Originally written January 18, 2016

You know, a few years ago, I had never even heard of the Marvel character Jessica Jones. Most people know the famous Marvel heroes, like Spider-Man, Hulk, or Captain America. However, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a thing for a little while now, and so now that it’s becoming more established Marvel has taken it upon itself to explore some of their lesser-known heroes. Like I said, I had never even heard of Jessica Jones, so a few years ago I would have never been excited at the prospect of a whole TV series based on the character. But then in April 2015 Marvel released its first made-for-Netflix show, Daredevil, and I instantly saw the potential for certain characters to be portrayed in that format. So, while I never knew much about Jessica Jones, I had complete faith that the show would be another hit for Marvel, and I was right.

With this being the second Netflix show for Marvel, it’s easy to compare it to its predecessor, Daredevil. This isn’t entirely unfair to do either, since the two are in the same universe and have connections to each other…even the city they take place in, Hell’s Kitchen. However, when comparing the two, it’s interesting to see how different the two characters are. While Daredevil was a vigilante who actively sought out criminals to fight, Jessica Jones is a person who had tried the whole superhero gig after she got powers (super strength and jumping really high), but is now trying to stay away from it after accidentally killing an innocent woman with her powers. However, this incident wasn’t her fault. At the time, she was being controlled by a man named Kilgrave, who has the power to make people do whatever he wants simply by commanding them to do so. Jessica managed to break free from Kilgrave’s mind control and has now made a life for herself as a private investigator. She suffers from PTSD from her time with Kilgrave, and she now must confront those feelings again when Kilgrave makes his return and is controlling the people of Hell’s Kitchen to get to Jessica.

I’d like to get the comparisons to Daredevil out of the way now so that I can talk specifically about this show, since it’s perfectly capable of standing on its own legs without being in the shadows of Daredevil. However, there might be people that watched Daredevil and were considering Jessica Jones, but were unsure because they aren’t familiar with the character. Basically, if you watched Daredevil and liked it simply for its amazing action, you’ll be a bit disappointed by Jessica Jones. Daredevil had some of the best fighting scenes I’ve ever seen in a TV show, while there are very few fights in Jessica Jones, and the ones they do have are pretty basic. The action isn’t bad, mind you, but nothing you haven’t seen before. So, as an action show, Daredevil wins out.

However, as a TV show in general, I think Jessica Jones is a bit better. I’m not trying to minimize how good the story and characters of Daredevil were, but this is where Jessica Jones really excels. The story of Jessica Jones is incredibly interesting, to the point where I was anxious to watch another episode while pondering the events of the episode I had just watched. It does cliffhanger endings really well, and I was always interested to see where the story would go next. And of course, the characters were just phenomenal. The side cast, such as Rachael Taylor playing Jessica’s best friend Trish Walker, Carrie-Anne Moss playing corrupt lawyer Jeri Hogarth, or Eka Darville playing drug addict Malcolm Ducasse, were all very interesting, fleshed-out characters. However, where the show really shines is in its two leads, Jessica Jones and Kilgrave, played by Krysten Ritter and David Tennant respectively. Jessica Jones is probably one of the most interesting main characters to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far, which is crazy considering how unknown the character previously was. Her jaded, detached personality provides such a contrast to the type of heroes we’ve seen so far, and I think it’s Krysten Ritter’s great portrayal that really helps flesh out the character and bring her to life in such an interesting way. And then on the other side of the coin, Kilgrave just might be the best villain we’ve seen in the MCU so far. The villains of the MCU are actually usually pretty lacking, which is why it was so refreshing to see such a great villain with Kingpin in the Daredevil show. However, I find Kilgrave to be even more of an interesting villain. There’s something really scary about a man that can force anyone to do what he wants just by speaking to them, and David Tennant really makes it all convincing. Both the writing for the character and the portrayal of him were really well done.

Overall, I think the reason Jessica Jones (as well as all Marvel projects) manages to stand out among everything we’ve already gotten is because we get to see a new side of the universe. Captain America gave us a war movie, Guardians of the Galaxy gave us a space movie, Ant-Man gave us a heist movie, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gave us a spy/espionage series, and now Jessica Jones gives us a detective show of sorts. The show has a bit of a noir feel to it at times, which is really cool. I also think it was a great idea to make Jessica Jones into a Netflix series rather than a movie, because it allowed the show to explore some darker aspects that we otherwise wouldn’t have gotten in a lighthearted MCU movie. The show delves into topics such as rape, assault, and post-traumatic stress disorder, all of which are essential to the character of Jessica Jones and her story with Kilgrave. I don’t think any other format than a Netflix series could have done the character justice, and so thanks to it we have another interesting character joining the MCU. I call Jessica Jones another huge success for Marvel.

4.5/5