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AKA: A Review
The Marvel Cinematic Universe represents perhaps the greatest money-making movie franchise in the history of cinema, pumping out one high-budget, high-grossing action spectacular after another, all set in a single cinematic universe replete with crossovers, cameos, and team-ups. It came to the small screen with Marvel’s Agents of Shield and Marvel’s Agent Carter, and the debut of Daredevil on Netflix earlier this year saw them break through into Internet-only entraining. The concept of an interconnected cinematic and TV universe offers viewers an analog of the traditional comic book experience. Everyone can have their favorite characters and follow them in their various appearances, appreciate the work of various artist each offering their own interpretation of the iconic characters in discrete stories that, together, help create an overarching fictional history filled with action and delightful melodrama.
A few weeks ago Netflix released the second of its four superhero shows: Jessica Jones (while under development, the show was titled “AKA Jessica Jones and the episodes all begin with the “Also Known As” abbreviation). Who is Jessica Jones you may be wondering? Well, until I saw the show I didn’t really know much about her. She isn’t one of the famous Marvel characters, not even one of the famous B-list characters like Luke Cage or Iron Fist (who will each get their own Netflix show in the coming years). But, her obscurity works for the show brilliantly. Knowing who Daredevil was, who his villains were, and what to expect plot-wise, I watched his series with anticipation for a fidelity to the comics. Jessica Jones was a blank slate to me, so there was nothing to anticipate, only a story to experience. And what a story.
Netflix’s Daredevil clearly establishes a gritty, almost Noir-like felling for the world of Hell’s Kitchen following the events of the first Avengers movie. That tone that is carried on — and expanded in — Jessica Jones, who like all good Noir characters, is a private investigator. Her jobs mostly consist of following cheating men around and getting pictures of them in the act. She lives in her office, and seems to subsist on a diet of booze and cigarettes.
She has powers of course — mostly super strength with some limited flying (or rather jumping) ability — but she doesn’t have a supper shield, or mystical martial arts training: she is just a woman trying to make her way in a world were things are far more crazy than anyone realizes, and who happens to be able to lift the back of a car off the ground without straining herself. She’s seen what kind of things are out there in the world, and all she wants to do is keep her head down and have a normal life as a hard drinking, antisocial, private investigator. But, things are never that easy, and she soon realizes that she can’t run from the reality and evil that is out there.
Jessica Jones offers a dark and twisted tale with a terrifying villain played brilliantly by David Tennant. Its story is far more engaging and realistic than that of Daredevil though still offering fans plenty of supper powers and comic book fantasy. If anything, its more subdued nature enhances the impact of both Jessica’s powers and that of her arch-nemesis. If you have Netflix and you enjoy either Noir, comics, suspense, or gritty action I highly recommend seeing Jessica Jones.
What did you think, Ricochet? Remember to keep you comments spoiler free or offer fair warning.
[Editors’ Note: For another take on the series, see Titus Techera’s post “Jessica Jones: Feminist” on the member feed.]
“Jessica Jones Netflix.” Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.
Published in Entertainment
Huh…I feel like Agents of Shield is taking some dark turns too, but I do enjoy the nice level of Sci-Fi they are bringing to it, and I do like the Inhumans. Can’t wait for Black Bolt to show up.
Agreed, every thing in the show has a reason to be there, and it all layers on slowly revealing the totality of the situation and what has led Jessica to be where she is and do what she is doing.
I seem to be in a small minority of having enjoyed Guardians without being blown away by it. For my money, the Captain America movies have been the best to date, but that’s a very subjective take.
From what I’ve seen so far, entirely agreed.
I think I’m in the minority, but I think spoiler alerts are just courtesy, forever.
There are new movies and books and comics created every year.
There are hundreds from before I was born.
There is just no way for me to have consumed them all even if I wanted to.
Obviously personal preference has a lot to do with all of this. I thought the Captain America movies were solidly okay. Didn’t regret seeing them, but never felt very compelled to watch them again, while I’ve seen Guardians maybe six times already. For me it gave me that same feeling of watching the Indiana Jones movies. Likable characters, fun action, weird mystical artifacts, cookie cutter villains… what more could a kid want.
Marvel’s now involved in Spiderman:
I watched it as soon it came out. I enjoyed it a lot. I wanted to do a review but then I read about 30 seconds of TT’s “if it’s not a hundred years old it can’t be good; and it has to have some civilization destroying subtext” review, and let it go…
Good to see others on Rico enjoyed it as well.
Oh that is great news! Though I wish they would work to save the Fantastic Four from the terrible clutches of their current owners. No super heroes have been more poorly treated by movies than them.
Yes, I read TT’s review as well, and I do recommend that people read it. It certainly is more of a critique than what I did. Though I obviously don’t agree with him on this. I think he might be over analyzing this show, which I generally find always makes things seem worse than they really are. Comics are built out of tropes, cliches, and allusions. What distinguishes them is how well they are able to blend these things into a compelling and visually engaging narrative.
Hello? For those of us for whom reading Ricochet is a brief, limited opportunity while we deal with the slings and arrows of holding our shite together: Have ya ever heard of links? The TT review is what exactly? What, I gotta drink enough Ovaltine to get my super secret Li’l Orphan Annie decoder ring? Yer killin’ me, Valz.
Leapin’ lizards, Sandy!
I was just thinking “who is TT?” when I realized I knew the answer.
Then I looked for a hyperlink to the review and found none.
Mysteries solved:
I’m sorry, here is the analysis of Jessica Jones by member Titus Techera. It can also be found in the editor’s note at the bottom of the main post.
Tom Meyers already linked it in earlier comments.. so…
I marathon’d through the whole series and loved it in two evenings. I was hooked by the S1 E2, I was willing to give it a few shows no matter what from the first 15 minutes.
So I’m a muttonhead. Anyone surprised over this revelation?