Jessica Jones

If you're considering watching this show, chances are you've already watched Marvel's Daredevil and know what to expect: a darker, grittier tone than the rest of the Marvel universe, great production values and strong characterization. It delivers all those things and more.

Jessica Jones tells the story of a retired superhero, a woman who tried to help and failed. Jessica is a broken character; she suffers from PTSD, has nightmares and constant flashbacks and drinks a lot. She's an incredibly compelling protagonist; flawed but strong, broken but fighting, sad but with a sarcastic edge that makes her funny and easy to love.

The show isn't afraid to explore dark themes of sexual assault, rape and abortion and it does so with taste. The victims are not shown being raped; the viewer is just expected to believe them without titillating rape scenes to prove the facts.

As a survivor herself, Jessica shows both the signs of her trauma and the will to fight back. Women in Jessica Jones suffer, they fail, but they fight.

Unlike Daredevil's Kingpin, Killgrave is a threat from the first episode which results is better pacing (Daredevil took 4 episodes to find its feet in my opinion). Because of Jessica's PTSD, you constantly feel his shadow and the tension is constant. The show doesn't waste time with an origin story or training sequences; it takes you straight into the action and doesn't let you go.

A definite success for Marvel.

So, the Marvel/Netflix alliance ends here, not with a bang, but with a bit of a whimper.

Jessica Jones (Kristen Ritter) is a Private Investigator, a functioning alcoholic and a misanthrope. She's also, thanks to some illegal experimentation, unworldly strong, resilient and tough. She struggles with the responsibility that comes with being "powerered" and is haunted by death of her family, which occurred in a traffic accident years prior.

The first season of Jessica Jones was excellent. Mostly because, unlike some other seasons of both this show, and the others in the extended universe, it had an excellent and charismatic villain in David Tennent's Kilgrave. Without having the same levels of action set pieces, this first season still is as good as anything that "Daredevil" or "Punisher" could produce. The season also introduced us to Luke Cage, which then spun into his own series and Mike Coulters chemistry with Ritter is excellent.

Unfortunately, unlike "Daredevil", there was a pronounced drop off in quality for the second season, and that run had a dull villain from Jessica's past played by Janet McTeer. Drifting away from the private eye type story and into more soap elements didn't help this run either. We also started to spend even more time with the shows supporting characters, such as Jeri Hogarth played by Carrie-Anne Moss. Though she was great, the show feels watered down when we're spending time with these characters and it's not related directly to what's happening to Jessica. The second and third seasons also suffer from the "Netflix" problem of making 13 episodes, when you have enough story for 8, so plot points are hit over and over again.

The third season is better though. Jessica is back with a case to solve involving a Serial Killer played by Jeremy Bobb. There's more action and intrigue, although it still doesn't match the heights of the first season. It would be easy to see why their hearts wouldn't be in this run, as the cancellations were announced long before this was released.

Overall, I feel like the first season of this is "must see" but the remaining two aren't essential. The show isn't as consistent as "Daredevil" but is generally a cut above "Iron Fist" and "Luke Cage".

This is just a general review of what I felt overall having just finished the finale.

The first season was brilliant, 8/10. If you haven't watched JJ then just watch S1.

The second season was rubbish and so was the third, 5-6/10. Hence I downgraded my overall rating from 8/10 to 7/10.

Trish Walker was such a lame character and the fact that she features more prominently in the plot for S2 and S3 probably explains part of why the show went downhill.

S3 was the end for the show just in the same way as Daredevil which itself was a brilliant show and didn't really dip the way JJ did (blame Netflix/Disney).

JJ for the average viewer can feel like a bit of a drag so bare that in mind, but again it's worth it in S1 as the whole premise is she's a private investigator dealing with a bad guy/girl over the series.

If for nothing else, watch Jessica Jones for David Tennant's performance as Kilgrave. He is better than any other Marvel movie or TV villain ever seen before. He is truly terrifying but oddly hypnotizing. He can make you do whatever he tells you to. Not only does David Tennant's charisma make this believable, but the writers use it in a lot of cool ways. As a villain, he's right up there with Heath Ledger's Joker.

Krysten Ritter (Jesse's girlfriend from season 2 of Breaking Bad) plays the lead. It's great to see a Female Marvel lead, and she delivers a wonderfully understated performance. The show starts off as a gritty detective show with dry humour and not much of Tennant. However, as the show goes along, it evolves into something much cooler. It gets darker but also funnier, and Tennant's involvement becomes larger.

In conclusion, Jessica Jones is a very binge-able show with a memorable villain and a great lead that doesn't need much prior knowledge despite tying into the Marvel universe. In my opinion, it's even better than Daredevil.

Season 1 - 10/10

Season 2 - 5/10

Season 3 - 6/10.

Krysten Ritter is amazing as JJ.

Kilgrave is an awesome antagonist portrayed by an awesome actor.

This is my short and concise review to save you time.

EnJoy!