I’m waaaay behind the times, I know, but I just finished watching this for the second time and I wanted to talk about it.
Wow, great show. I really didn’t expect to like it so much. Krysten Ritter, amazing, really.
And the whole story, a kind of metaphor for rape and victim-blaming, very powerful, very appropriate for our time.
And I loved the limited use of superpowers. Obviously, Kilgrave’s mind-control power was the main one. Jessica had some fighting ability, and Luke has, what is it, unbreakable skin? But not much more than that.
I really liked the recasting of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel as child star/talk show host Trish Parker. Very well constructed character for Jessica’s best friend.
Luke Cage — good character, and very good way of showing Jessica’s attraction for and growing feelings for him. I was also quite impressed by the fairly explicit interracial sexuality here, and how it was not done in a trashy, exploitative, or gratuitous way.
I’m concerned about how next season is going to go, with Luke Cage getting his own series. It doesn’t seem like it will be possible to keep him playing the same kind of supporting role for Jessica.
I thought the way the Purple Man was translated into Kilgrave. The Purple Man in the book is more of a classic comic villain, but Kilgrave, you could really understand his pathology—not that it made you feel sorry for him—but it really gave you a feel of “what would happen to a person’s character if this thing happened to him?” kind of speculative fiction.
I also liked how the show went there instead of shying away from it in the book, in which the Purple Man only made Jessica watch him have sex with other women. That was a cop-out.
Most movies and television these days really shy away from the idea of abortion being a valid choice for a woman, but here was a serious presentation of the issue that we usually just squawk about in political conversations.
One big complaint—Jeri Hogarth really shouldn’t be capable of making such stupid decisions. And Pam’s whole “not until you’re divorced” thing? Eh, not so believable. It was either incongruously fastidious or too outrageously manipulative.
But the end of Pam’s arc was good, how she got to see how Jeri let her down just like Wendy said she would. But I do think the show Hogarth is a much more interesting character than the book Hogarth.
Malcolm’s arc. Really well handled, and the revelation happened at the right time.
So many moments showing how thoroughly Kilgore was intruding into Jessica’s personal boundaries—and then he occupies the one thing that was her last emotional refuge—devastating!
The whole thing with Officer Simpson and his performance-enhancing drugs I could have done without. And Will Traval is the only actor in the show whose performance wasn’t top-notch.
Oscar’s death seemed uncomfortably close to the “black guy dies” trope, like Ben Urich in Daredevil.
I liked the crossover of Nurse Claire (Rosario Dawson!) and Officer Brett from Daredevil. Somehow, non-super crossovers are much more satisfying than super ones.
I wonder if they can keep the quality up for Season 2. I know I didn’t like Season 2 of Daredevil as much as Season 1.