Jessica Jones -- final thoughts
Feb. 21st, 2016 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dbskylerI've finished watching season one of Jessica Jones.
The acting was uniformly very good. DT did a fantastic job, as did Krysten Ritter, but honestly, everyone was good.
The writing was great at the start, but I felt it fell down towards the last episodes. Or, maybe the series just went in a direction I didn't like. It started off as a very psychological show, very character-based, with this fantastic and incredibly scary villain. And then it became a bunch of fights, and smashing things, and people getting killed in lots of different gory ways, which is not really my thing.
The other stuff I didn't like so much is everything they seeded in for season two, which makes me suspect that I am not going to enjoy season two very much. I don't give a damn about how Jessica Jones got her powers, or who this IGH (or whatever the abbreviation was -- can't be bothered to go look it up) group is. Simpson was interesting when he was a cop who'd been used by Kilgrave, but as soon as he became weird secret-agent-guy, I lost my interest. Especially when they turned him into killer-secret-agent-guy. Then he just became Mr. Villain, without any of the charm or vulnerability of Kilgrave's villainy.
Speaking of Kilgrave, I kind of wish we'd seen more stuff from his point of view. He was fascinating, and not just because of DT's excellent portrayal (although of course that didn't hurt). I realize the character is dead now -- although in comic book world, that means about as much as it does in soap opera world (i.e., not very much) -- but I would love to see more of him, particularly in regards to his backstory. Why did he become so obsessed with Jessica in particular? Did he ever have any other relationships that meant something to him? Did he ever have a friend? I'm just really curious now.
The acting was uniformly very good. DT did a fantastic job, as did Krysten Ritter, but honestly, everyone was good.
The writing was great at the start, but I felt it fell down towards the last episodes. Or, maybe the series just went in a direction I didn't like. It started off as a very psychological show, very character-based, with this fantastic and incredibly scary villain. And then it became a bunch of fights, and smashing things, and people getting killed in lots of different gory ways, which is not really my thing.
The other stuff I didn't like so much is everything they seeded in for season two, which makes me suspect that I am not going to enjoy season two very much. I don't give a damn about how Jessica Jones got her powers, or who this IGH (or whatever the abbreviation was -- can't be bothered to go look it up) group is. Simpson was interesting when he was a cop who'd been used by Kilgrave, but as soon as he became weird secret-agent-guy, I lost my interest. Especially when they turned him into killer-secret-agent-guy. Then he just became Mr. Villain, without any of the charm or vulnerability of Kilgrave's villainy.
Speaking of Kilgrave, I kind of wish we'd seen more stuff from his point of view. He was fascinating, and not just because of DT's excellent portrayal (although of course that didn't hurt). I realize the character is dead now -- although in comic book world, that means about as much as it does in soap opera world (i.e., not very much) -- but I would love to see more of him, particularly in regards to his backstory. Why did he become so obsessed with Jessica in particular? Did he ever have any other relationships that meant something to him? Did he ever have a friend? I'm just really curious now.
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(no subject)
Date: 2016-02-22 03:07 pm (UTC)That was my general take on the season, too. Episode eight was the best, but everything started to slump after that. To me, it felt like they only came up with enough content for 10 episodes and were forced to stretch it to 13 episodes.
I was sad when they killed off Kilgrave, which is always a good sign of a great villain. I suppose he could come back in a flashback or hallucination or something, but it wouldn't be the same. Perhaps the shady group behind Jessica's powers can clone Kilgrave and he can be resurrected for season three.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-02-22 06:01 pm (UTC)That's an interesting take. I agree, the season would've been far tighter and better at 10 episodes. Episode 8 was my favorite too -- I loved every single interaction between Jessica and Kilgrave -- and episode 9 was also very interesting. Things were building, and then Kilgrave escaped, and we were back to square one, which didn't feel right. We lost the momentum. Also, Jessica's switch to wanting to kill Kilgrave didn't feel right to me, even with Hope's suicide. In fact, thinking about it now, the moment when she kills him would've been far more powerful if she only decided to kill him then and there, either to protect Trish or because she just couldn't stand to have him command her to smile. I know they tried to put in some suspense by having us not know if he could command Jessica, but you know, it's episode 13, there wasn't a ton of suspense. But if up until that point we'd thought she was trying to capture him again, and then she changed to being a murderer, by choice? Damn, now I really wish they'd gone that route.
I haven't read the comic, so I don't know how much of this is actually a problem with the source material. But then again, they could've changed it. And, I realize they wanted to spend all that time with the secret-agent stuff because it will be important for season two, but they shouldn't have let it slow down the momentum of season one, which for me it definitely did.