Over the next couple of weeks we'll be posting reviews for each episode of Marvel's Jessica Jones. Please be warned that these reviews will contain major spoilers for each episode so beware if you haven't seen it yet.
If you want to comment on this episode for our Fan Reaction blog please do so here
Marvel's Jessica Jones
Episode 1: A.K.A. Ladies Night
There’s a room at the
end of a corridor in a New York hotel. That
room that might be occupied by one of the most depraved villains in the Marvel
Universe. And a previous victim of his is about to walk into what she knows is
a potential trap that could plunge her right back into the nightmare she
escaped over a year ago.
Meet Jessica Jones, private investigator. She’s a downbeat,
cynical, drunken, plain talking and pretty unlikeable investigator, it has to
be said, but she pulls in just enough work to get by and to keep herself in
cheap whiskey. The bulk of her cases focus on the sleazy and the dishonest, the
adulterers and petty criminals, quite apt for the neighbourhood in which she’s
based. Her shabby apartment doubles as her office, surrounded as it is by
less-than-desirable neighbours: the rowing couple upstairs and junkie Malcolm
next door. Jessica likes her own space. “You use sarcasm to distance people!”
Malcolm accuses, and he’s right. She’s not what you might call a people person.
AKA Ladies Night is a powerful and magnetic opener for what
promises to be a very different superhero series, one that presents more like a
30’s noir thriller, in fact. Melissa Rosenberg has created a set of strong
female characters in what is traditionally a very male genre, while the show
seems to nestle happily in the MCU, reaching subtly back to the cinematic
adventures and more obviously forward to future Defenders series. Though not
strictly following events of the source comics series Alias, there’s enough
references to anchor the character of Jessica to Brian Michael Bendis’ vision –
the series opens with a scene straight from the pages of Issue #1 while Jessica’s
brittle and sceptical nature survive intact.
From the start the drama presents as yet another
case-of-the-week detective drama with an interesting and quite enigmatic female
lead. But it’s a long way from being anything of the sort and there’s more to
Jessica Jones than meets the eye. Every now and then we’re reminded with a jolt
that we’re in the Marvel Universe, a world populated by people with ‘gifts’.
Jessica can leap several stories up to a window ledge and lift a moving car
from the road. But why hide her superpowers away rather than go all in with the
more famous, showy heroes: Iron Man, the Cap, the Hulk, et al. who are doubtless saving the world just a few blocks away?
Perhaps the answer lies in her darker side, particularly those flashbacks to a
menacing, whispering figure whose memory leaves her reeling and shaking and
chanting her calming mantra of “Birch Street…Higgins Drive…Cobalt Lane…”
Whatever happened in Jessica’s past utterly destroyed her, and nothing could be
more unimaginable than facing that tormentor again.
First episodes need to establish key characters and this one
is no exception. There’s Jeri Hogarth, a
powerful hard-nosed lawyer who is also notable as Marvel’s first openly gay
character and who’s cheating on her wife with her secretary. She’s happy to put
cases Jessica’s way, as long as she benefits from the outcome; however, she’s
less comfortable with extending help to others. Jessica also has history with top
radio talk show host Trish Walker. Their relationship is fractious, but Trish is still concerned enough to want to protect Jessica when she learns that her tormentor
may be back. Then there’s Hope Schlottman, the student whose disappearance is
the catalyst for the horror that is about to unfold.
A key introduction is Luke Cage, like Jessica a future
member of the Defenders, though at this point there’s no inkling that he is
anything else than another surveillance subject for Jessica. Luke is as
intrigued with Jessica as she is with him and their late night bar session
leads to…well, let’s just say it’s quickly obvious why this series can’t be
classed as another kid-friendly Marvel blockbuster! Jessica’s not proud of
herself after her involvement with Luke, but she’s even more horrified after
her discovery of a photo in his bathroom cabinet, one that leaves her
staggering from his apartment and vomiting on the sidewalk. Luke is at the
moment an enigma; for his own origin story viewers may have to wait till his
own series airs in 2016.
David Tennant’s character Kilgrave barely features in this
episode, appearing only in a few momentary flashbacks. However his presence is
stamped all over this introduction to the world of Jessica Jones and long
before the end of the episode it’s apparent that he is the reason that she is
what she is now and that his return would be the worst possible thing that
could ever happen to her. Therefore it’s with a mounting sense of horror that Jessica
follows the clues leading her to the missing student only to realise that she
is being drawn inexorably back to Kilgrave, a man whom she believed dead. From
the moment that Hope’s parents show up in her office, Kilgrave has control of
the situation and, without even appearing in person, he plays the pawns in his
game to a devastating conclusion. As the lift doors close with a glimpse of the still-controlled Hope pulling a gun on her doting parents, they also close on any semblance of normality and security that Jessica may have clawed back into her life after her first encounter with Kilgrave. The brutal, horrific event that ensues leaves her no option but to
confront her fears.
Comments
Post a Comment