Reviews Series / Jessica Jones 2015

Okay, a few things:

• "Casting David Tennant? Cool. Tennant being an irredeemable villain? Less cool." - Why is this a problem? Is Tennant only allowed to play sympathetic characters? Can he not play a straight villain?

• You know, you lambast Jessica for not acting like a superhero, but I think you're missing something important about her - she's not a superhero. Sure, this is a Marvel show, and she did try to do something along those lines before Kilgrave happened, but afterwards? She was decidedly turned off on the idea. She's a private detective, and as we see in the first episode, that's not always a very heroic job - it can be pretty dirty business. She gets involved in the Kilgrave case because she sees him as her responsibility - he hurt her, and she doesn't want him to hurt anyone else. But as she makes very clear, she does not want to get involved in Avengers-style business.
  • Speaking of which, I think you're being overly harsh with the ending. I don't think she's in the mindset of "fuck those people" (she did let Malcolm answer the phone, after all), but more along the lines of "what the fuck am I going to do now?", and indeed, seems rather ambiguous to what the answer of that question is. She never wanted to be a famous superhero or anything like that, so really, how is it remotely fair to ask her to suddenly become one? I mean, sure, "with great power comes great responsibility", but Marvel is under no obligation to define that as "go fight crime" and accept it without question, especially when said great power is thrust upon someone.
• I must admit, I'm a little confused what your problem is with her being a rape victim - especially since, from all the commentary I've seen from people, rape and the trauma resulting from it has rarely been covered in this much detail (and all without a single rape scene, no less). Not to mention, a lot of this seem to evoke criticism of Jessica not being the "right" kind of victim, which is problematic to say the least.

I understand if the show just isn't for you, but your criticisms of both it and Jessica seem to be focused on it not living up to something that they were never trying to be, nor were they under any obligation to be in the first place.

I don\'t really want to type out a whole long thing right now, so suffice it to say that most (and possibly all) of your objections are not legitimate criticisms. In case that sounds harsh and close-minded: I am willing to explain why I believe your objections to be invalid, if that\'s of interest to anyone reading.

I'd say go for it, personally.

I like seeing other people\'s opinions, so go right ahead if you think you\'re up to it!

Karkat is the most understanding Dalek ever

I\'ll leave the Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy alone, since that\'s really subjective no matter which way you look at it; and the show has indeed turned some people off of it because it\'s so dark. As for the rest though:

A female protagonist who is too much of a victim for someone like me, a young white male who has had no real issues in life, to understand. This is not in any way a failing on the part of the show, nor does a character being female or being a victim make it impossible for non-females or non-victims (respectively) to connect with them. Arguably it\'s a failing on your part for only being able to understand characters who are like yourself, but even aside from that, it\'s not a problem with the show. Characters don\'t have to make the audience identify with them (or even necessarily empathize with them); the goal is just to make the audience sympathize with / care about the character, which almost everyone agrees JJ did very well. Now, if Jessica was meant to be an Audience Surrogate or Lead You Can Relate To, you would have a point, but that is explicitly not the case.

Casting David Tennant? Cool. Tennant being an irredeemable villain? Less cool. Not only is this not a problem with the show, it\'s not even a problem. \"An actor I like was cast as a bad guy\" is not a problem on the part of the show. It\'s perfectly reasonable to not want to watch something because you don\'t want to see your favorite actor in a particular part, but to say that the show is actually worse because of it makes very little sense – especially since Tennant played the role masterfully well.

\"That. Ending. My breakdowns can\'t describe how awful I found it.\" Again, this is just your personal preference. The whole point of the show is Jessica is not a hero (at least, not super one). On top of that, the ending was not meant literally: obviously Jessica didn\'t just stop working forever, so it has to be assumed that she did continue taking jobs and simply was too emotional to immediately run around fixing everyone\'s lives.

\"The altogether un-heroic tone. Even Daredevil, dark as it was, had this feeling of \"he\'s gonna save the city.\" This show? Even if Jessica gets rid of Kilgrave, it doesn\'t accomplish anything. She\'ll still be traumatized, she won\'t gain my sympathy, and I won\'t be back for season 2.\" I\'m going to break this one up, since it\'s saying a lot of things, and a lot of them are about the actual events in the show rather than its quality. 1) Again, the whole point of the show was that Jessica isn\'t a \"superhero\". 2) What do you mean killing Kilgrave didn\'t accomplish anything? You think it didn\'t save anybody that she killed a remorseless amoral psychopath who would have absolutely gone on to commit hundreds of counts of murder and rape? 3) Yes, she\'ll still be traumatized, in the sense that her traumatic past will still have happened. But her whole journey is that she gets better and becomes a much healthier person by facing her fears. Now, as for your sympathy and whether or not you\'ll watch Season 2, that\'s all you. I just wanted to point out that your personal tastes don\'t necessarily make it a worse show.

^^ Well, I try. :)

^ Pretty much what I thought, yeah.

I agree with the general tone of this discussion. I have my issues with the show, but you didn\'t even *mention* them.

I mean... if you walk into a Greek restaurant and were really looking forward to some paella, well, I feel for you. But is it really the *restaurant\'s* fault they don\'t stock a dish they were never advertised as having and never planned to make?

I\'d just like to say I\'m happy the show has such adamant defenders. But this is my opinion, and even if it\'s my failings, then I still don\'t like the show. All of this is subjective. And you\'re damn right this is biased. It\'s from the POV of someone who has never ever really had any issues with life, and I know Jess isn\'t supposed to be a superhero. As noted, it\'s not to my taste. That doesn\'t mean it isn\'t allowed to be to anybody\'s taste. And I just prefer Tennant as a hero, that\'s all.

Call it Hate Dumb. I don\'t hate the show. Note it\'s 6/10. That\'s still above average.

Keep fighting for what you love, people. But remember, some idiots like me just don\'t change.

...The passive-aggression is real.

There is a difference between passive-aggression and being happy people love a show enough to defend it, even if I am on the other side of the argument. And I threw in the comment about being a \"white male who had no real issues in life\" to cement the fact I was biased.

Also, I try and respect your opinion, and you act like an ass? Not making a good image of yourself, my friend.

And as an added note, I recall recommending people have their own opinions of the show.

I think the issue is you seem to be reviewing the show you wanted/expected, instead of the show we actually got. I mean I am also young, white and male but the exploration of rape and it\'s effects was still very impactful to me. The things you criticise it for are the things it\'s actually all about - Jess is not a hero. Jess is a victim, and always will be, but it\'s about her struggle to not be JUST a victim.

Whilst I agree with all the counter-points people have made in the comments, it\'s unfair to call Riley passive-aggressive, I think he was defending himself pretty calmly considering it\'s always a bit hard to see one of your reviews taken to account by a bunch of people (whether or not what they\'re saying is valid)

"And you're damn right this is biased. It's from the POV of someone who has never ever really had any issues with life, and I know Jess isn't supposed to be a superhero."

If you know that she isn't supposed to be a superhero, then why you were apparently screaming at the screen that she was supposed to be one?

My issue is, just, I guess, that I, as stated, feel that I would prefer my heroes to do heroic things. It\'s like playing Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow walking off in the opening makes him far less sympathetic to me. And yes, I am reviewing the show I want rather than the one I got. Is that not the point of reviews?

^^ Thank you, Tom. That was my point. I try to respect the opinions of those around me, due to having anger issues, and being accused of passive-aggression is not something I like.

I sincerely apologize.

In my defense, it's really hard to tell the difference between actual, sincere "I accept that you have a different viewpoint and it doesn't bother me" and patronizing sneering in an entirely written medium. But, I *did* still assume the worst of you, and that wasn't necessary.

With that said, I disagree. The film you got is what's most important. I could, perhaps, see where you're coming from if the series had been heavily-marketed as a straightforward superhero yarn. But it was not. It *was* marketed as a gloomy, neo-noir detective story with superpowers.

I don't love Jessica Jones. I have my problems with its attempts to stretch six episodes of story into twelve, with its many unnecessary, boring subplots full of unnecessary, unlikable characters that don't add much but padding. Hell, I mostly-agree on the relentlessly-gloom-and-doom tone, though I think I ultimately found Jessica a more heroic and sympathetic figure than you. But you spent less time actually mentioning these kinds of problems than you did listing all the ways an apple sucks because it's not a pot-pie, and that I think is what's leading to these comments.

I liked Jessica Jones more than Spectral did, but otherwise I agree with them.

It's like if you left Schlinders List complaining that it wasn't a very funny movie - that's not what they were going for, and it doesn't really seem fair for you to criticize it for that.

I do have a question: what were you expecting when you decided to watch Jessica Jones?

^Hey, I won\'t argue with you there. I did mention my own problems more than generally-accepted ones. I am selfish, and I am trying to work through that. And I do understand reasons people would criticize this review. But there is no \"proving\" my opinion right.

On a high note, I rewatched the series, and while most of my complaints still stand, I am changing my review to reflect the fact I liked it a bit more this time.

And the David Tennant comment was more They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character. Kilgrave could have been interesting. Complex! He is a man driven insane by powers he cannot control. But I felt making him a cookie-cutter villain at the end of the day was a waste of Tennant\'s talent. Thanks for reminding me I have to redefine that part.

All in all, this has been a great discussion with you guys, and has made me see this series in something of a new light. But I guess I have to rewrite the review to leave less of my assholery in there.

What was I expecting? Good question. I do not really know. I was expecting something that was complex yet cynical, brutal and dark yet somehow idealistic, with Jess rising above her tormentors. But it did not really feel like that happened. I feel like Kilgrave kind of won. It felt like he managed to take the fight out of her.

Riley1s Cool will no longer be reading comments for two days.

I can see why you felt that.

Still, this is not the end of the story - we'll see how things go from here.

Someone else might be able to explain Kilgrave better than I can - I will say, however, that I think I understand him pretty well. For years, he's been able to get everything he's ever wanted, and no one could ever say no to him - that's severely eroded his sense of morality and empathy.

It certainly helps to consider what he represents, I think. In the end, the story isn't about him.