Marvel's Jessica Jones

I enjoyed JJ, particularly the amount of women and poc and how ppl upthread mentioned that it didn't feel like the show was begrudgingly enforcing a quota or w/e. Also as someone who's not too into superheros I like how the show wasn't all that superhero-y even with the special powers all over the place.

I only watched the first episode of Daredevil, nothing about it seemed particularly interesting, not sure if it dramatically picks up or not after that?

I didn't think it did, especially. It was visually neat, but it had the self-serious Darkness of, like, '90s television.

I thought it was good except for secondary character performances and all the dialogue. (DD, rather than JJ, is the one that I thought was padded out to about 3-4 episodes too long.)

Oh god, 1000 cuts.

I stopped Daredevil pretty early on, not that I didn't enjoy but certainly somewhere around - after? - the hall fight, which I thought was great, but which made me think, well, not gonna get better, is it?

The violence really amps up with this, huh?

Cliched characters, a lot of clunky dialogue and a maddeningly repetitive structure in the last handful of episodes, but overall the most thrilling and addictive piece of television I've seen for a good while. Kilgrave is an instant classic TV villain, utterly despicable and totally formidable.

I would've developed the Kilgrave plot more slowly in the background for the first half of the season though, and had some minor, unconnected cases first. They had episodes that felt like they should be the final showdown by like two thirds of the way through.

Yeah, I think the biggest mistake of the series was to make the whole season about Kilgrave, the third or fourth time Jessica faces him and he gets away again started to feel anticlimactic... Basically the reveal of her immunity to his power should've been at the conclusion of the whole story, not something that happens in episode 7. The final confrontation would've felt more satisfying if both Jessica and the viewer would've found out about the immunity only then, now it was pretty obvious how that scene would play out.

Also, because we barely saw any of Jessica's normal work during season 1, they'll have to re-establish the whole premise of the series again in season 2. And it'll pretty hard to come up with villain actors as good as Tennant was. The guy playing Nuke wasn't bad but he was too cartoonish to capture a similar vibe. Unless they're transferring him to Daredevil, since he's a DD villain in the comics?

Worst character is Malcolm, who I wondered "Why is this character in this show?" and then he gets one good episode, and then I wondered the same thing again.

me grammar bad

No, worst character is whatsername, the ginger sister of the dead kid.

Yeaaaah. Worst character and worst actress, no contest.

I guess I've encountered too many poisonous caricatures masquerading as human beings because everyone seems to HATE that character for being unrealistic and out of step with the rest of the show and... I didn't notice her presence as particularly wrong or jarring? Like yes, she was a terrible person and at points I actively wanted her to die but her spite-fueled malevolence leading her to free Kilgrave and almost dying was pretty satisfying to me plot/enjoyment wise.

I thought she was great

it took a long time for me to get into the idea of characters that make the audience irritated or uncomfortable and she does both pretty well

Yeah, I thought it was a great character and a good performance. If she irritated you and got under our skin, then they were successful at what they were trying to do, it was not bad writing or acting. And I really liked that despite the crap she did they ultimately managed to keep her sympathetic, it would've been much easier to roll with the crazy shrew stereotype.

And Malcolm was good too, I liked how they used him as Jessica's morality anchor, the one who kept her from going down. Though hopefully he'll bit a more fleshed-out in the next season when he's not under Kilgrave-induced stupor anymore.

y'all are crazy, the sister was an awful one-note character

she was overacting her face off

Seriously. I'm totally down with unsympathetic/irritating characters but hers was a little beyond the pale. She reminded me of the paraplegic brother in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Just OTT loathsome and unnecessary. There was probably a way to do that character but that wasn't it.

eh, every time she appeared on screen I just thought to myself "I wonder which parts of that interaction she's going to put on her LiveJournal"

Ha. Fair enough.

Hang on - are some people talking about the ginger sister and some people talking about Carrie Anne Moss' lawyer?

I don't think anyone said anything about the lawyer?

Like yes, she was a terrible person and at points I actively wanted her to die but her spite-fueled malevolence leading her to free Kilgrave and almost dying was pretty satisfying to me plot/enjoyment wise.

This is pretty clearly about the lawyer.

No, the same applies to the sister too: she helped Kilgrave escape by storming into Jessica's flat with the therapy group, and that lead to Kilgrave almost killing her by hanging.

OK I concede the point.

That was 100% about the sister

gah I have to finish this series. it's entirely too dark for my wife so she barely wants to watch it. ditto daredevil.

it took a long time for me to get into the idea of characters that make the audience irritated or uncomfortable and she does both pretty well

― μpright mammal (mh), Monday, February 1, 2016 10:53 AM (Yesterday)

yes.

one of my personal favorite lowkey reactions to the series was when they first popped up in Jessica's hallway; my reaction during all of their initial appearances was "ugh I bet their sex is terrible" and after the sibling reveal I thought to myself "well no wonder their sex is terrible"

lolol

she reminded me of a Sandra Bernhard character

Me too, total King of Comedy vibes! I think it's the voice.

lol DJP

I would've developed the Kilgrave plot more slowly in the background for the first half of the season though, and had some minor, unconnected cases first.

there are a LOT of ways this show is like Veronica Mars (most of them very good ways), but the way they developed the main plot thread (and kilgrave himself) so early in the season is not one of them. IIRC, in the best seasons of V.M., they announced the main season-long plot at the beginning, but then basically waited at least half a season to really get moving on it, with just a few hints here and there. i liked that. here they definitely showed their hand a bit too soon. i still like these series though! and i'm pretty allergic to all things superhero.

granted, i think the seasons of V.M. had many more episodes than J.J.

first season of vm was much more case of the week w/ occasional working in of big season long plot. second season had the cases of the week much more frequently tie in to the big overarching mystery. third season had some douchebag from pitchfork.

i know this has already been said but the comic was much more case of the week, w/ the trauma of kilgrave lingering over everything but generally unspoken until the final arc which deals w/ it head on (iirc similar to the show when she takes a case looking for a girl she realizes has fallen under kilgrave's spell). after that they wrapped it up, bendis pretty much said he couldn't imagine following up the arc and that basically the story had been told. jessica jones still existed, her and luke cage eventually married and had a kid, she got a job at the daily planet. really no idea where they go w/ the show from here.

her and luke cage eventually married and had a kid, she got a job at the daily planet

so, the show transitions to a workplace sitcom next season?

xpost Yeah, I was flipping through my trades and I didn't even see Killgrave until pretty much the very end.

Her job at the Daily Bugle (ahem, but actually not even the Bugle but a subsidiary publication called The Pulse </nerd>) was still pretty noir-ish IIRC.

haha the dc kid in me came out sorry

Beyond her continued romance with Luke and having a kid, most of the stuff from The Pulse has already been cannibalized by these shows (e.g. Luke in a coma, and Urich's investigation of Fisk on Daredevil pretty closely mirrors The Pulse's first arc involving the exposure of Norman Osborne's identity to the world). And most of her subsequent stories have been set within the contest of a larger team. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see where they go with a second season.

(ahem, but actually not even the Bugle but a subsidiary publication called The Pulse

so the next season centers around a major media company buying out the arts weekly JJ writes for, laying off their long-time employees, and she becomes one of many unemployed culture-industry writers? then she starts posting to ILM.

I love this and now I want to be a superhero PI.

That redhead was so awful I could hardly watch her. Ugh.

I think the people who liked the horrible ginger vs. the people who don't think the actress is cuet.

Actress is kind of cuet in an odd way (non-JJ photos go a long way toward arguing this case), still found her 'annoying'.

If you saw a still photo of her you'd be like 'OK, she's kind of cute', but as soon as she starts talking or moving it's a different story.

the actor that bugged me was the guy who played Simpson

Ha xpost