Review: Netflix’s Jessica Jones
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Netflix released all thirteen episodes of its own original series Jessica Jones, inspired by the hit Marvel comic The Pulse, on 11th November. Since then, the world has never quite been the same: it’s all purple…
Jessica Jones is the most relatable, kick-ass hero ever. She is completely self-deprecating, drinks a lot, and wears the same jeans for days. It’s her story and her power that we can’t identify with as an audience, though, and Krysten Ritter portrays this effortlessly. Miss Jones has strength (both mentally and physically) and she can stop a slow moving car with one hand, break a marble sink and throw a huge, six-foot tall man across a room and through a wall. Like I said, kick-ass.
Melissa Rosenberg, who created the Netflix series, crafts the character of Jessica as someone who is very fragile, yet extremely strong. Jones suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after her encounter with a mind-controlling, purple-loving villain named Kilgrave, played by David Tennant. Her PTSD results in flashbacks, nightmares and feelings of worthlessness – Jones is a superhero with her own issues, ultimately emphasising her parallels with our own lives.
David Tennant’s character of Kilgrave in Jessica Jones is compelling. Tennant’s Doctor Who fans may want to not watch as Kilgrave comes with mind control, resulting in him raping people, making them end their own lives and, as episode ten shows us, give their soon-to-be ex-wife ‘1000 cuts’. Kilgrave is vindictive, borderline psychopathic (if it wasn’t for his obsession with Jessica, he’d be a psychopath) and completely frightening – those of us who fell in love with Tennant as the Doctor will have never been scared of him, but we are in Jessica Jones.
The plot of all thirteen episodes is thrilling right from beginning to the end and the fact we don’t see Kilgrave for real until episode five has the suspense at an all-time high. We see Jessica almost get Kilgrave so many times, policemen handcuffed to a wall to be a witness of his mind-controlling abilities, lawyers blackmailed and so many deaths. It all starts with Hope Shlottman, whose case tips off Jessica, a private eye in New York City, that Kilgrave is back. The following twelve hours are all about how she gets to him. And it is gripping.
While the ending cannot be discussed too much, it isn’t a let down. It makes you want to jump off the sofa you binge-watched all thirteen hours on and give a round of applause. Jessica Jones isn’t the average series about superheroes and adventure – it is dark and twisted, but ridiculously addictive. Here at b**p, we give it nine out of ten stars (and most of them are for Krysten Ritter and David Tennant’s extraordinary acting).