Quick review: Jessica Jones on Netflix
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Steve Timko
Nov 29, 2015, 4:01:18 PM11/29/15
to TV or Not TV
“Jessica Jones” is the latest rollout from Marvel. The Inner Tubes
seems to be going wild over the show, with an 8.7 IMDB rating, a solid
five-star Netflix rating and lots of positive comments in my Facebook
feed. I enjoyed it. It took me a week to watch all 13 episodes. So I
wouldn’t call it binge worthy. I had problems with the show that may
be peculiar to me.
Like “Daredevil,” Marvel’s other Netflix production released this
year, the production values are high. Jones is someone who reluctantly
has superhero powers and crosses paths with a few others who also have
powers. It’s like you see the darker side of this life. The Avengers
are referred to only in a vague reference, especially the “big green
guy.” One person is angry that while The Avengers were saving the
world one of them toppled a building that killed her sister. Parts of
it are also set in Hell’s Kitchen, like “Daredevil.” Is Marvel’s
headquarters in Hell’s Kitchen? The title character is played by
Krysten Ritter, who I last saw as Aaron Paul’s junkie girlfriend in
“Breaking Bad.” As an added treat, Clarke Peters plays a detective in
“Jessica Jones.” Peters played Lester Freamon on “The Wire.” It’s nice
to see actors from two great television series crossing paths.
Things I like about “Jessica Jones” begin with the title song. It
starts with a jazz-style stand up bass. To me it seems a little like
the opening song to “Dexter.” Then it shifts to a synthesized style
guitar which reminded me of the opening from “House of Cards.” Even if
it is derivative, I like it. The creator, Melissa Rosenberg, also
worked on “Dexter.”
The cast is solid. It was nice to see Carrie-Anne Moss again and
seeing her with some mild lesbian scenes certainly grabbed my
interest. About the only major part that seemed miscast was Susie
Abromeit as Moss’ love interest. The show drags in her key moments.
But this leads to one of my major gripes with the film. David Tennant
is okay as the show’s nemesis. My big problem with him is that in just
about every scene, I heard him as a nasty version of Dr. Who. The
mannerisms, the quirks of his voice, it also resonated of Dr. Who. My
problem with Tennant as Dr. Who is that he wasn’t able to project Old
Testament wrath like Christopher Eccelston. His Dr. Who was more of a
sissy. And of course Matt Smith took it even further.
The exception when I didn’t see Dr. Who from Tennant was a key scene
in a police office, what I consider one of the best scenes in the 13
episodes. There Tennant seemed angry and frightening, nothing I saw
from him in the rest of the series or in “Dr. Who.”
A second problem for me was the dour atmosphere of the show. It
reminded me of the second season of “The Wire,” where frame after
frame seemed downbeat. They need it early on to show that Jones is
unhappy but her sour expression becomes grating after a while. I
wanted to skip ahead. Ritter does a great job overall. She’s easy on
the eyes and I loved her glib one liners. But there was something
unconvincing about her boozing, including drinking straight from the
bottle. I never believed it.
I had some other minor problems. Jones says she can run a mile in less
than four minutes and has incredible strength but can’t run down a
middle aged man. A Facebook friend made that observation. She gets
through a gate by yanking on a locked chain but only the lock and the
few links around it seem affected by her strength. The rest of the
chain doesn’t move. Haven’t they heard that a chain is only as strong
as its weakest link?
Although I saw the ending coming up Sixth Avenue, as David Letterman
used to say, all in all the show had some good surprises. Dour moments
aside the show generally kept moving and held my interest. I didn’t
binge on it like I have some other shows, but it was worth my time and
I think it will be worth yours.
“Jessica Jones” is linked to “Daredevil” through a common character. I
hope they work together in a future series. I enjoyed it and I think
there’s a lot to build on.
seems to be going wild over the show, with an 8.7 IMDB rating, a solid
five-star Netflix rating and lots of positive comments in my Facebook
feed. I enjoyed it. It took me a week to watch all 13 episodes. So I
wouldn’t call it binge worthy. I had problems with the show that may
be peculiar to me.
Like “Daredevil,” Marvel’s other Netflix production released this
year, the production values are high. Jones is someone who reluctantly
has superhero powers and crosses paths with a few others who also have
powers. It’s like you see the darker side of this life. The Avengers
are referred to only in a vague reference, especially the “big green
guy.” One person is angry that while The Avengers were saving the
world one of them toppled a building that killed her sister. Parts of
it are also set in Hell’s Kitchen, like “Daredevil.” Is Marvel’s
headquarters in Hell’s Kitchen? The title character is played by
Krysten Ritter, who I last saw as Aaron Paul’s junkie girlfriend in
“Breaking Bad.” As an added treat, Clarke Peters plays a detective in
“Jessica Jones.” Peters played Lester Freamon on “The Wire.” It’s nice
to see actors from two great television series crossing paths.
Things I like about “Jessica Jones” begin with the title song. It
starts with a jazz-style stand up bass. To me it seems a little like
the opening song to “Dexter.” Then it shifts to a synthesized style
guitar which reminded me of the opening from “House of Cards.” Even if
it is derivative, I like it. The creator, Melissa Rosenberg, also
worked on “Dexter.”
The cast is solid. It was nice to see Carrie-Anne Moss again and
seeing her with some mild lesbian scenes certainly grabbed my
interest. About the only major part that seemed miscast was Susie
Abromeit as Moss’ love interest. The show drags in her key moments.
But this leads to one of my major gripes with the film. David Tennant
is okay as the show’s nemesis. My big problem with him is that in just
about every scene, I heard him as a nasty version of Dr. Who. The
mannerisms, the quirks of his voice, it also resonated of Dr. Who. My
problem with Tennant as Dr. Who is that he wasn’t able to project Old
Testament wrath like Christopher Eccelston. His Dr. Who was more of a
sissy. And of course Matt Smith took it even further.
The exception when I didn’t see Dr. Who from Tennant was a key scene
in a police office, what I consider one of the best scenes in the 13
episodes. There Tennant seemed angry and frightening, nothing I saw
from him in the rest of the series or in “Dr. Who.”
A second problem for me was the dour atmosphere of the show. It
reminded me of the second season of “The Wire,” where frame after
frame seemed downbeat. They need it early on to show that Jones is
unhappy but her sour expression becomes grating after a while. I
wanted to skip ahead. Ritter does a great job overall. She’s easy on
the eyes and I loved her glib one liners. But there was something
unconvincing about her boozing, including drinking straight from the
bottle. I never believed it.
I had some other minor problems. Jones says she can run a mile in less
than four minutes and has incredible strength but can’t run down a
middle aged man. A Facebook friend made that observation. She gets
through a gate by yanking on a locked chain but only the lock and the
few links around it seem affected by her strength. The rest of the
chain doesn’t move. Haven’t they heard that a chain is only as strong
as its weakest link?
Although I saw the ending coming up Sixth Avenue, as David Letterman
used to say, all in all the show had some good surprises. Dour moments
aside the show generally kept moving and held my interest. I didn’t
binge on it like I have some other shows, but it was worth my time and
I think it will be worth yours.
“Jessica Jones” is linked to “Daredevil” through a common character. I
hope they work together in a future series. I enjoyed it and I think
there’s a lot to build on.
Bob Jersey
Nov 29, 2015, 5:40:52 PM11/29/15
to TVorNotTV
Steve Timko, in part:
“Jessica Jones” is the latest rollout from Marvel. [snip] Parts of
it are also set in Hell’s Kitchen, like “Daredevil.” Is Marvel’s
headquarters in Hell’s Kitchen?
Between 7th and 6th, 51st and 50th. A brisk walk from the Kitchen (and Stephen's).
B
David Bruggeman
Nov 29, 2015, 7:20:00 PM11/29/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
Netflix has a Luke Cage (Jones' occasional love interest) series in development for a debut sometime next year. And this is all supposedly leading to a Defenders series in the future.
Ritter also played the B---- in Apartment 23 that people weren't supposed to trust.
I was past being familiar with the various Marvel supes when Thor first took to the silver screen, so I'm hardly an expert. I reached the same place with DC when it started its latest wave of TV shows.
David
From: Steve Timko <steve...@gmail.com>
To: TV or Not TV <tvor...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2015 4:01 PM
Subject: [TV orNotTV] Quick review: Jessica Jones on Netflix
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Kevin M.
Nov 29, 2015, 7:26:12 PM11/29/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 4:19 PM, 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV <tvor...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Netflix has a Luke Cage (Jones' occasional love interest) series in development for a debut sometime next year. And this is all supposedly leading to a Defenders series in the future.Ritter also played the B---- in Apartment 23 that people weren't supposed to trust.I was past being familiar with the various Marvel supes when Thor first took to the silver screen, so I'm hardly an expert. I reached the same place with DC when it started its latest wave of TV shows.
I'm alright with the saturation (oversaturation?) of the superhero genre; it might not be my cup of tea (at least not the Marvel side of things... I'm a lifelong DC guy), but it is better than many alternatives.
Can I ask, however, if we can again have some cowboy/western genre saturation please? I thought "Deadwood" would spark things, but aside from "Hell on Wheels" and some of the most yawn-inducing miniseries (looking at you, "Hatfields & McCoys"), it didn't lead to any sort of resurgence.
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)
David Bruggeman
Nov 29, 2015, 7:46:21 PM11/29/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
I'd be happy with some more Western offerings, even if they're blended with science fiction. (So I'm looking at my Brisco County DVDs while I type this...so what?)
I don't know where you stand on the martial arts-influenced Western, but that appears to be what AMC's Into the Badlands is. I haven't watched it yet.
David
From: Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com>
To: "tvor...@googlegroups.com" <tvor...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2015 7:26 PM
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] Quick review: Jessica Jones on Netflix
Kevin M.
Nov 29, 2015, 8:06:22 PM11/29/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 4:46 PM, 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV <tvor...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
I'd be happy with some more Western offerings, even if they're blended with science fiction. (So I'm looking at my Brisco County DVDs while I type this...so what?)I don't know where you stand on the martial arts-influenced Western, but that appears to be what AMC's Into the Badlands is. I haven't watched it yet.
I haven't seen it yet. I will say that the highly criticized movie "Cowboys & Aliens" delivered exactly what it promised (um... cowboys and... um... aliens) in an entertaining and classic style, despite the industry persisting on trying to maintain the illusion that Olivia Wilde can act. Also, the final season of the Justice League cartoon included a two-part time travel episode that allowed the inclusion of several of DC's western themed comic book heroes. That is a TV series or movie I'd like to see, live action or animated.
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)
Steve Timko
Nov 30, 2015, 2:56:16 PM11/30/15
to TV or Not TV
On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 4:26 PM, Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Can I ask, however, if we can again have some cowboy/western genre
> saturation please? I thought "Deadwood" would spark things, but aside from
> "Hell on Wheels" and some of the most yawn-inducing miniseries (looking at
> you, "Hatfields & McCoys"), it didn't lead to any sort of resurgence.
Oddly enough, I met a screenwriter last week who specializes in
> Can I ask, however, if we can again have some cowboy/western genre
> saturation please? I thought "Deadwood" would spark things, but aside from
> "Hell on Wheels" and some of the most yawn-inducing miniseries (looking at
> you, "Hatfields & McCoys"), it didn't lead to any sort of resurgence.
westerns. He was bemoaning the lack of westerns. He wrote a screenplay
set in Nevada and had a meeting with Warner Bros executives in 2010 to
get it made but it never went anywhere. He said he writes a screenplay
a month, but he has nothing listed on IMDB.
He said the last TV script he sold was to "Night Court." He mentioned
something I didn't know. It's written into actors' contracts that they
get a certain number of minutes per show and it's up to the
screenwriter to make sure that happens. He said bailiff Bull was
guaranteed three quips per show, for instance. He said the cast was
very nice.
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