‘A slow moving car.’ Awesome.
The entire first season of JESSICA JONES hits Netflix on November 20th (that’s less than a month away) and we finally have a proper trailer for it. After watching this, all I can say is… ‘This Kilgrave character is a reaallllll piece of work’.
I’m really excited to see the story of JESSICA JONES squeezed into the pocket Marvel Universe that Netflix is creating. DAREDEVIL was dark and set a very specific tone for these ‘street level heroes’, but JESSICA JONES exist in a completely different level of ‘fucked.’ The basic gist of her story is that she received her powers in the traditional way (asteroid? toxic waste? Terrigen Fish Oil capsules?) and promptly attempts to become a tight-wearing member of the superhero community. Almost immediately, she becomes a mindless slave at the mercy of an evil mind controlling villain, named Kilgrave. (Played by David Tennant) After enduring months of extreme psychological and physical abuse, Jessica eventually breaks free from Kilgrave’s mind control and attempts to rebuild her life. While under his control, Jessica did a lot of terrible things for Kilgrave. The line between the real Jessica and the Jessica Kilgrave created became blurred. Jessica is traumatized. She is a survivor. This isn’t your grandparents comic book television show. It deals with very real situations and a very horrible aspect of our society. The feel of the original ALIAS comic was dark and grimy and showed the seedy underbelly of a world that existed in direct parallel to the glamorous adventures of THE AVENGERS.
This trailer definitely captures the dark tone of the source material. Early reviews on the interwebs say that the show masterfully balances between the darkness of Jessica’s past and her morbid wit. I don’t know how much Kilgrave is going to factor into the whole series, but, it looks like his presence will consistently be looming in the background of Jessica’s mind (The scenes in the police station and Kilgrave manipulating his way into someone’s apartment were pretty twisted). I’m curious how much of a role Luke Cage is going to play in the show? He seems to understand that being a hero does nothing but ‘put a target on your back.’ Does this mean that he already has powers? In DAREDEVIL, the source of his abilities wasn’t much of an issue. Kid gets hit with random ooze on his way to school. Easy. Done. Will Jessica and Luke also be happy accidents or is Marvel going to start linking between the terrigen mist outbreak on AGENTS OF SHIELD and its side projects? I’m going to be really sad if Matt Murdock doesn’t make an appearance somewhere in the season. I also wouldn’t mind more references to the larger Marvel Universe. I don’t need Iron Man flying over head or a Spider-Man article on some random website, but, the Marvel Universe is getting too big for it not to be mentioned a couple of times in regular conversation. Even in jest. Especially in this new world where everyone seems to have superpowers. Either way, this show has already captured my attention and I will definitely be marathoning through it on its first weekend.
JESSICA JONES will debut on November 20th, On Netflix streaming.
