Marvel and Netflix strike again with JESSICA JONES !!

Earlier this year, Marvel had a big hit on television (via NETFLIX) with DAREDEVIL, a wonderfully gritty super hero tale set in Hell's Kitchen, the darkest part of New York. Instead of a big tentpole action film like Iron Man, DAREDEVIL presented the darker side of the City, with smaller sized heroes and equally interesting villains (Vincent d'Onofrio was Marvelous as Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, pun definitely intended!), aided and abetted by top rate secondary characters in great story telling.

Remember him? Fantastic show!!

DAREDEVIL was a big success and a second season is now shooting on location, which is great. But Hell's Kitchen is also the home of Jessica Jones, a former superhero that I as a reader was not even familiar with. I knew of Daredevil because, although not being in the same caliber as Iron Man, Matt Murdock was nevertheless a creation of Stan Lee (in collaboration with artist Bill Everett) in the early 1960s. Jessica Jones is a character of a later date, from a time that I did not read that much comics anymore. Jones did have a short career as a super hero but what we see in Marvel's and Netflix' new series MARVEL's JESSICA JONES, she is a private investigator with a troubled past. Now of course I can tell you a lot about her character but what is so fascinating about this new show is that you get to know Jessica as you watch the episodes one by one. In the show itself, the extent of her powers is being kept rather vague so it will be a surprise when you do find out what she can do.

Netflix Poster of Jessica Jones  (the A.K.A. has more or less been dropped)

This new show also fits into the same world we saw in Daredevil and so it is very recognizable (and Rosario Dawson returns for a guest appearance as a familiar nurse from the Daredevil series), while it also treats its secondary characters as just as important as the primary characters. Within a matter of episodes you care about these people, which is why you will hate the villain KILLGRAVE all the more after a number of episodes.

David Tennant as Killgrave

Killgrave is a seemingly normal man who can make you do his bidding just by having you listen to him. He has no superpowers and as a character in the comics he hasn't been used all that much, which adds to the suspense because he is not very well known in the Marvel Universe. But when you see what Killgrave does to the people that you have grown to like and care for, you will hiss at him whenever he appears on screen, even worse than that utter bastard King Geoffrey of Game of Thrones. (And that bag of puss was despicable!! Try to imagine how bad this Killgrave is ! You will fail until you watch this show!)

Mike Colter as Luke Cage

Like in DAREDEVIL, JESSICA JONES also reflects a darker side of the Marvel Universe if you will, a side in which the F word is not shunned or deleted and in which delicate issues like rape and abuse are frequently touched upon. JESSICA JONES is not like SUPERGIRL, a bright and optimistic show, no, it is like DAREDEVIL in its gritty depiction of urban reality and thru Killgrave questions the values we should raise our children with. I will give you a fair warning that there is also quite a bit of sex involved but nothing explicit. Yet, the show succeeds in convincing you that this is quite a realistic way to see the life of a superhero who wanted out. A super hero who no longer wants to fight crime in a flashy costume, who just wants to live and make ends meet. 

Jessica and her best friend Trish

Luke Cage also makes his first appearance in this show and Marvel introduced Cage first as Luke Cage, Hero for Hire in the early 1970s. Once he got superpowers, he listened to the name of POWER MAN and teamed up with IRON FIST before he later married Jessica Jones and had a daughter with her. In the films and series, Cage had not yet been represented but Mike Colter does an excellent job of portraying a strong, tough but caring Luke Cage, opposite Krysten Ritter as the traumatized but strong Jessica Jones, a young woman with a chip (the size of a boulder) on her shoulder.

Jessica Jones with lawyer Jeri Hogarth

With this show, it can surely be said that innocent television fare like we saw in the 1970s and 1980s, on shows like CHiPs and THE A-TEAM, that kind of show is of the past. Life's a bitch in this world and that is what you get to see in this series. Showrunner Melissa Rosenberg produced a modern classic with this series and although Marvel will continue with Jessica Jones (and Luke Cage and Daredevil) in the next series THE DEFENDERS (no air date has been set yet), Rosenberg hopes there will also be room for plenty more realistic depictions of human issues in a second season. JESSICA JONES can now be seen on Netflix: Don't Miss It !! It's the best show I have seen in a long, long time. (At least 3 months !)

Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones