There seems to be a huge buzz surrounding the Netflix superhero series Jessica Jones. Who’s watching it? Has anyone finished it yet? What are your (mostly non-spoilery) thoughts?
I’m hearing a lot of positive buzz for this show. I wasn’t a huge fan of Daredevil, so I didn’t imagine myself watching another Netflix superhero show, but I think I probably will give this a try.
How are you all finding the show?
Comments
43 responses to “Off Topic: Who Is Watching Jessica Jones?”
I’m not!
Because I finished it already.
So far, it’s my favourite MCU property. I’m far less familiar with Jessica Jones and the denizens of Hell’s Kitchen (at least the ones that can see). That helped a lot in letting me go along with how everything was established.
The tone is bleak. It’s a nice change. Well, not nice.
And the villain. Yup. They nailed the villain. Not hugely spoileriffic but behind tags for those that want to go in blind:
It’s good to see a truly personal evil and David Tennant does a great job of portraying a character that has no sense of normal morality.I liked it, a great story, but had some pretty glaring pacing issues, like Daredevil had, around midway. It’s a great
rape-revenge parablethat’s for sure and I’m glad it didn’t follow the same format as Daredevil or the other MCU storylines. David Tennant is phenomenal that’s for sure, but I can’t help but still feel they could have gotten someone better for Jessica Jones herself.I’m slowly chugging through it when I need a fallout 4 cleanse. So far it’s pretty awesome. It’s less a superhero show and more of a noir private eye show where the lead just happens to have super powers. It’s really well shot and David Tennant as the big bad, Kilgrave is amazing. Super creepy portrayal. It’s more slowly paced than Daredevil and might be a bit harder to binge watch as it’s more character developy than punchy, but definitely recommend peeps give it a watch.
As a marvel fan I really enjoyed daredevil, the pportrayal of kingpin alone was fantastic I thought.
I’ve watched the first few episodes of Jones now and I’m digging it, they’ve nailed Luke cage and Jessica is pretty close too. I only finished reading bendis’ alias comic that this is basically based on a few months ago so it’s pretty neat watching this now.
And mark you can’t deny…..David Tennant!
Watched 7 episodes (of the 13 in the series) and it’s going pretty good.
Compared to Daredevil I feel like it’s much more refined, much better nuanced character writing and it deals with way more adult subjects and the grey areas around them, as opposed to the old good/bad dichotomy. Not as many action scenes as DD (so far), but that’s definitely not a bad thing. It feels way more real and grounded compared to almost anything else out there, it’s not just another Batman-style ‘gritty, and dark’ reboot.
Also David Tennant is creepy as hell.
The villain is awesome. Gives us geeks a different look an an awesome actor in a very twisted role.
About four or five episodes in. Liking it so far.
I strongly disliked daredevil. To me it was an overly dark USA/TNt show (burn notice/white collar/ suits ect) but the main villan felt like an oversized DR Evil from Austin powers with his over acting and generally poorly written character motivation. He was basically a Scooby Doo villan. That took 11 episodes to be unmasked.
Until I see a review explaining why Jessica jones isn’t an inferior Veronica Mars clone ( if I really want to watch Veronica Mars there is re runs or izombie) with the tone of Gotham. I’ll pass.
I could be wrong and haven’t checked but am pretty sure the alias comic which this is based on was out way earlier than Veronica Mars?
I’m not sure what was first but female PI stories have been around a long time. Charlie’s Angels in the 70’s agatha Christie books, murder she wrote ect, Nancy Drew ect. Many of which predate the origional run of alias as a comic book.
I was just picking Veronica Mars as a readily availiable series that has aged well.
Yeah, I thought it was odd that the dialogue and characters felt very PG, and then there’d be at least one moment of ultra violence per episode. It was odd.
But damn, those fight scenes blew me away. For TV in general, and US TV in particular, that was some A-grade action.
I preferred DD overall but I think they did the best given the limited source material & the situation.
I would have loved to of seen more of the crossover stuff, but it’s not really possible at this early stage.
Wish it was a bit more dense, like DD. Seems to be spread a bit thin.
A case unrelated to Killgrave at the start of the season would have been nice.
Ritter played the role well, but she’s far too super model to really feel like JJ.
Luke Cage was cast really well, can’t wait for his solo series.
I just remembered
Spoiler for the comic
I thought it was very important that in the comic she was never raped. She was forced to watch & told to enjoy watching as he raped other girls.It was interesting because it’s so much about what he did to her head, not her body in the comic.
Finished watching it over the weekend and I quite like it.
I would rate it an 8/10.
The wife and i binge watched it over the weekend it was fantastic. The big bad is incredibly creepy and in the early episodes creates undeniable menace without even being on screen.
I would still watch it of you didnt enjoy daredevil the only complaint i had about the show is that if you were expecting more daredevil you wont find it here.
How *do* you talk about a Netflix show, especially when you’re about halfway through its stretch?
The good:
Cast is stellar. All are giving very good everything. Of course the standouts are the hero and the villain but wow at some of the supporting cast too.
I’m stunned at the deft-ness the whole show is handling the fact this is about a victim, and very real after-effects. I won’t presume to comment like an authority on something that’s never happened to me, but the people here were capital a Abused and you see it come across.
It’s got some great theme music.
The not-so good:
Stay away from the ‘movies’. I don’t like that it seems to dance around having to pay lip service to the goings-on elsewhere. Deus Ex Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As great a villain as Kilgrave is, he’s too much Jack-Nicholson-as-Joker for me. I see Tennant, the actor, not the character.
This show is so god-damn edgy it’s trying too hard. At times it takes away from what I said above re the themes of the show.
Nice ret-con of the first Avengers movie. It appears superheroes really can’t have city-wide battles with aliens without civilian casualties but Marvel was fine in joining in with the critics of Man of Steel all this time.
I wonder if they will work James Van Der Beek into the show somehow
More interested in them getting Aaron Paul for a villains role 😉
I would pay money for him to yell “bitch” into my face
Watched it over the weekend and loved it.
I loved it so much! Wish there was already more. Sadly, there is not. Crossing fingers for a S2.
Krysten Ritter was perfect as JJ. David Tennant played an amazing villain. Though at times it felt like he was channeling The Doctor. I pretty much loved all the characters which is rare for me. Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) was interesting, as was Trish Walker. (It will be interesting to see where they take Trish in later seasons, if/when she becomes a certain other superhero!) I loved how they wove in the Jessica/Trish backstories. I felt like there was an important discussion about consent and rape in there too. The people that lived in Jessica’s building were fascinating. (I particularly liked Colby Minifie as Robyn.)
Mostly it was great to see a show with so many interesting strong women!
Gotta admit I’ve always been more of a DC girl but lately Marvel just seem to be nailing everything lately. Comics, TV Shows, Movies. (I’m still not a fan of The Avengers though.)
They used Trish so, so well. I love that they even tied in the real old school Patsy origins of the character.
Finished it Sunday night. I enjoyed it, but I agree with @weresmurf that there’s a pacing problem. I also hope that the next series (Luke Cage) is a bit more lighthearted and even a bit more comic book-y- while serious and gritty is fun for a vacation, I’d love something a bit more upbeat for Cage
Same. I also can’t help but think this felt a bit ‘cheaper’ than Daredevil did? Maybe it’s the sheer lack (or need of) choreography in terms of the violence? The scale also felt far lower. But that’s not a bad thing, we’re dealing with Hells Kitchen, not city wide issues. I hope the Luke Cage show ups the ante and Iron Fist beyond that (the rumours about it being a telemovie thankfully being untrue).
I think it just had a little less directorial panache than DD (and nothing as instantly jaw dropping as the hallway fight). It was still pretty well done, and the big stuff
(like the bar blowing up)read well. Also, theLuke vs Jessica and Jessica vs Nuke fightswere great .But yeah, a really strong director would be really good. Poach someone off Fargo, give it a bit of flourish
The Coen Brothers doing a marvel show… I’ll need new pants if that happens.
Fargo tv series I meant.
Coens would’t do it
Either way, Hawley on the TV show has shown he’s almost an equal for them. They’re executive producers, in a more than name only way, being very hands on apparenlty, thankfully. Rumour has it they may actually direct an episode in the near future for season 3 :O God I hope that happens…
Hawley and his entire writers room deserve ALL of the accolades.
ALso the directors.
And the actors (fucking hell Kirsten Dunst is so good this year)
Just, give them all of the awards
Yep. Next years Emmys: “The Fargo Emmys”
Also Meth Damon, broke out of his cliche…
He’s now Fatt Damon. lol
@weresmurf apparently Meth Damon got fat for that Johnny Depp film. Read an interview where he talked about it and said it was weird playing that because it changes your whole posture.
2 episodes in, but I’m feeling like I’d rather finish off some of the other shows first that are also being juggled right now (Blacklist S2 and Supernatural S4)
It’s on my list. Just caught up with Ash vs. Evil Dead and The Walking Dead, so will start soon.
DD was a revelation for me, so looking forward to JJ.
I wasn’t interested in Daredevil in the slightest – DD as a super hero does absolutely nothing for me. But my housemate and others raved about it, and now I’m pretty sure it’s one of my favorite Marvel things at the moment. Vincent D’Onofrio was incredible. Also hanging out to see Jon Bernthal as The Punisher in S2, and how they portray him. Hoping he’s suitably gritty and merciless, he should fit right into the show’s theme.
But I went off on a DD tangent. Oh well.
About mid way through the show I stopped liking any of the “heroes” and started feeling sympathy for the villain. At the end of the series I just saw the heroes as perhaps worse than him because they had adopted a “no matter what it costs, we need to stop him” attitude and were destroying people’s lives in their hunt. Where as the so called villain had a single goal and honestly didn’t know any other way to obtain said goal because of reasons we find out. He even says at one point after almost doing a horrific thing that “I thought that was the right thing to do” and explains in a very logical way why. Still a good show though I thought.
Can you elaborate as to why you feel sympathy for Killgrave? I don’t get it at all myself. Kevin, yes, but Killgrave, no.
Mostly pretty good. Fight choreography or possibly editing is noticably bad though – they seem to have had an extremely tough time getting the superpowered feats of strength in a brawl to look any good, at all. Also pretty tired of having writers try to shove sympathy down my throat for the villains. Pretty much disliked the kicked-puppy Kingpin, and while Purple Man is far less on the nose in the ‘won’t somebody love me’ department, it’s still there. Please just give us a straight up bad guy who wasn’t born from ‘tragedy’.
That scene is much better when you consider that it is almost certainly a calculated attempt by Killgrave’s to force the other person in the scene (and therefore, the audience) to feel sympathy for him. It’s a fairly classic tactic for abusers to derail discussions about the hurt they cause by claiming or showing how they themselves have been hurt by something else. No matter what happens, Killgrave will always claim to have had it worse, and be the real victim.
Totally agree, the thing I liked most about PM was that he was mostly evil independent of his tragedy. And it was a really effective use of the trope because it tied in with his core of manipulation to use the story against others. It’s more of a straw that broke the camel’s back thing, than just a shot specifically at PM. He was much more palatable (to me) than Kingpin and the like. I am just tired of unnecessary tragic motivational back story for villains for the sole purpose of being able to crow to the press about how nuanced and ‘understandable’ their villains are. As opposed to what? James Bond Villains from 30 years ago? Because most villains have been written this way for quite a while now. Give me a villain who is ‘bad’ simply because he can be and wants to be and it’s the most direct route to whatever he’s after, not because he was raised wrong or witness to great horror or insane. That, I can ‘understand’.
Good show. More intimately shot and less intricate than DD, but I’m 5 eps in and really enjoying it. Gives me a great excuse to de-Fallout.
Watching it and really enjoying it. Lol, had no idea until I wiki’d that its choc-full of aussies…
Finished it, loved it. They should S2 it straight after The Defenders.
I really enjoyed the first episode and thought the show had a tonnne of promise, but the more I watch, the less I like it.
Jessica quickly became an annoying and unlikeable character for me (and her voice is awful) and the show just keeps getting more tiresome and tedious as it goes on (I’ve watched up to EP 10).
I see that pacing is a common theme for complaints about netflix series. I think that is as much about people getting used to them not writing and shooting to conform around ad breaks so scenes can take exactly as long as they need to.
I really didn’t like Daredevil. The pacing was horrible, and Matt Murdock had no character development whatsoever (he started out as a self-centered jerk with a martyr complex and ended as a self-centered jerk with a martyr complex).
Jessica Jones, on the other hand, is great, but can be difficult to watch sometimes. Jones herself is a deeply flawed but believable as person who has survived and is trying to cope with having survived some truly appaling things. As for Killgrave, well… It’s rare to see a show actually think in depth about the repercussions of someone having the kinds of powers that he does, much less using them for evil rather than good. The show seems to take pains to portray an abusive relationship in a fashion that is both true to and respectful of survivors of domestic violence, and probably should be used as educational material in high schools so kids grow up knowing the markers of abuse.