Jessica Jones

The most civil of comic books and not only the superheroes ones. To the extent that the superhuman dimension is somehow extra (the movie would do easily without Jessica and Luke's), because themes that are addressed include complex non-black and white characters and advanced themes are dealt with such as rape, psychological violence and abuse, "ownership" of someone else, obsession, post-traumatic stress disorder, guilty from the point of view of a higher moral principle versus the strictly legal point of view, etc. Definitely no sunshine nor rainbows. On the contrary, it would be really hard to find anything more depressive in the noir/comic book genre department. Not even hard but maybe impossible. You may have some objections about the movie though, that is for sure. First of all, it slightly tends be kind of more traditional concept of comic books about broken/damage debris in the final episodes. Some side story lines just fade away and some episodes have really slow pace (event when considering that this series is very slowly flowing and quite one). However, even in the weakest moments, it keeps the characters above the waters of mediocrity. Above all, the main bad guy could, by the very nature of his ability, easily become overcomplicated, but the opposite is true, the more impressive whisperer has not been here since the days of Gaiman's Lucifer. Jessica Jones is on a completely different level in terms of genre and style (this is a intimate personal psycho drama) than her colleague the Daredevil, but together they begin to form a universe, which, unlike interchangeable blockbuster merchandising cash cows of the movie industry (whether from Marvel or DC) is interesting, stimulating and has endless potential for the future.| S1: 4/5 | (12.04.2016)

A Marvel/Netflix collaboration whose lectures on gender equality I have a bit of an issue with. From the moment I realized that it would involve only a single main plot, the 13 episodes scared me a little because I was afraid there would be too much filler and the series would keep running out of breath and losing its drive. Unfortunately, my fears were confirmed. Some episodes were really interesting, others were rather boring. Also, I may have finally understood why studios are sometimes afraid to choose a female as the main character. I don't think anyone fits the role of Jessica Jones better than the constantly angry and sarcastic Krysten Ritter, who is extremely good at playing a bitch, as she had already proved in Breaking Bad. However, when it comes to scenes where the detective, driven by demon alcohol, utters harsh threats, it seems as if straight out of one of the cheap scenes in Arrow (or similar stuff from the CW). Another problem is the main antagonist and it’s not just the name Kilgrave (the other characters joking about it doesn't make it any less cheap). The logic of this character's (and sometimes others’) actions is often questionable. However, I’ll give the second season a shot, because it does have a fair amount of atmosphere and interesting characters. This comic book story could do with less superhero action and more emphasis on the work of Jessica Jones with individual cases per episode, focusing on morality, personal demons and relationships which, for a superhero, are never easy. S01: 6/10. (18.01.2017)

A real girl’s serial. Topics like rape or emancipation play a large role in Jessica Jones, even if most of the time it’s about fights and classic catch the villain that is particularly well done. Kilgrave (a slippery David Tennant) has the power to control human desires and what he commands, you do (smile at him, bring him coffee, jump out of the window). As for Jessica herself, she doesn’t throw around her super powers very much, but Krysten Ritter manages to win sympathy thanks to gallons of booze and mountains of mess. The detective and spying subplots at the beginning, and introducing Luke Cage move the series forward through an almost film noir atmosphere with a pinch of horror up to the quite surprising action finale. Of course, we also get a good portion of (perverted) romance. The interlinks with Daredevil are pleasing, it’s all beginning to come together nicely. (06.05.2016)

An attempt at a grown-up, feminist, noir, revisionist, and brutal Marvel series from the writer of Twilight. So feminism is confused with male-bashing, the noir husk is definitely ditched sometime after the third episode, after which all that's left is a sleepy heroine with a drinking problem, and despite all the effort, a fairly traditional narrative is maintained with all the coincidences, small-worldedness, and the fact that everyone is kind of attracted to each other. It's only kept afloat by a decent villain, whose refreshing nihilism always stops it from going limp at the right time. I guess what really irritated me the most was the noir pose, which has a decent starting point (i.e. an uncharacteristically female protagonist in a male world), but we're presented with her superhuman strength as its first parameter, which actually allows her to do the job (if she didn't have it, she'd be Jessica Jones at the unemployment office). Moreover, the funny rules, where blood and limbs fly through the air and you can booze it up like a racehorse, yet you can't curse properly, let alone reveal yourself on camera, somehow add fat to the fire of the whole illusion. (28.02.2016)