Back in April this here blog tackled reviewing the very first episode of Daredevil (which can be found
here). At that point Daredevil was kicking off a spat of Netflix Original Series for Marvel and I wrote that this allows Marvel to take a darker route without alienating their movie fanbase, or even worse, leaving money on the table since the scores of 12 year olds couldn't see these dark, R rated premises. Now lets find out if AKA Jessica Jones is following the same route or if it's building it's own path.
Unlike Daredevil, Jessica Jones doesn't start with an origin, rather we get a first hand look at her powers. She catches a wife sleeping around on her husband, now would be a good time to mention she's a freelance Private Eye, anyway... When she shows the husband he gets irate at her because crazy people. She promptly sends him through the door with the pictures and we hear her say "now for the matter of my bill" all-the-while she's giving us a narrator speech about what she does and her characteristics. When reaching a lawyer's office and asking the woman for work she chimes in on a couple characteristics of her own that Jessica has a response for. She's called volatile, erratic and unprofessional. Jessica considers herself effective since several jobs were brought to her only after several others have failed and she completed them. The lawyer tips her hat to Jessica and mentions she's aware of her methods, but methods she needs.
We then see Jessica in full on P.I. mode... ON THE TOILET! Who says we never see superheroes use the bathroom anyway? She fleeces some information from some poor girl on the other end of the line and then she calls it a night... OR she would if she could sleep. She decides to creepily watch some random people (and one not so random one). She ends up having a vision that frightens her so she hits the booze hard and wakes up to someone in her apartment/office... Turns out it's her neighbor Malcolm though, he doesn't seem to serve any purpose yet but the next people that walk in do!
Mr. and Mrs. come up from Omaha after their daughter, Hope, has vanished, well vanished is not the right word since they know she's around she just left school, the track team and stopped keeping in touch, they were sent to Jessica by someone at the Police Station to have her investigate since the police state no crime was committed. While investigating she found out that Hope had met a guy and she's likely out with him according to her former best friend and roommate.
Jessica takes a break from that and decides to serve some creep with court papers (this is the lawyers job). This is when we see her super strength on camera as she lifts the guy's car up, in order to get him to take the paperwork she threatens him with her "laser eyes" a power she doesn't actually have. But something the lawyer is still none too happy with, we also see her dealing with more of the difficult nightmares that have been plaguing her.
The rest of the episode has Jessica meeting the mysterious man she was photographing earlier, my P.I, skills tells me it's Luke Cage but they don't state his name. Jessica also uncovers the truth about Hope and who this mysterious man is who took her away, turns out there are ties between Hope and Jessica that Jessica would rather forget. The end of episode 1 also leaves you with a shocking conclusion that'll leave you shocked.
Krysten Ritter stars as Jessica Jones, she's previously had small roles in feature films such as Big Eyes, She's Out Of My League and Confessions Of A Shopaholic, though she's mostly known for her TV work like Veronica Mars, The Gilmore Girls and Breaking Bad. She does a fine job though it's a bit weird for me to see her behind the camera instead of in front of it, a 360 from her Veronica Mars days where she disliked the teen P.I. Veronica. Other than Ritter no other real main cast were introduced. There was Trish who runs a morning show and had former ties to Jessica though we don't know how. The lawyer who again only appeared near the beginning and on the phone later after the laser eye incident. There's also the aforementioned Malcolm, he seems like he'll be the comedic relief if he's anything at all going forward.
AKA Jessica Jones is much, much darker than Daredevil. Daredevil had dark underlying tones but the over arching sentiment was hope and that was the ray of light to get through the dark times. Jessica Jones takes it to a whole other level as it tends to lean towards more of a thriller but also is dark with having it's main character dealing with mental deficiencies, in this case PTSD. She's also a raging alcoholic who refuses to see a psychiatrist or take her medication.
The dark tones also are reflected in the setting so most of the episode takes place at night which works well given it's comic book roots, the lighting leaves that ink like feeling and you're just watching intently until its time to turn the page. It's also refreshing to see LGBT featured in the Marvel Universe though I don't know if having a love triangle between three lesbians is the best way to utilize it but time will tell!
Overall AKA: Jessica Jones didn't have the set up that Daredevil had that made me want more right from the get go but the episode and the ending especially has me geared up to watch more and it certainly appears to have a chance at being better than Murdoch and co. by the time I've watched the 13 episodes in full.
