Reviews Series / Jessica Jones 2015

You need to get better at titles, man. \"Ruin a show\" is not usually a good prefix to an 8/10 final score.

...And I pretty much agree with everything except Simpson and the \"ambiguous Kilgrave\" thing.

I admit, I have some personal connection to the whole atoner shtick and actually handling the aftermath of past wrongdoings. It’s why I prefer the original FMA anime to Brotherhood (it felt like it was handled with the appropriate gravity and explored more thoroughly), and why the episode with the Tantabus was my all-time favourite episode of MLP:FIM. I found it rather disappointing that this was hardly dwelt on like ‘yeah no let’s fuck his shit up anyway’.

There were also some points I found Narmy in the series, like the awful line, ‘You let me be inside you!’, or any slow-motion with spoken dialogue. Aside from that, I didn’t mention in the review (because it was kinda spoiler-y) how dumb it was that it took Jessica forever to notice she was immune to Kilgrave after she didn’t turn back when he asked her to. It was ridiculously obvious from the get-go.

Also, how the hell do you find every damn review I write

I just check the \"new reviews\" section a lot, and much of what you review is relevant to my interests.

And, frankly, the reason I didn\'t apply the same standard here is that it didn\'t feel like Kilgrave really felt like he\'d done anything wrong or seriously wanted to change. He was too glib about it, too willing to try reducing it down to mathematics in a futile effort to understand the basic human empathy most people just have naturally. If she did go through with it, I get the feeling he\'d\'ve gotten bored with it eventually, or started \"cheating\" on it, as if it were a diet, and blamed Jessica for it if she caught him.

Maybe so, but it would’ve been interesting to watch unfold.

As for the title, by the way, it’s because I gave the score to the series as a whole, but used ‘ruin’ to refer to the ending. If I had to split it up it would be something like 9.3 at first and 7 or so later on.

See, I don't think I would have wanted Kilgrave to be "redeemed" (if that's what we're calling it), considering what he's an analogue for. While he naturally a prominent character, and we focus a lot on him, in the end the story isn't really about him as much as it is about his victims, and I think that "redeeming" him would seriously detract from what they were trying to do with him.

I think they weren’t trying to do that so much as it really came off that way.

What do you mean?

That the creators didn’t try to make Kilgrave the personification of rape, it just turned out to be a common interpretation. Or so I’ve heard. But if he was supposed to be that, even entertaining the possibility of him being good and saving lives is one hell of a What the Hell, Hero? moment.

I mean, the only reason they brought it up in the first place was so that they could refute.

But in that case the analogy collapses.

Why?

Because you can’t harness rape for good, period. Kilgrave’s abilities, on the other hand, definitely can be: in theory he could’ve gotten Hope out of prison and cleared her name (I mean, considering the ease at which he got Hope freed, it shouldn’t be that hard), and gone to save more people like he did with Jessica’s help, but Jessica’s desire for revenge snipped that in the bud.

Personally, if I had his powers, I’d charge students to motivate them to study before finals so they don’t procrastinate, or something like that.

The problem is that Kilgrave has no real interest in using his powers for good. It would just be another boring, utterly, utterly predictible betrayal in the making, with us sighing and checking our watches for him to do what everyone knows he's going to do, and Jessica would either be an idiot for not seeing it coming or a bigger idiot for seeing it coming and doing absolutely dick to prevent it.

That would have been infuriating to watch, and I'm glad the nicked it in the bud.

He doesn't so much represent "rape" as "rape culture," the ugly mindset that makes some guys feel they "deserve" girls, or that some people secretly want what they're doing to them, or that a person's impaired state of consciousness somehow equates consent. And, just like you're (metaphorically, I realize I should specify) doing now, people have tried to spin that mindset as somehow being a good thing: look how much he cares! Look how that rape motivated you to become a better person! I'm just saying they were asking for it!

And so on.

^ That, basically. Explained it better than I could.

I dunno about that, because he did seem to take pride in how Jessica taught him to be a hero when he met his parents and some interest in evening out his karma. I might be biased, though, because, like I said, I’ve a soft spot for atoning stories.

Yeah, but what Kilgrave thought Jessica was telling him and what she was ACTUALLY telling him were not the same things. He was no more a hero after the lesson than he was before, because he never learned that true heroism is altruistic whilst he remains the embodiment of selfishness.

What are we talking about?! I\'m so outta the loop.is this a movie?

Oh it\'s a Netflix show!