Netflix ‘Jessica Jones’ season 1, episode 1 review: Krysten Ritter introduces us to a new kind of superhero
Many may not have heard of “Jessica Jones” before this Netflix incarnation of the character, but she’s an interesting woman. Here’s a brief history of the character from the comics: She was in a car accident with a chemical truck as a teenager and while her parents were killed, she gained super powers somewhat adjacent to Superman. She was later adopted by another family and tried her hand at being a superhero, but it ended badly as she could never really get the hang of flying and was quickly put under the mind control of a super villain called Kilgrave and pitted against other superheroes. After finding a way to be released from his mind control she realized that she wasn’t all that great at being a superhero and decided to open up a private investigation agency.
Now that you know a bit more about Jessica Jones and her history, we can jump into the premiere episode on Netflix. Our Jessica Jones is being played by Krysten Ritter, who wouldn’t have been our first choice to play Jones, but we are more then willing to give her a chance and see what she can do with the character.
We jump into Jessica’s story during her time as a private investigator. While she’s cranky to work with and has a drinking problem, people still hire her because she always gets the job done (sometimes with the help of her super powers). She is still having flash backs to Kilgrave (played by Doctor Who alum David Tennant) and no matter how much whiskey she consumes, he won’t leave her mind. In fact he may actually be lurking around her city once again. Jessica gets a case involving a young woman who has gone missing, but in fact it seems that she may be under the control of Kilgrave and he is taking her to different places that he once led Jessica when she was under his control – another mind game to get to Jessica.
When she realizes that he’s back (and not dead like she was told), she tries to get out of town, but being broke leaves her stranded. She borrows the money and has a chance to get out of town before things go sideways, but knowing that the man in purple has another young girl under his control, makes her think twice. She finds the young girl under Kilgrave’s control and saves her life, but she wasn’t able to get her far enough from Kilgrave’s control and the young girl kills her own parents. Instead of running, Jessica decides that it’s time to put a stop to Kilgrave once and for all.
Her love interest this season is Luke Cage (played by Mike Colter), and is working at a bar, bringing home a parade of women every night and Jessica can’t stop watching him through his window. She eventually meets him face to face and he invites her into his bar… and then into his bed. Neither of them have revealed that they both have super powers, but they’ve danced around it. We suspect that “Jessica Jones” is going to be the springboard for the “Luke Cage” Netflix series in early 2016 on Netflix.
We like the set up of the series and the different players and although we still aren’t sold on Krysten Ritter (she’s over acts a bit too much for us) she’s doing a good job as Jessica. The story is strong and we love the idea of a villain that has the power of mind control, it’s very intense and incredibly frightening! There’s a lot of potential here for this series to be something great. Episode grade: B
What did you think of the premiere of “Jessica Jones” and do you like Krysten Ritter as the lead or is there someone else you think would’ve been better for the role? Leave us a comment below and tell us if you think this series will be a great success.