JSON string representation issue/s - JMeter

[Jasmine]

Hi 

Am using JMeter 3.0 and am facing the below two issues:

1. When i extract json into a place holder it is storing as {id= 1, firstName = John, lastName = peters } instead it should be in JSON format {"id":1, "firstName":"John", "lastName":"Peters"}. I have also updated the JSON Plugin to version 2.2 yet facing the same. 

2. I understand JSON returns the data in array format. $.[FilterExpression][0] doesn't return the first/only element of the array. 

3. $.* doesnt provide the root object along with the field names. 

These were working with JMeter 2.13.