! Loved it. I thought she and Ritter were great together and I really like the Claire character. I’m glad they put her to good use.
Finished with the series now and I loved it. When I was only partway through, I mentioned that I was already enjoying it much more than Daredevil and, since it held up in quality all the way to the end, my fondness for the series has only grown. I’m really looking forward to the Luke Cage series.
Your “Hellcat” line would’ve sounded great coming from David Tennant. 
I continue to really enjoy this.