Jessica Jones: Season 1 Review (Spoiler-Free)

You Will Remember Her Name

Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones

Superheroes are starting to get run into the ground at this point. You get a person with a troubled backstory, give them either super powers or intelligence, present them with a "bad guy" with some sort of personal link to the hero, they fight, he wins. You now have a first movie or a TV season in yet another commercially successful superhero franchise. Don't get me wrong; these series can be a lot of fun, especially when someone comes along and adds a bit of freshness to the formula. Every once in a while, we get a Dark Knight or a Kick-Ass that flips comic conventions on their head and gives us something new to enjoy or some new food-for-thought to chew on. However, these days it's all a bit too much of the same thing. Same super powered dudes, same motivations, same fights. Emphasis on the word dudes. Have no fear super-fans. Marvel, the king of the comic book genre, is back yet again to bring us something new and fresh: Jessica Jones. That's right. This is Marvel's first female led superhero property and it may be their best so far.



We first meet Jessica Jones, a former superhero turned private investigator played by Krysten Ritter who makes a stunning headlining debut, taking a job that involves taking photos of a cheating spouse in the middle of the act with explicit detail. Next thing she knows, she has an angry husband who ends up being smashed through the glass panel of the door to her office. From this moment it is evident that this is a very different beast from other Marvel properties and it grows even more so from there. It is not too long after we get to understand Jessica's place in the world that she runs into a painful past that she thought was over. Then all hell breaks loose in Hell's Kitchen with disturbing consequences.

Subjects involving sex, violence, and then in turn sexual violence are explored with refreshing seriousness here and it helps add to a surprisingly rich and dark world that just so happens to also share a universe with those "other guys" The Avengers. As Daredevil before, Netflix is allowing us a glimpse at the street level antics of a world of super-powered individuals that is not always sunshine
and daisies. Through a fantastical lens, these shows are exploring real and adult topics while still being a fun entertainment. The plot takes several surprising turns and it always keeps our attention with exciting action and interesting characters that we grow to care for. It is also impossible to ignore how fresh it is to have such a strong female protagonist leading her own superhero series. Krysten Ritter gives Jessica Jones tremendous depth and vulnerability without sacrificing her strength, even while dealing with the realities of being a victim of physical and sexual abuse.

This ends up being the most striking element of this new series. Its treatment of sexual violence and its victims is mature and welcome. The subject is explored, but never taken advantage of. This is a story where people literally have no control over themselves or what happens to them (you learn why within the first episode) and it forces you to understand the pain of lost consent and freedom. It does not shy away from the physical and emotional toll that this takes from its protagonists, while it also treats the one responsible for their afflictions as more than a surface level typical super villain. This villain is terrifying and while he is given a fantastical context for his actions, there is still a level of reality to him that is all too relevant in today's world. In a climate that does not give the topic of consent the seriousness and the weight that it deserves, leave it to Marvel to present the topic in a way that works as a great piece of entertainment while never losing its topicality and importance.
It's when the show loses focus on these topics and Jessica Jones herself that is falters ever so slightly. There are too many extraneous side characters and subplots that at times bogs down the pace of the show and gives us too much extra fat to get through. None of these elements spoil the show by any means, but it leaves you wanting to get back to the more involving plots faster and makes you feel like some of the show's precious time was wasted. With a little bit of tightening to the scripts of each episode, the show would have been made even more exciting and relentless and we would have a stronger product to enjoy in the process.

Jessica Jones is a fantastic addition to the Marvel Universe and to the superhero genre as a whole. It moves at a great pace and has a lot of fun with its characters and world without being afraid to go into some dark and twisted territory in its plot. It also has some very nice tie ins to the larger Marvel universe, including its predecessor Daredevil. This is another home run for the pairing of Netflix and Marvel and it will be exciting to see what they come up with next.